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TAC Titans win Age Group Champs

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Congratulations to the TAC Titans, winner of the 2022 North Carolina Swimming Long Course Age Group Championships held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. TAC won both the men’s and women’s divisions and finished with a combined team score of 4140.5 points points, outscoring second place SwimMAC Carolina by 191 points. North Carolina Aquatic Club finished in third place, followed by the Marlins of Raleigh, and New Wave Swim Team.

Click here for complete team rankings by men, women, and combined scores.

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SwimMAC wins Summer Sectionals

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Congratulations to SwimMAC Carolina, winner of the 2022 ESSZ Speedo Summer Sectional Meet held at the Triangle Aquatic Center. SwimMAC had a combined team score of 1354.5 points, outscoring second place Wolfpack Elite by 99.5 points. North Carolina Aquatic Club finished in third place, followed by the TAC Titans, and Lakeside Swim Team.

Click here for complete team rankings by men, women, and combined scores.

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2022 Zone Team applicant tracker

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Below is the 2022 NCS Zone Team Selection spreadsheet link for parents to view and track their swimmer’s progress over the weekend for both 14 & Under AG Champs, as well as Senior Sectionals. 

Times entered are those currently in SWIMS, and will be updated throughout this weekend’s meets, both at GAC and TAC.   Thank you for your patience as we seek to find the best NCS team to compete at the zone meet in Tupelo, MS July 25-31, 2022.

ZONE TEAM APPLICANT TRACKER

Completed applications for all athletes must be submitted online and checks must be in the mail by 10:00 am on Saturday, July 16.

APPLICATIONS HAVE CLOSED

NCS ZONE TEAM APPLICATION FORM

Senior (age 15-18) selection will be based on times through the Senior Sectional Meet in Cary, July 15-18.  Swimmers may apply even if they are not participating in the Senior Sectional meet.

For the 2022 Southern Zone Championship, 16 athletes (8 males and 8 females) will be selected in each age group—11-12; 13-14 and 15-18—to represent North Carolina Swimming.  For details, view the selection policy below.

NCS ZONE TEAM SELECTION POLICY

2022 NCS ZONE TEAM STAFF

Head Coach – Jonathan Watson

Team Manager – Amy Faulk

11-12 Girls – Vavina Lapham

11-12 Boys – Darian Turner

13-14 Girls – Katie Quillen

13-14 Boys – Jack Eichenlaub

15-18 Girls – Lorin Collins

15-18 Boys – Kevin Donnelly

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Jay Thomas named Secretary of FINA Technical Committee

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Jay Thomas

The FINA Bureau recently announced the members of its new FINA Technical Committees which are responsible for analyzing how continued improvements can be made to aquatic sports.  Among those listed was Jay Thomas, USA Swimming official and NCS member, who was named Honorary Secretary of the FINA Technical Swimming Committee.

FINA has seven Technical Committees, with six committees for the aquatic disciplines of Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, High Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming and a committee for Masters. The full composition of the FINA Technical Committees can be found below.

Click here to view the entire article on the FINA website.

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2022 NCS 14U Long Course Champs

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The 2022 NCS 14 and Under Long Course Championship meet, hosted by STAR Aquatics, will be held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, NC on July 14-17, 2022. For additional links to timelines, warmup lane assignments, volunteer signups, timer assignments, etc., visit the STAR Aquatics’ NCS LC Age Group Champs meet page.

Psych Sheet

Meet Announcement

Meet Events File

Entry Deadline Summary

Officials’ Sign-Up Form

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TAC announces new pool opening

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GRAND OPENING OF TAC’S 50M OUTDOOR POOL JULY 11TH

The Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) is extremely pleased to announce the opening of our brand new 50M Outdoor Pool.  The event will take place on Monday, July 11th at 3:00pm.  All are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Festivities will begin with welcome speeches from four Triangle area dignitaries and follow with the “First Dive” at approximately 3:30. We will offer refreshments and guests are welcomed to tour the new pool and building. 

This fourth pool on the TAC campus shows our commitment to the Triangle area’s requirements for additional aquatic spaces for the health, safety and competitive needs of our residents and guests.  The increased lane capacity will go a long way to help make this happen.  The pool features both heating and cooling of the water, a canopy over two sides of the pool to allow for covered swimmer instruction while in the water, new restrooms and a large pool deck.  TAC plans to operate the pool year-round and will offer open swim times each day while there are no indoor events at the Facility.

Please join us for our Grand Opening and see the latest addition to our campus! 

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Team USA sets medal count record at World Championships

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Justin Ress, top qualifier in the men’s 50m back, went on to win gold.

Swimmers with NCS connections contributed to a medal count record for Team USA at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest.

On the meet’s final day, Justin Ress (formerly with NC State and MOR) won the men’s 50m back, out-touching teammate Hunter Armstrong to win the gold medal. Erika Brown (formerly with SwimMAC) earned a bronze medal in the women’s 50m free. Ryan Held (formerly with NC State) added to his relay medal collection with a silver in the men’s 4×100 medley relay and Claire Curzan (TAC Titans) anchored the winning women’s 4×100 medley relay, earning her second relay gold. On Friday, another NCS swimmer, Katharine Berkoff (NC State) won silver in the women’s 50m back. Click here for complete meet results.

The final day’s haul brought the United States’ team-leading meet medal count to 45–17 of them gold–and set a new record for medals at a World Championships. The previous record of 38 pool medals–also by the United States and also in Budapest–came in 2017. 

Ryan Murphy, who’s been a member of the past four World teams, credits strong teamwork for this unparalleled feat. 

“It was an incredible eight days with this team,” said Murphy, who swam the opening backstroke leg of the silver-medal-winning 400 medley relay with teammates Nic Fink, Michael Andrew and Ryan Held. “I feel like we just put our heads down, handled business, and when we looked up at the end of the meet, it was, by at least one metric, our most successful team ever. 

“I think that’s something really special. That’s not one person. That’s not one performance. That’s a collective as a whole, and that comes down to people executing session after session, and that’s really hard to do over an eight-day meet.” 

How deep and dominant was the United States this year in Budapest? Not including relays, 26 different swimmers won medals. Second-place Australia won 17 total medals. 

On Saturday, Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong started the final session with a bang, going 1-2 in the 50-meter backstroke. Originally disqualified, Ress and the United States appealed, and he was reinstated as the victor. 

Ress won in 24.12, while Armstrong was a close second in 24.14. Armstrong even donned the medal to Ress after the swim happened.

In the 1500m freestyle–an event he won last summer in Tokyo–Bobby Finke won silver, his second medal (gold in the 800 free) of the meet. 

He and the rest of the field chased gold medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy from start to finish – but Finke’s time of 14:36.70 set a new American record by almost three seconds. 

“In the beginning, I was just trying to keep up with him, but he just kept getting further and further ahead,” Finke said. “Hats off to Greg. I wasn’t able to run him down. He had a great race, and I’m really proud of him.”

In the last sprint of the meet, newlywed Erika Brown of the United States touched in 24.38 to tie for bronze with Australia’s Meg Harris. 

Brown’s medal marked the third-straight Worlds where a U.S. woman stood on the podium, following Simone Manuel’s bronze in 2017 and gold in 2019. 

“I was in shock,” Brown said of learning she won bronze. “I was really just trying to focus on having my own race and getting my hand on the wall. I can’t even explain how excited I was when I saw that. 

“I have gotten to swim on a lot of relays (at Worlds), and that really got me even more excited for the 50.”

Tokyo Olympians Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant also added to the United States’ medals Saturday with silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 400m individual medley. Grimes’ time of 4:32.67 was just eclipsed by fellow teenager Summer McIntosh (4:32.04) of Canada. 

Weyant, who won silver in this event on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics last summer, finished third in 4:36.00 despite the long wait to compete on the final day of the meet.  

“It was definitely a difficult feeling (having to wait),” she said. “I got to watch the meet for a good part of it, but I was ready to race today and was happy I walked away with a medal, especially against this field.”

Grimes, the silver medalist in the 1500 freestyle earlier this week, said she’s sees good things for herself and the United States in this event in the future.

“Last year, there were still some bumps in the road with that race (400 IM),” she said. “But I think this year, I’ve gotten a little bit stronger, and my coach and I have worked on my weaknesses, so it’s coming together really nicely. 

“I went in knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I went over everybody’s splits and kind of learned how they swam the race. I just knew that if I got to the breaststroke turning into the freestyle with them, then I could have a chance at a medal. I was just having a good time racing.”

The final two events of the meet– the men’s and women’s 400m medley relays–both finished in exciting fashion.

A strong favorite for gold, the U.S. men were out-touched by the Italian team – 3:27.51 to 3:27.79. Ryan Held, who won gold as a member of the 400 freestyle relay, made a furious dash over the final 50 meters but couldn’t catch the Italian swimmer. 

In the women’s final, despite swimming in lane 1, the U.S. women won their second relay (800 freestyle relay) of the meet by outpacing silver-medalist Australia. The United States won in 3:53.78. 

“We have crushed it this whole week,” said Regan Smith, who won the 100m backstroke earlier in the meet and started the United States off strong in the relay with teammates Lily King, Torri Huske and Claire Curzan. 

“I really just wanted to go out and do my best for Team USA on this relay, and I know these girls wanted to do the same. And I think we really did that, and we went out on a good note.”

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NCS Coach: PRIDE Month Trailblazer

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Jamie Bloom, head coach of the YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA), was recognized as a PRIDE month trailblazer in the following article on the USA Swimming website. Congratulations, Jamie!

Swimming impacts individuals in different ways. For some, it is a fun hobby. For others it is simply a workout. For many it is a life skill. For Jamie Bloom: “It has been the foundation for who I am and what I do.”

Growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts, Bloom played multiple sports, citing their presence in her family’s home. Her parents played tennis and both of her sisters played sports at the collegiate level. Her siblings swam in the summer, but for Bloom, swimming was an all-year focus. 

When the head coaching position at YOTA presented itself, Bloom transitioned into that title and stepped down from William Peace. She has been serving as the North Carolina Swimming’s Safe Sport Chair and is about to transition into the North Carolina Swimming’s DEI Chair as well. Bloom has spent many hours educating others on swim safety and is a huge advocate on club teams becoming Safe Sport recognized. In addition to these roles, she is also vice-chair of the Coach Advisory Committee, been on staff for multiple LSC and Zone camps as well as been both head manager and head coach at the National Diversity Select Camp. 

One of her passions is getting younger coaches involved and helping create more representation among swim coaches. Bloom exclaimed, “Kids just need to see people that look like them.”

In order to create more representation, it is important to convince individuals why coaching is worth it.

“We need to talk about the sport. We need to talk about the benefits of being a coach, of all the great opportunities that you have to influence lives,” suggests Bloom.

Diversity is another topic that Bloom feels strongly about. “It’s never been a secret. I’ve never shied away from identifying myself. I certainly don’t introduce myself as ‘Hello, I am Jamie, I am a lesbian.’ But, especially at this point in my life, it is something that I am proud of.”

Thinking back to the beginning of her swimming and coaching career, “As far as gay and lesbian athletes go, there weren’t a lot that were out. Swimming seemed at the time to be a little bit of the last frontier,” Bloom explained.

Bloom suggested one approach to creating more representation is to go into communities where swimming isn’t present.

“Competitive swimming is scary to people who aren’t comfortable around the water; who don’t have access to the water,” she said. “I think that we need to do our best to make ourselves part of the communities that we want to be involved in our programs.”

Swimming can be crucial in not only saving lives but adding value to them. Bloom acknowledged, “Sports for me have always been stabilizing. It has always been something that I knew the structure of and could always go back to, could depend on.” 

Bloom wants others to have the same access to the sport that has positively impacted her. “I think that sports should be for all. I think that we should be giving opportunities to anyone that wants to participate.”

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NCS official at World Championships

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Trish Martin, NCS General Chair and USA Swimming official, was selected as a meet official for the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, representing USA Swimming and North Carolina Swimming. Congratulations, Trish!

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