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Reviewing Our 2026 Junior Pan Pacs Roster Projection

Age Group Spotlight
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  • Re: Simulating the 2026 Junior Pan Pacs Roster: An Unofficial Look at Who the Priority Rules Point To

    The official 2026 Junior Pan Pacific Championships roster is out, so it's a good time to check our projection against it — where we got it right, where we didn't, and why.

    The Scorecard

    Women: 14 of 20 projected selections matched the official roster.

    • Projected but not official: Rylee Erisman, Brinkleigh Hansen, Sydney Schoeck, Charlotte Crush, Alex Siegel, Emily Wolf
    • Official but missed by projection: Paige Downey, Ellie Clarke, Kennedi Southern, Vivienne Zangaro, Lane Francis, Mia Buff

    Men: 19 of 20 matched.

    • Projected but not official: Cullen Kahl
    • Official but missed by projection: Ellis Crisci

    The Known Issue

    Our model builds projections from final time rankings, filtered by age eligibility — it doesn't currently know which heat a swimmer actually competed in. That's a meaningful gap, because selection isn't purely time-based: only athletes who actually swim in the 18-U final are eligible for consideration in that event. A swimmer can be fast enough on paper and still be ineligible, for reasons our current data doesn't capture.

    We've traced most of the women's misses back to two variants of that same root cause:

    1. Already on a Senior Pan Pacs Team.
    Rylee Erisman (Pan Pacs) and Brinkleigh Hansen (open water) were both already on senior rosters heading into this meet, which makes them ineligible for Junior Pan Pacs regardless of how fast they swam here. Our model has no way to check senior-team status yet, so it projected them anyway.

    2. Opted out of the 18-U final entirely.
    Charlotte Crush swam directly in the Open final in every event we checked, with no record of racing an 18-U final all week — meaning she was never actually in consideration for a Junior Pan Pacs spot, whatever her time-only ranking suggested. Sydney Schoeck's results follow the same pattern in the events we've checked so far, though we haven't confirmed it across her full event list yet.

    The Boys' Side: Fully Resolved

    The one men's miss came down to a head-to-head Priority-3 comparison, not a data gap:

    • Ellis Crisci, 400 Free: 3:50.89 vs. 3:42.43 Medal Standard = +3.806%
    • Cullen Kahl, 200 IM: 2:00.28 vs. 1:55.80 Medal Standard = +3.869%

    Luka Mijatovic opted out of the 400 Free 18-U final, and Crisci was actually 2nd place in that final. Crisci ended up marginally closer to the Medal Standard than Kahl, which gave him the last Priority-3 spot. Straightforward once you have the actual final results — our projection just didn't know about Mijatovic's opt-out.

    Still Open

    After the known-issue cases above, the remaining women's differences are:

    • Projected: Alex Siegel, Sydney Schoeck, Kayla Han, Mena Boardman
    • Official: Kennedi Southern, Vivienne Zangaro, Grace Koenig-Song, Mia Buff

    We haven't traced these back to a specific cause yet. We'll follow up once we've worked through them. In the meantime, this is exactly the kind of gap that tells us where to improve the model — tracking actual 18-U vs. Open final participation, and senior-team status, instead of relying on time rankings alone.

    Official 2026 Junior Pan Pacs Roster

    Women

    First Name Last Name Club Events
    Gabi Brito Beach Cities Alpha 100 FR, 50 FL, 100 FL, 50 BK
    Sadie Buckley Nations Capital Swim Club 200 IM, 400 IM
    Mia Buff Greater Toledo Aquatic Club 50 FL
    Abi Burke T2 Aquatics 200 FR, 400 FR
    Ellie Clarke Carmel Swim Club 200 BK
    Audrey Derivaux Jersey Wahoos 100 FL, 200 FL, 200 BK, 200 IM, 400 IM
    Paige Downey Gold Medal Swim Club 800 FR, 1500 FR
    Lane Francis NOVA of Virginia 100 BK
    Kayda Geyer Mecklenberg Swim Association 200 BR
    Aria Grossenbach Patriot Aquatic Club 100 FR
    Sydney Hardy Sarasota Sharks 200 FR
    Zara Kocak Excel Aquatics 200 FL
    Grace Koenig-Song NASA Wildcat Aquatics 50 BR, 100 BR
    Kate McKinnon Aquawolves Swim Team 50 FR
    Zayda Miehl Corvallis Aquatic Team 800 FR, 1500 FR
    Maddie Moreth Valparaiso Swim Club 50 BR, 100 BR
    Alyssa Sagle Nations Capital Swim Club 50 BK, 100 BK
    Kennedi Southern Lakeside Aquatic Club 50 FL
    Kaidy Stout Greensboro Swimming Association 200 BR
    Vivienn Zangaro Long Island Aquatic Club 400 FR

    Men

    First Name Last Name Club Events
    Jordan Ragland Life Time Northern California 100 FR
    Mike Rice Mecklenberg Swim Association 100 FR
    Kai Joyner Rochester Swim Club 200 FR
    Luka Mijatovic Pleasanton Seahawks 200 FR, 800 FR, 1500 FR
    Ewan Dalrymple Columbia Swimming 200 FL
    Wilson York Lakeside Swim Team 200 BR
    Davis Jackson TAC Titans 50 BK, 100 BK
    Jake Lloyd Central Ohio Aquatics 50 FL
    Yi Zheng Carmel Swim Club 400 IM
    Charlie Cancelmo Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club 100 FL
    Ian Call Nashville Aquatic Club 50 BR, 100 BR
    Ethan Bathala Bolles School Sharks 50 BK
    Trent Allen Carmel Swim Club 400 FR
    Ty Thomas River City Aquatics 100 BK
    Jackson Hartzler Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club 200 IM
    Brody Chandler Sierra Marlins Swim Team 50 FR
    Andrew Eubanks The Dolphins Swim Team 50 BR, 100 BR
    Anthony Dornoff La Mirada Armada Swim Team 400 IM
    David Sammons SwimMAC Carolina 200 FL
    Ellis Crisci Tsunami Swim Team of Kansas City 400 FR, 1500 FR
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