USA Swimming has announced its selection criteria for the National Junior Team with one notable change: times from approved championship-level meets outside of USA Swimming (for example, YMCA Nationals) could potentially be used to select a swimmer for the Junior National Team.
The criteria says times from such meets could be eligible “at the discretion of the National Team Director.” We’ll have to wait until September 8 when the team is announced to see if USA Swimming does have to make a decision to accept or reject any times from these approved meets. This is noteworthy because YMCA Nationals are just an “observed” meet by USA Swimming, which in the past has meant that those swims are not eligible for Junior National Team selection. This could give YMCA coaches greater incentive to attend and taper for the YMCA long course nationals, which is generally slightly less prestigious than its yards counterpart.
The swimmers with the top 6 times in each Olympic event between January 1 and September 1 of 2014 at all USA Swimming/FINA sanctioned meets will become a part of the Junior National Team and participate in the Junior National Camp in April of 2015.
In the same release, USA Swimming announced the selection criteria for the 2014 Junior Pan Pacs team. That meet that will run from August 27th-30th in Maui. The Junior Pan Pacs roster will be chosen of the top-ranked swimmers from the USA Swimming National Championships (aka, 2014 Pan Pacs and 2015 World Championship Trials) in Olympic events.
David, your comment regarding sectionals is ridiculous. Sectionals is a usas meet open to all usas swimmers. Sections can choose to allow swimmers from other sections to participate. But even if that were not permitted, kids can still swim at their sectional meet. YNats on the other hand is exclusive to Y swimmers…period.
I do agree that if YNats were allowed, so should NCSA champs or any other high-end champ.
Better yet, lets base team selection on times swum, regardless of location. That would be the fairest system and most economical to parents and teams.
Braden, waiting until September 8th to find out if times are accepted? To train and taper for a meet just to find out that the meet isn’t approved by NTD Busch doesn’t seem right.
David Berkoff, so is USA Swimming going to list approved meets that are acceptable championship level meets? They provided an example, but will we know which meets before the typical start time of long course season, March/April?
The concept behind this change was to open the selection process of the national junior team to more top level competitions. While Y nationals is closed to Y programs, most sectional meets are also closed to teams located in the section. The change was to allow for more opportunities for athletes to make the jr team.
If USA Swimming is going to allow Y-Nats, the summer NCSA meet should also be considered. It’s not closed off like Y-Nats and could be a viable option/stepping stone for kids not at that JR Nat level, but swim with kids at that level. Traveling expenses where they are for coaches and clubs, this presents a viable option for a team to travel together and elite Jr to make those teams.
Coacherik – the presumption is that it will be considered so long as its an “observed” meet. The new rule gives a definition for non-usa swimming observed championship-level meets that will count, but YMCA nationals is just the one that they specifically named.
i disagree with using y-nats as a selection meet. and the reason is simple. y-nats is a “closed” meet. it is not open to all usa-swimming members as is junior nationals or “senior” nationals. so, in one respect, kids competing at y-nats have an unfair advantage over non-“y” swimmers.
selection to usa-swimming teams should be done from usa-swimming championship meets.
Junior Pan Pacific’s could be selected from YMCA Nationals – which is basically an 18 and under meet but not from USA Swimming Junior Nationals (another 18 and under meet)… now that makes a lot of sense.
Whoknows – I think you’re getting the two sets of standards mixed up. The junior national team could be selected from Y Nats, pan pacs team is strictly from Worlds Trials.
Gotcha!
So it appears they won’t pick the junior pan pacs team from junior nationals?
Swimmer237 – that is correct.