More Tidbits from Omaha

With a bit more time to digest the Trials and crank out a few stats, here are a few more things for you to chew on.

The youngest female swimmer to make the top-16: 13 year-old Madison White from Crow Canyon Sharks. She was 12th in the women's 200 back, qualifying for a spot on the World Junior Team.

Interestingly, the next two youngest females to achieve this distinction were also in the backstroke events: 14 year-olds Elizabeth Pelton from North Baltimore in the 100 back and Bonnie Brandon from Mission Aurora in the 200 back. Topping that, the highest ranking 15 year-old female was Elizabeth Beisel, the backstroke specialist who made the team in the 200 back and 400 IM. This is too much to be coincidence. I would have expected this to happen in the breaststroke, in the tradition of Amanda Beard, Megan Quann and other young stars in that stroke. Can anybody suggest a reason why this may occur in backstroke events?

The youngest male swimmer to make the top 16? Nick D'Innocenzo, 17 from Magnus Aquatic Group was 15th in the 200 IM. The next two behind him, Austin Surhoff from North Baltimore and Andrew Gemmel from Deleware both also placed in IM events.

So what about the youngest competitors at the meet? There were 10 thirteen year-old women who made a total of 18 cuts, but no male competitor younger than 15 made the field. The four 15 year-old men who did qualify for Omaha all swam the mile.

Average age of all competitors: 19.73 years
Average age of all male competitors: 20.75 years
Average age of all female competitors: 18.79 years

The events with the youngest average age for men: 1500 free, 200 free, and 400 free
The events with the youngest average age for women: 200 back, 100 back, 400 IM
See the entire list of average age by event here

Number of male competitors 25 & Over: 39 (7 made the Olympic team)
Number of female competitors 25 & Over: 14 (4 made the Olympic team)

A little-known fascinating story I heard on deck in Omaha: Vladimir Pyshnenko, who is also a coach at Northbrook Spartan Swim Club was competing in the Trials for a fourth different national body: the Soviet Union (1988), the Unified Team (1992), Russia (1996), and now as a naturalized citizen here in the U.S. in 2008. He's not bad either: he owns a Gold medal from 1992 in the 4 x 200 free relay and a silver from 1996 in the 4 x 100 free relay.