Team Elite Pros; Age Group Stars to Race at San Diego Senior Classic

2019 San Diego-Imperial Swimming Senior Classic

• February 15th-18th, 2019
• Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex, Coronado, California
• SCY (25y) pool
• Psych Sheets
• Meet Information

While San Diego’s newest resident elite swimmer Michael Andrew won’t be racing, this weekend’s San Diego-Imperial Swimming Senior Classic in Coronado, California will still have plenty of star power.

That will mostly be in the form of members of the Team Elite training out of UCSD.

National Teamers Kendyl Stewart and Kathleen Baker will both race in their first meet since the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville in early January. This will be a rare yards meet for the pros; Stewart will race the 200 IM and 200 free, while Baker will swim the 200 IM and the 100 fly. That means that neither swimmer will swim their top event, which for Stewart is the 100 fly and for Baker is the 100 back (she’s the World Record holder in long course). The 200 IM is, however, part of Baker’s typical national/international lineup still.

Jacob Pebley will also race at the meet, swimming a more primary meet lineup: the 100 back, 200 back, and 200 free. He’s seeded with long course times, having nut swum yards recently, so he’s well down in the psych sheets, but will be the favorite in all three races.

Other Team Elite Members at the meet:

• Michael Chadwick – Chadwick won’t swim the 50 free, the race that put him on the National Team, but is entered in the 100 free and 200 IM.
• Miguel Chavez – Chavez, a Mexican National, is entered in 4 events: 100 free, 100 breast, 200 breast, and 200 IM. The 24-year old is the top seed in both breaststroke races.
• Lia Neal – Olympic gold medalist Lia Neal is entered to swim the 50 free, 200 free, and 100 fly. She’s the top seed in the 50 free and 100 fly.
• Ali DeLoof – the American backstroker and freestyler is entered in the 50 and 200 yard freestyles, plus the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes. She’ll overlap in those races with Russia’s Daria Ustinova, who is one of the newest members of Team Elite. This is one of two races that Ustinova is anticipating swimming in while training in the US in the leadup to the Russian National Championships in April.
• Artyom Machekin – Belarusian Artyom Machekin is entered in the 50 and 200 frees. He represented Belarus in the 50 free at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships, though he wasn’t on the team for the European Championships.
• Meiron Cheruti – The Israeli 21-year old is entered in 4 races: the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, and 100 back.

Other Highlight Swimmers:

• 15-year old Parker Reynolds of the Santa Maria Swim Club will swim 7 races, including his best 3: the 500, 1000, and 1650 freestyles. He’s the fastest 15 & under swimmer in the country in the 1650 yard free so far this season, having swum 9:20.04 in the 1000 free and 15:32.08 in the 1650 free. Both of those races were swum in January, when he was still only 14.
• Former UCLA Bruin Linnea Mack, now representing Osprey Aquatics, will swim the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back.
• 17-year old Samantha Pearson of Brea Aquatics is entered in 7 races, including high seeds in both the 50 free (3rd seed – 22.83) and the 400 IM (1st – 4:16.35). She’s also the 3rd seed in the 200 back in 1:56.74, behind only Ustinova and DeLoof.