4 Athletes To Watch, Full Psych Sheets For 2019 NCSA Junior Nationals

2019 NCSA Junior Nationals

• Tuesday, August 6 – Saturday, August 10, 2019
• Indiana University Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
• LCM format
• Prelims 8:30 AM / Finals 5:30 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
• Psych Sheets
• Live results available on Meet Mobile under “2019 NCSA Summer Swimming Championships”

It’s a crowded month of high-level swimming – with the World Championships, World Cup, U.S. Nationals and YMCA Nationals wrapped up, this week will bring a new flood of meets, including USA Swimming’s Junior Nationals and the NCSA Junior National Championships.

The NCSA meet has drawn a couple of big names who competed at senior nationals last week. It’s unclear yet if those athletes will indeed compete, but even without them, the NCSA psych sheets show some top age group talents. We take a look at a few of the bigger names to watch:

Eleanor Sun

Nation’s Capital 14-year-old Eleanor Sun has a chance to be the meet’s youngest event winner. She’s the top incoming 400 IM seed at 4:49.81. Sun has had extreme time drops in that race already this year: she went from 4:55 to 4:54 in May, then all the way to 4:49 in July. She sits #21 in USA Swimming history for the 13-14 age group, and with a drop of just a second, she could move all the way up to #14.

Sun is also the #3 seed in the 200 IM among entries in seven different events.

Cason Wilburn

One of the top boys at the meet, 18-year-old Cason Wilburn is entered in 9 races. He’s the top seed in the 50 and 100 flys, the second seed in a loaded 100 free field and holds top-8 seeds in the 50 and 200 frees as well. The East Coast Aquatic Team swimmer is one of the better incoming college freshmen in the nation, and will swim for Notre Dame in the fall.

Torri Huske

Huske is entered in a whopping 15 events, most of them with very high seeds. Huske could potentially drop this meet entirely after swimming U.S. Nationals last week and qualifying for the World Junior Championships team. But she could also use NCSAs as a chance to get some rested times in different events. Huske swam the 50/100/200 frees, 100/200 flys, 200 IM and 200 breast at senior Nationals, but could add a bunch more events in Indy this week, including 50s of fly, back and breast, competing for Arlington Aquatic Club.

Huske’s most notable swim at Nationals was her 57.80 in the 100 fly, which made the senior A final and broke a Mary T. Meagher NAG record. She could chase that NAG record and more 15-16 marks at NCSAs, too.

Emma Sticklen

The 17-year-old Sticklen had a somewhat-disappointing U.S. Nationals, swimming only two of her three entered events and gaining time in both. NCSAs could be a bounce-back for her if she indeed does compete. Swimming for Katy Aquatic Team, Sticklen is entered in seven races: the 100 free she scratched out of at Nationals, the 100 and 200 flys she swam there, plus the 50 fly, 50 free and 50/100 backs.

She could potentially sweep the butterfly races, depending on Huske’s status, and has a serious chance at summer redemption across the board.