It makes sense there is a Hollywood connection when USA Swimming brings its national championships to Los Angeles.
And it makes double sense that Hollywood will be involved in what may be the most exciting photo finish on American soil – or in this case, water.
J.E.M. F/X is a specialty FX design and custom fabrication shop that has manufactured and installed some of the Hollywood and the music industry’s most highly sophisticated effects systems.
From fire shooting out of cubes and line burners, rings and arches, tornados and cauldrons, spark machines and cyro cannons, stadium guns and accumulators, J.E.M. F/X creates excitement, magic, and lots of car crashes and stages that explode.
So when USA Swimming and the Canyons Aquatic Club decided to host the USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships at Castaic Lake, they needed a finish structure with the most sophisticated timing system and high-speed camera capabilities. The principals at J.E.M. F/X got to work, together with Jason Moody of Regetta Timing, and came up with a light, portable finish structure.
And that finish structure is going to see lots of action today when the fastest field ever assembled in American open water swimming history lines up for an undoubtedly fierce 10 km battle to select its 2013 World Championship team., the women will do it all over again in the 5K.
When the starting gun goes off, all gloves will figuratively come off. The pace will be fanatically fast and the young women will be unafraid to lay it all on the line. Right from the start, strategic positioning and pacing will play major roles in the ultimate outcome of the race. And on the last loop of six, lead changes will undoubtedly keep the spectators guessing and the coaches stressed out.
There will be at least a pack of 10 relentlessly thrashing swimmers coming around the last turn buoy with a decent shot to podium. And whoever emerges as the top two swimmers will be well-prepared representatives of the USA at the upcoming 2013 FINA Championships in Barcelona.
The 2013 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships 10 km field will include the following athletes (listed with their entry time):
1. Becca Mann (15) Clearwater Aquatic Club (8:27.37 800m)
2. Eva Fabian (19) Greenwood Swimming (16:42.03 1500m)
3. Amanda Richey (16) Boulder Swimming (16:57.65 1500m)
4. Lauren Abruzzo (18) DU Hilltoppers (17:08.09 1500m)
5. Liliana Casso (18) Team Santa Monica (17:19.88 1500m)
6. Heidi George (37) The Great Wolf Swim Team (16:00.00 1650y)
7. Lauren Baker (20) UCLA Swimming (16:04.18 1650y)
8. Kaitlin Pawlowicz (20) Nation’s Capital Swim Club (16:09.96 1650y)
9. Christine Jennings (26) RallySport Aquatics Club (16:16.56 1650y)
10. Megan Rankin (19) UCLA Swimming (16:29.59 1650y)
11. Katy Campbell (19) UCLA Swimming (16:33.12 1650y)
12. Audra Burtch (19) Concord Swim Club (16:40.63 1650y)
13. Haley Anderson (21) Trojan Swim Club (9:37.67 1000y), shown above
14. Jessie Arnold (16) SMAC (10:02.57 1000y)
15. Ashley Twichell (23) Mission Viejo Nadadores (8:34.56 800m)
16. Tristin Baxter (21) Clovis Swim Club (8:39.70 800m)
17. Rachel Zilinskas (18) Germantown Academy Aquatic Club (8:40.45 800m)
18. Brooke Lorentzen (17) Mission Viejo Nadadores (8:43.92 800m)
19. Emily Brunemann (26) Club Wolverine (8:46.95 800m), shown above
20. Lindsey Clary (17) FAST Swim Team (9:00.05 800m)
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