Swimming

World Champion Summer McIntosh Is Scheduled to Swim at Orlando Sectionals This Week

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2023 Southern Zone Sectional Championships (Orlando)

  • February 9-12, 2023
  • Rosen Aquatic Center, Orlando, Florida
  • Long Course Meters (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
  • Psych Sheets
  • Meet site

The psych sheets have been released for the 2023 Southern Zone Sectional Championships in Orlando, Florida. No, the name you were all hoping to see isn’t on the entries, but another superstar will make her 2023 debut at the Rosen Aquatic Center: Canadian 16-year-old Summer McIntosh.

McIntosh, who was the #1-ranked female swimmer in SwimSwam’s top 100 for 2023, is entered to compete alongside her Sarasota Sharks teammates at the met.

After going ham in her second-ever short course yards meet (and first full-schedule short course yards meet) in December at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships – East meet, where she won four of the five events that she raced, McIntosh is entered to swim 6 races in long course this weekend.

  • 800 free, #1 seed – 8:25.04
  • 100 breast, #64 seed – 1:04.11 (yards seed time)
  • 100 fly, #1 seed – 59.28
  • 100 back, #1 seed – 1:02.15
  • 200 breast, #2 seed – 2:30.85
  • 200 back, #1 seed – 2:07.15

McIntosh won’t swim the 200 fly or 400 IM, two events in which she is the defending World Champion. She won’t swim the 400 free, where she won a Worlds silver, either.

She will, however, swim more 100-meter races than we’re used to from her, amid a schedule that flexes her versatility with at least one race in each stroke.

That is balanced by a swim in the 800 free, where she’s the top seed among a mountain of Sarasota Sharks. Her teammates and training partners Michaela Mattes (8:35.58), Addison Sauickie (9:00.96), and Lolly Milbaum (9:02.94) are the #2, #3, and #4 seeds. They all come from a program that has traditionally been the state’s strongest distance group for juniors. That includes alumni like Emma Weyant, Danielle Valley, and Nicholas Caldwell (all Florida Gators at one time or another).

Speaking of the Weyants, among the other entrants is National Junior Team member Gracie Weyant, who is scheduled to swim all three breaststroke races, the 200 IM, the 100 free, and a less-traditional event for her, the 100 free. A big head-to-head showdown with her teammate McIntosh in the 200 breast (Weyant is the top seed) will be one of the highlights of the meet.

The meet is noticeably devoid of pros who have made appearances in past years, with the psych sheets dominated by 18 & unders (though there are a few older pro-type swimmers from the World Aquatics training center at Azura Florida Aquatics).

Florida’s high school state championship is much earlier in the season than most, which affords the ability to shift to long course earlier in the year; hence the long course Sectionals meet in February, where most of the country is still racing yards.

Of the 6 US Junior National Team members from Florida, Weyant and Mattes are the only two who will swim in this meet.

SwimSwam: World Champion Summer McIntosh Is Scheduled to Swim at Orlando Sectionals This Week

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