Another weekend of hard racing in preparation for nationals awaits Kennedy

Avon’s Madison Kennedy

ATHENS, Ga. –  Preparations continue for swimmers across the nation, including Avon’s Madison Kennedy, as they aim to be in top shape for the 2014 U.S. national championship meet in less than a month on August 6-10 in Irvine, California.

It will be a key meet to help determine who represents the United States in several upcoming international events including the 2014 Pan Pacific championships in Australia later in August and the 2015 World Championship meet in Kazaan, Russia. Performances from the nationals will also help USA Swimming select teams for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada and the 2015 World University Games in South Korea.

Many swimmers will be at the University of Georgia at the first Bulldog Grand Slam at the Gabrielsen Natatorium. The four-day meet begins Thursday and will include several Olympic swimmers, including 18-time gold medal winner Michael Phelps and 11-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochite. Kennedy and many of her SwimMAC teammates will be participating in the meet.

Kennedy is the top seed in the 50 meter freestyle with her career-best time of 24.30 seconds that she swam in May at the Charlotte Grand Prix. She is seeded fifth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.83 seconds and will also swim in the 100 backstroke, where she is seeded 25th.

It will be a good field of swimmers in the sprinting events. Kennedy will be challenged by SwimMAC teammate Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, a two-time Olympian from the Bahamas who is the No. 2 seed with her time of 24.65 seconds, Olympic silver medalist Amanda Weir (25.18) and Megan Romano from the University of Georgia.

In the 100 freestyle, Weir is the top seed with her time of 53.58 seconds followed by Olympic gold medalist Shannon Vreeland (53.83), Romano (53.90), Allison Schmidt (53.94) and Kennedy with her seed time of 54.83 seconds.

The 50 meter freestyle and 100 backstroke will be contested on Saturday with the 100 freestyle on Sunday.

The meet was designed to fill a hole in the racing schedule between the final stop on the Grand Prix circuit in Santa Clara in mid-June and USA Swimming’s national championships.

The meet was originally intended to be for swimmers from four clubs from Athens, North Baltimore, Charlotte-based SwimMAC, and Swim Atlanta.  However, in the time since it was announced at the Charlotte Grand Prix, it has grown to include world-class athletes from over a dozen teams.