Swimming World presents the video series, the Ross Report. It is a series where our head video producer Andy Ross will travel around the country to tell the stories of the athletes you don’t know much about.
This week’s episode focuses on 15-year-old Josh Zuchowski of the Flood Aquatics Swim Team in West Palm Beach, Florida. Zuchowski recently took down national age group records from Aaron Peirsol and Michael Andrew this year.
Zuchowski said the Peirsol record meant more to him because of how legendary he is in the sport. Peirsol currently holds the long course national age group record in the 15-16 (1:57.03) and 17-18 (1:55.15) age groups as well as the world record (1:51.92) and Zuchowski hopes to stay on that path.
13-14 100 Back All-Time Rankings (LCM):
- Josh Zuchowski, 56.62 (2019)
- Michael Andrew, 56.83 (2014)
- Destin Lasco, 56.84 (2016)
- Ben Ho, 57.39 (2013)
- Vinny Marciano, 57.46 (2016)
- Ryan Murphy, 57.76 (2010)
- Wyatt Davis, 57.91 (2016)
- Griffin O’Leary, 57.95 (2018)
13-14 All-Time Rankings (200 back, LCM)
- Josh Zuchowski, 2:00.97 (2019)
- Aaron Peirsol, 2:02.78 (1998)
- Ryan Murphy, 2:02.86 (2010)
- Destin Lasco, 2:03.28 (2016)
- Michael Andrew, 2:04.06 (2014)
- Braeden Haughey, 2:04.30 (2018)
- Harrison Lierz, 2:04.47 (2017)
- Benjamin Ho, 2:04.87 (2013)
Zuchowski finished his freshman year of high school at the Kings Academy in West Palm Beach. He has since turned 15 and is approaching his sophomore year of high school so he will start swimming eight practices per week with two doubles.
Zuchowski said his goal for the summer of 2019 is to qualify for the 2019 World Junior Championships that will be in Budapest at the end of the summer. He is hoping he can get under 2:00 in the 200 back in long course as well as get down to a 55 in the 100, which would hopefully qualify him for the meet in Hungary.
Zuchowski is already qualified to swim at the 2020 Olympic Trials where he will be just 16 next summer in Omaha. He is viewing the 2020 Trials as a learning experience to move forward to the 2024 Trials down the line. Although it is impossible to predict his future success, Zuchowski is certainly someone to keep an eye on moving forward.
Previous Ross Report episodes:
- #1: Kaersten Meitz
- #2: Zane Grothe
- #3: Division II Indianapolis
- #4: Robert Howard
- #5: Georgia Tech
- #6: Division III Williams
- #7: Caeleb Dressel, Jan Switkowski & Mark Szaranek
- #8: Federica Pellegrini
- #9: Nova Southeastern