By Ben Colin

Club swimmers from the Midwest to the Southeast are converging on the country music capital of the world for the annual Southern Premier this weekend.

Hosted by the Nashville Aquatic Club (NAC), the meet runs from Friday, March 2, through Sunday, March 4, at the Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool at Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, Tennessee.

Over 700 swimmers, with ages ranging from 9 to 20, will compete across four age groups during the three-day meet. Every nationally recognized event will be offered except for the 1,000-yard freestyle. Swimmers 12 and under will be able to swim 50s. The older swimmers have a full order of events including all five relays.

Watch the 2018 Southern Premier LIVE on FloSwimming!

Twenty-two teams from nine states will be represented, with most hailing from Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Two of USA Swimming’s Gold Medal clubs in 2017, SwimAtlanta and SwimMac, will have strong showings in Nashville. SwimMac, located in North Carolina, earned the second-highest score in USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Program last year.

Nine additional competing clubs, amounting to half of the field, earned a medal last year. Most of those, including last year's meet champion, Dynamo Swim Club, received a Silver rating. The last three Southern Premier champions, Dynamo, Tennessee Aquatics, and NAC, all return with a large group of athletes.

The meet is limited by time standards, keeping the field of athletes to an elite level. The faster standards are meant for 12-and-under swimmers and those coming from outside of the Southeastern LSC. Those times are based on the Eastern Sectional qualifying standards. Thirteen-and-over swimmers from the Southeastern LSC must meet the season championship standard. These requirements ensure the field of swimmers will be at a high standard.

The preliminary sessions will be split into two pools by gender. Ten-and-under swimmers will only compete in the morning, while all other age groups will return for a finals session in the evening. That session will be done in a single pool.

Two swimmers on the girls side to keep an eye on are Gretchen and Alex Walsh. Both Nashville swimmers currently hold national age group records. 

Although not in the age group anymore, Gretchen Walsh holds the 13-14 50 freestyle record with a 22.00, a time that is her seed for this meet. That time is also faster than the current 15-16 record of a 22.04 held by Kate Douglass and Simone Manuel. Walsh is also just a second off of the record in the 100 freestyle.

Alex Walsh holds three national records. She owns the top marks in the 200 individual medley for both the 13-14 and 15-16 age groups as well as the 100 breaststroke for 15-16. She is closing in on multiple other national records.

This weekend she will have a shot at breaking four additional records. Alex Walsh is 0.24 of a second from the top 50 freestyle mark and 0.15 from the 100 backstroke. She is around a second off the 200 backstroke and breaststroke records. 

There are many swimmers gaining national recruiting attention that will be racing in Nashville. A top five recruit in this year’s class and an Arizona State signee, Dayton Raiders’ Cody Bybee is the top seed in the 100 and 200 butterflies as well as the 100 and 500 freestyles.

The boys 50 freestyle features numerous top athletes. Bybee is seeded third behind Michigan signee Will Chan from SwimMac and 2019 recruit Will Tarvestad from Triton Swimming. Nicholas Perena, who is headed for Alabama, is also in the race, along with 2019 prospects Hunter Tapp from Lakeside and Cole Crane of Episcopal Amberjax. Many of those swimmers are also in other events together.

Future Stanford Cardinal Allie Raab, competing in a home meet, is highly seeded in the 200 freestyle, 200 IM, and 400 IM. She ranks in the top 25 of this year’s class. Raab will battle Nashville teammates Ella Nelson and Alex Walsh in the IM events. Those two are also at the top of their respective classes.

All streaming coverage of the Southern Premier can be found on FloSwimming.

2018 Southern Premier

Hosted by the Nashville Aquatic Club

March 2-4

Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool, Nashville, Tennessee

Short Course Yards (SCY)

Psych Sheet