On the heels of the release of the 2011-2012 USA Swimming National Team roster, USA Swimming has also announced their 2011-2012 Junior National Team roster. The selection criteria for this roster is very similar to that of the Senior National Team, with a few exceptions. This roster was chosen strictly on the basis of the 2011 Conoco Phillips National Championships meet in Palo Alto, California, and was chosen on the basis of the top 6 finishers in each individual event (prelims and all three finals included, relay leadoffs and time trials excluded).
For the full Junior National Team roster, in PDF, click here.
Mostly unfortunate for the kid but at 16 he has plenty of time. Do coaches not read qualifying requirements anymore?
The team will go without the fastest qualifying individual in the 200m fly who attended Juniors instead of Seniors. This is unfortunate for the US team as well as for the individual himself.
swimfan07
That was a FINA rule. They set the age up date.I guess other countries don’t consider 18 year old guys “juniors”. I personally think it should be 15 for girls and 17 for guys.
I don’t think it is all about going to World Youth Championships when naming the National Jr team. It is good to track the young talent and there are other perks for them too!
Agree that the Junior Team selection process is a bit curious. There are a large number of incoming college male freshman on this list…..Nolan, Younquist, Stubblefield, Darmody, Cosgarea, Stephens, Pescke, Cordes, Elliott and more. Yet, the Junior team trips/training have age dates that exclude 18 year olds. Several of these these guys were on the 2010-2011 Junior Team, qualifed for the 2011 Peru Meet but were blocked from attending (Nolan, Younquist, Elliot, Cosgarea) because they were born before 1/1/93. Seems like the same can happen with the 2011-2012 squad. Why do they select a team allowing 18 year olds and then have a meet age criteria that blocks them? Does not make sense.
Ok, but when I see that Kathleen Ledecky isn’t in this list, I think there’s a problem. I know she wasn’t in the national championships but she’s the star of junior national championships with very impressive times for a 14 year old swimmer. Her coach knew the selection criteria but you can’t blame a swimmer to not participate at a meet a week before the championships where she wants to perform at her peak form. The selection criteria must change. Excuse me for my english if i make some language’s faults but I make some efforts.
Yeah, I tend to agree that Jr. National Team should pull from both Nationals and Junior Nationals. I imagine the thought process is to encourage the top junior swimmers to go to Senior Nationals and fight for spots on that team. If the Sr. Team can pull from the World University Games, why can’t the Junior team pull from Youth Worlds, for example?
boys 100 backstroke….
55.0, 55.2, 55.3, 55.2
…nice.