Kelsi Worrell Continues Hot Streak with 100 Fly Title on Friday at 2014 Winter Nationals

There is a lot of good action on tap for the third day of finals on Friday, December 5th at the 2014 USA Swimming Winter National Championships. The men’s and women’s 100 butterflies, led by Giles Smith and Kelsi Worrell in the heats, both bring the potential for big swims; as does Katie Ledecky in the 200 free final.

2014 U.S. WINTER NATIONALS

• Full meet preview
• Greensboro, NC
• Dec. 3-6, 2014 (Wednesday through Saturday)
• Prelims 9am/Finals 5pm
• Prelims Timeline (Friday)
• Psych sheets
• Live stream
• Live results

WOMEN’S 400y IM – Finals

• American: 3:57.89 03/17/2012 Caitlin Leverenz
• U.S. Open: 3:56.54 03/17/2012 Katinka Hosszu
• NCAA “A” cut: 4:05.37

Following in the footsteps of other brother-sister 400 IM combos of the past (the Melanie and Robert Margalis, for example), both Tyler Clary and Lindsey Clary are now USA National Championships in the event after Lindsey won the women’s race on Friday in Greensboro.

She swam a 4:09.87 in the event and beat out Kansas’ Chelsie Miller by .14 seconds, despite not leading the race until the last 75 yards.

Clary had a successful freshman season at Ohio State, but this is a true breakout swim. That’s over a five-second improvement over her previous lifetime best coming into this meet,  That swim ranks her as the 6th-fastest collegian in the country this year (as of posting).

Both Clary and Miller should easily get into NCAA’s based on history.

The top junior swimmer was York YMCA’s Meghan Small in 4:11.07 followed by a bubble swim from Michigan freshman Hannah Moore in 4:11.45.

Louisville commit Sophie Cattermole is having as impressive of a meet as her future teammates are. As evidenced by the results of this race, she’ll have an immediate impact on her new team that is thin in the IM’s. Her 5th-place finish of 4:12.40 was higher than any current Louisville swimmers.

Leah Stevens took 5th in 4:12.88, and Courtney Harnis was 7th in 4:13.50.

The results in total show a great depth in this event. Louisville’s Abby Chin won the B-Final in 4:12.16 (a hair faster than Cattermole) and Danielle Valley was 2nd in that heat in 4:12.85.

Madison Homovich of the North Carolina Aquatic Club won the C-Final in 4:14.17. That pushes her up to 12th on the all-time 13-14 age group list in the U.S.

Event Results Here (PDF)

MEN’S 400y IM – Finals

• American: 3:34.50 03/28/2014 Chase Kalisz
• U.S. Open: 3:34.50 03/28/2014 Chase Kalisz
• NCAA “A” cut: 3:42.40

Club Wolverine pro Kyle Whitaker completed a sweep of the men’s IM events on Friday winning the 400 in 3:41.10 over training partner Connor Jaeger (3:41.35) and current Michigan undergrad Dylan Bosch (3:44.92) – overall, a 1-2-3 for swimmers who train out of the University of Michigan campus.

This was a four man race through the end of the breaststroke, but Bosch couldn’t keep up with his two veteran teammates on the closing freestyle leg.

That left Whitaker, who entered with a lead, to hold off Jaeger, the freestyle specialist, at the touch. Whitaker had a two-and-a-half second going into the freestyle, and that was just barely enough. In 50 yards, Jaeger made up 1.7 seconds of that difference, and while he got another half to close, Whitaker’s lead was just enough.

Whitaker had the fastest breaststroke split of the field and wound up leading at every turn.

Louisville’s Nolan Tesone was 4th in 3:46.69, and Ohio State’s Tamas Gercsak was 5th in 3:47.20.

Oakland University’s Jorden Merrilees took 6th in 3:48.81, which just missed his own School Record by three-tenths.

Event Results Here (PDF)

WOMEN’S 100y butterfly – Finals

• American: 50.01 03/23/2002 Natalie Coughlin
• U.S. Open: 50.01 03/23/2002 Natalie Coughlin
• NCAA “A” cut: 51.70

Kelsi Worrell swam a new lifetime best of 50.91 in the women’s 100 fly to take the U.S. Winter National Championship: the first of her career. That improves upon the 50.95 that she swam to place 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championships, as she remains ranked 8th on the all-time list in this event (at any level).

Besides for being fast, this is a noteable swim on Worrell’s resume for another reason: she’s not usually this fast mid-season. Last year, she was 51.9 at Winter Nationals, and the season before that was a 53.0 at the mid-season Purdue Invite. On a straight-line projection, she drops a second from mid-season to end-of-season in this race, and if that rule held true this season, she would be on target to break the American Record in the event.

Worrell was swimming well out ahead of the field for most of this final, as former UNLV All-American Katelyn Herrington took 2nd in 52.29. This 100 fly is Harrington’s first official swim since NCAA’s, and gives some potential for her to carve out a post-grad career.

UCLA’s Linnea Mack took 3rd in 52.54, and the fastest junior was Lauren Case from Chattahoochee Gold in Georgia with a 52.81.

UCLA, with a strong butterfly tradition, had three swimmers in this final. Katie Grover placed 5th in 52.96 and Noelle Tarazona was 6th in 53.01.

Caitlin Casazza from SwimMAC Carolina took 7th in 53.32, and SwimSwam Division III editor Hannah Saiz, representing the Schroeder YMCA in Wisconsin, was 8th in 53.40.

Veronica Burchill from the Carmel Swim Club won the B-Final in 52.95 and Indiana’s Gia D’Alesandro won the C-Final in 53.45.

Event Results Here (PDF)

MEN’S 100y butterfly – Finals

• American: 44.18 03/27/2009 Austin Staab
• U.S. Open: 44.18 03/27/2009 Austin Staab
• NCAA “A” cut: 45.91

Giles Smith of the Phoenix Swim Club is having big success at his first Winter Nationals as a pro, and on Friday he won his first individual National Championship with a 44.99 in the men’s 100 fly.

This was a race dominated by pros, with Club Wolverine’s Geoff Cheah taking 2nd in 45.71, former Michigan swimmer Sean Fletcher taking 3rd in 45.82, and SwimMAC’s Tim Phillips winning the B-Final in 46.78.

In and among them the highest placing collegian in this race was Division II swimmer Matthew Josa from Queens University. Last year at NCAA’s, he won the Division II National title and broke the National Record as well in 45.45, but doesn’t need to be that fast in December to qualify for nationals.

Louisville teammates Pedro Coutinho (46.46), Josh Quallen (46.70), and Aaron Young (46.90) occupied the 5th, 6th, and 7th place spots, respectively.

Event Results Here (PDF)

WOMEN’S 200y freestyle – Finals

• American: 1:40.31 03/21/2014 Missy Franklin
• U.S. Open: 1:40.31 03/21/2014 Missy Franklin
• NCAA “A” cut: 1:43.90

Her teammate Haley Lips (1:45.05) was third, followed by their Big Ten rivalGillian Ryan (1:45.24), a freshman out of Michigan. Fifth was high school senior Megan Moroney out of Saint Andrew’s. The Virginia commit was 1:46.59.

Event Results Here (PDF)

MEN’S 200y freestyle – Finals

• American: 1:31.31 03/07/2013 Ricky Berens
• U.S. Open: 1:31.20 03/24/2006 Simon Burnett
• NCAA “A” cut: 1:33.62

Olympic sprint champion Nathan Adrian showed off a little on night 3 of the 2014 Winter National Championships by winning the men’s 200 yard free, which hasn’t been a primary event for him in a few years, by 3/4 of a body-length in 1:32.83.

That’s a new lifetime best for him and puts him into 25th-place on the all-time list in the event. This is the second yards meet of the season already in which he’s swum the 200 free, and he’s expected to go after it at least once more at the Edmond, Oklahoma Pro-Am in a few weeks.

Michael Wynalda struggled a bit off the start, but quickly worked his way back into the race and was the only one who ever looked to give Adrian a serious threat. He wound up 2nd in 1:33.95, though, more than a second slower than Adrian.

Ohio State undergrad Josh Fleagle and Indiana freshman Blake Pieroni took 3rd and 4th, respectively, in 1:34.33 and 1:34.55. Fleagle was ahead of Pieroni effectively the whole race, but the final outcome is indicative of just how close they were throughout.

Hassaan Abdle Khalik from Club Wolverine continued the Big Ten theme in this A-Final (5 of the 8 are current or form Big Ten swimmers) by finishing 5th in 1:34.69.

Louisville’s Trevor Carroll was a touch slower than his lifetime best in a relay leadoff on Thursday for a 6th-place 1:35.57. His relay time of 1:34.77 puts him squarely on the bubble for NCAA qualifying.

Scottish great Robbie Renwick won the B-Final in 1:34.17, beating American high school senior Townley Haas (1:35.19) in the process.

Event Results Here (PDF)

WOMEN’S 100y breaststroke – Finals

• American: 57.23 03/21/2014 Breeja Larson
• U.S. Open: 57.23 03/21/2014 Breeja Larson
• NCAA “A” cut: 59.12

Tennessee’s Molly Hannis gave the Volunteers their second national title of the week with a 58.42 in the women’s 100 breaststroke. When paired up with 50 free champion Faith Johnson, Matt Kredich’s crew has an impressive half of a medley relay set up going into the sprint semester.

Hannis was content on the front half of this race to let the veterans set the pace. That includes former Kansas swimmer Danielle Herrmann, who at 27 has been a pleasant surprise this week now representing the Clovis Swim Club; Scottish swimmer Kathryn Johsntone; and Katie Meili, who all led Hannis halfway.

But on the back-half, Hannis picked up her power and edged ahead for the win and was two-tenths shy of her own personal best in the race.

Meili took 2nd in 58.71, followed by Micah Lawrence (58.90), Danielle Herrmann (59.01), and Kathryn Johnstone (59.77). Indiana commit Lilly King broke a minute for the third time in her career with a 59.91 for 6th.

Event Results Here (PDF)

MEN’S 100y breaststroke – Finals

• American: 50.04 03/28/2014 Kevin Cordes
• U.S. Open: 50.04 03/28/2014 Kevin Cordes
• NCAA “A” cut: 52.29

The men’s 10 breaststroke was as great of a race as the women’s, with the top six finishers all swimming between 52.36 and 52.92.

That was led by Michigan senior Richard Funk, one of the few swimmers in the NCAA who looks like they might have a prayer of challenging Kevin Cordes. Funk won in 52.36 with a strong front-half. If he can bring his last 50 together in March, he’s capable of a 51-low.

Portuguese swimmer Carlos Almeida took 2nd in 52.55, followed by Louisville’s Thomas Dahlia (52.69) and  Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz (52.71). The men’s breaststrokes at NCAA’s had an incredible level of depth last year  – it took under 53 to make top 16 and get an evening swim- and with only three of those 16 graduating, and fast times popping up all over the country, the competition will be even stiffer this season.

Pros Zach Hayden (52.74) and Mike Alexandrov (52.92) closed out the sub-53 group, while IM champ Kyle Whitaker took 7th in 53.09.

Event Results Here (PDF)

WOMEN’S 100y backstroke – Finals

• American: 49.97 03/23/2002 Natalie Coughlin
• U.S. Open: 49.97 03/23/2002 Natalie Coughlin
• NCAA “A” cut: 51.63

Indiana backstroke Brooklynn Snodgrass is the defending NCAA Champion in the 200 back, but over the summer, while representing her native Canada in long course, she showed a lot of progress in the shorter backstroke distances as well. That paid off with a 51.59 Winter National Championship on Friday, which is a full second faster than she was at this meet in 2013.

Snodgrass very nearly got caught by UCLA’s Linnea Mack on the last underwater of this race. Mack wound up 2nd in 51.98, but nailed, to what seemed to be precision of inches, the 15-meter mark on her final turn to make this race very interesting.

Michigan’s Clara Smiddy (52.36) and Ali DeLoof took 3rd and 4th, respectivley in 52.36 and 52.40. The training partners split their swims almost exactly the same.

The Carmel Swim Club got another good finals swim with a 5th-place 52.56 from Claire Adams.

The Wagner College Seahawks got some excitement in the B-Final when sophomore Anu Nihipali won in 52.97. Each of the last two years, it took a 53.2 to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Event Results Here (PDF)

MEN’S 100y backstroke – Finals

• American: 44.07 12/06/2013 Nick Thoman
• U.S. Open: 44.07 12/06/2013 Nick Thoman
• NCAA “A” cut: 45.62

Japan’s Junya Koga, who earlier in the meet set a U.S. Open Record in the 50 yard backstroke, won the men’s 100 back National Championship in 44.91. That’s not quite his personal, or even season, best in the event – he was 44.86 at the Minneapolis Grand Prix in November – but it was good enough to win easily at a meet that was absent all of the U.S. National Team men’s backstrokers (100 and 200).

The top-finishing American was James Wells from the Badger Swim Club, and Louisville’s Grigory Tarasevich backed up some impressive relay swims with a 46.09 for 3rd.

Club Wolverine’s Geoff Cheaf was 4th in 46.42, and the defending Big 12 Swimmer of the Week Andrew Marsh from West Virginia palced 5th in 46.58.

Event Results Here (PDF)

Women’s 200 Free Relay – Finals

• American Record: 1:26.20, Arizona, 3/19/2009
• U.S. Open Record: 1:26.20, Arizona, 3/19/2009
• NCAA Qualifying Standard: 1:29.49

That left UCLA second in 1:30.45, with SwimMAC (1:30.77) and Louisville (1:31.24) trailing. Indiana took 5th overall with a 1:31.64, led by a 22.86 leadoff from British import Grace Vertigans.

Event Results Here (PDF)

Men’s 200 Free Relay – Finals

• American: 1:15.26, Stanford, 3/24/2011
• U.S. Open: 1:14.08, Auburn, 3/26/2009
• NCAA Qualifying Standard:  1:18.02

The college teams have been dominating the pros to this point in the relays, but SwimMAC’s men, who always get together for good sprint relays, swam an impressive 1:17.42 to win the 200 free relay on Friday.

The relay of Mark Weber (19.48), Eric Knight (18.99), Cullen Jones (18.85), and Tim Phillips (20.10) combined for the victory, though Club Wolverine’s Hassaan Abdel-Khalik split 19.55 on the anchor after a Geoff Cheah 18.78 to almost overcome them at the finish.

The top collegiate relay was Ohio State in 1:19.04, followed by Kentucky in 1:19.29 and Michigan in 1:19.38. Michigan’s relay included a 19.71 leadoff from Paul Powers.

Event Results Here (PDF)