KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman freshman swimmer Laurel Sankowski is getting set to compete in the 2017 U.S. Speedo Winter Junior Championships this weekend.

The University of Tennessee will host the Winter Junior Championships East meet as the west meet will take place at the University of Iowa.

This is the third year that separate East and West meets will be held. USA Swimming made the decision to split the meets in 2015 due to the fact that the meet was becoming too large to be held at one location.

Competition will take place at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center, which features a 50-meter competition pool and a separate competition diving well. In addition, the center has seating available for up to 1,284 spectators.

The meet is held in the same facility as the UT Invitational in which C-N competed in over the weekend.

"That plays a huge part," Sankowski explained. "I'll already know the blocks and the walls from the UT meet. Hopefully I can be a little faster this weekend. I can take what I learned last week and fix the mistakes from my races."

The Junior Chamoionships are used as a stepping stone for many swimmers to qualify for Olympic Trials and junior national teams.

"There will be some good competition at this meet just like the UT meet," the Indian Trail, N.C. native said. "It's another one of those chances to get ready for conference and nationals."

It's been a goal to do this for a while. My whole time in high school and club was leading up to this. It's exciting that I'm able to do this now when I wasn't able to on my club team."

On day one of the UT Invitational, Sankowski put together a lifetime best swim in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.04. She was also a piece of the 200-yard freestyle relay squad who finished with the 5th best time in the country at 1:33.65.

On day two, Sankowski's time in the 200-yard medley along with Ksenia Naydenova, Alex Nuyianes, and Mary Northcutt, all posted lifetime bests individually.

The championships are schedule to take place over the course of three days from Dec. 7 to Dec. 9.

-CN-