2015 U.S. Nationals: Day 4 Finals Preview

2015 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, August 6 – Monday, August 10
• Northside Swim Center – San Antonio, Texas
• Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (Central Daylight Time)
• Full Coverage
• Psych Sheet
• Live Stream Link
• Live Results

2015 U.S. NATIONALS: DAY 4

• Day 4 Finals Heat Sheet

Men’s 100m Freestyle

Caeleb Dressel will be looking to sweep the sprint freestyle events tonight in the 100 free after winning gold last night in the 50. Dressel was the top qualifier this morning, as he popped a 48.98, the only man under 49 seconds. Dressel was just one one-hundredth off of his best time of 48.97, which is also his 17-18 National Age Group Record set at the World Junior Swimming Championships in 2013. Dressel will see if he can post a time competitive with the results from the World Championships, as his 50 freestyle performance would’ve been good enough for bronze in Kazan. In Kazan it took a 48.49 to qualify for the final and 48.12 to medal. Joining him in the A final will be Michael Chadwick, Cullen Jones, Jack Conger and David Nolan. Chadwick will look to improve his personal best of 48.87 he set earlier this year. Jones is coming off a strong performance in the 50 freestyle placing 2nd to Dressel, and Conger is coming off a pair of silver medal performances in the 100 and 200 fly. Nolan surprisingly didn’t swim in the 200 IM prelims after qualifying for the A final here. Speculation suggests this indicates he may believe his best shot at an Olympic berth is in the 400m freestyle relay and not the 200 IM. He also had a good performance in the 100 fly yesterday. Joining these guys in the final will be William Copeland, Joe Bonk and BJ Hornikel. Hornikel’s time of 49.64 was the cut off for the A final. Swimming in the B final will be South African Roland Schoeman, Blake Pieroni, Townley Haas, Matt Ellis and 200m freestyle champion Maxime Rooney. Also swimming in the B final will be Trevor Carroll, who swam 49.99 in the prelims which was the cut off for the B final. The 18 and under C final will feature Justin Lynch, Ryan Hoffer and top seed Knox Auerbach (50.39). Among those missing the final was Junya Koga, Michael Wynalda, Frank Dyer and Michael Andrew who had a surprisingly sluggish swim of 51.94. Clark Smith didn’t show up for his heat this morning.

Women’s 200m Butterfly

After two silver medal performances so far at these championships, Hali Flickinger will look for her first national title in the women’s 200 fly. She comes into the final as the top seed after swimming a time of 2:08.80 in the prelims. Flickinger was not the fastest this morning however, as 100m fly champion Kelsi Worrell threw down a personal best of 2:08.61, but has scratched the final. 15 year-old Cassidy Bayer will give Flickinger a good run tonight, as she qualified 2nd overall in 2:08.92. This will likely be a two women race, as the next fastest qualifier was Hannah Kukurugya in 2:10.19. Joining these women in the A final will be Victoria Edwards, Katherine Mills, Christina Bechtel, Alys Margaret Thomas and Lauren Case. Case’s time of 2:11.88 this morning was the cut off to make the A final. The B final will feature a pair of 16 year-olds, with Emma Seiberlich and Taylor Pike swimming, along with top seed Hannah Saiz (2:12.48). In the C final we will see 16 year-old Courtney Harnish who is seeded 1st in 2:13.62, and 15 year-old Ruby Martin. 200 and 400 IM champion Caitlin Leverenz missed the final, as the 200 fly is one of her ‘off’ events.

Men’s 200m IM

Michael Phelps will look for his 3rd national title in as many nights as he tackles the 200 IM final on the 4th night of the Championships. Phelps qualified 3rd overall in a time of 1:59.63. I expect we’ll see another strong performance from Phelps, and I anticipate he’ll be shooting for the 1:55.81 that Ryan Lochte posted earlier this week to win the World Championships. Will Licon is the top seed after swimming a personal best of 1:58.50 this morning. That was Licon’s best performance of the meet by far, after somewhat disappointing results in the 100 breast and 400 IM earlier. Licon won silver in this event at the NCAA’s this year swimming the 3rd fastest time ever, so we know he’ll be dangerous tonight. Qualifying 2nd was Austin Surhoff, who has competed in many events at this meet but hasn’t been seeing the kind of success he might have expected. That changed this morning, swimming a time of 1:58.80 in his best event. That swim actually tied Surhoff’s personal best, which he swam at the National Championships in 2013 finishing 4th. 400m IM champion Gunnar Bentz qualified 4th overall in 2:00.93 and will look to sneak under 2 minutes tonight. Joining these men in the A final will be Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (Spain), Travis Mahoney (Australia), Max Litchfield (Great Britain) and Ryan Harty. Harty’s morning swim of 2:01.78 was the cut off for the A final. In the B final we will see fly specialist Matthew Josa, Sean Grieshop, John Martens and Tom Kremer. Josa is the top seed after swimming 2:01.87 this morning. The C final will feature John Shebat, Michael Andrew and top seed Justin Ress (2:03.27). Andrew had a good swim of 2:03.42 this morning after a disappointing 100 free in which he failed to earn a second swim. The biggest surprise of the morning came in this event, as NCAA champion and American record holder in the 200 yard IM David Nolan didn’t show up for his heat. As stated earlier, speculation is that he was content with swimming just the 100 freestyle tonight, and that maybe he believes the 400 free relay will be his best shot at the Olympic team next year. This was somewhat of a letdown, as many people were eager to see Nolan finally swim up to his capability in long course after his record swim of 1:39.38 at NCAA’s. Andrew Seliskar came into this meet seeded 6th in the 200 IM, but scratched the event prior to this mornings session. Seliskar hasn’t had a very good meet so far. He is entered in both the 200 back and 200 breast tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if he swims again at these championships. Also of note heading into tonight’s final is Michael Phelps stated in an interview he swam a 1:32 broken 200 yard IM in training, which sounds really exciting. We’ll see how much magic he has left for us tonight.

Women’s 200m Backstroke

Danielle Galyer (University of Kentucky) will look to win the national title tonight in the women’s 200 backstroke after posting the top time of the morning in 2:10.48. She is followed closely by Claire Adams (Carmel Swim Club) who posted a 2:10.98 to qualify 2nd overall. Galyer (2:12.25) and Adams (2:12.02) both took over a second off of their entry times. Joining them in the A final will be Lisa Bratton, Megan Romano, Erin Earley, Melanie Klaren, Clara Smiddy and Hali Flickinger. Flickinger will swim in her 2nd A final of the session after qualifying 1st overall in the 200 fly. Smiddy won a bronze medal in this event at the Pan American Games in July. The B final will feature 15 year-old sensation Grace Ariola, Gabby Deloof and top seed Bridgette Alexander (2:12.41). In the C final we will see Meghan Small, Hannah Moore and top seed Kacey Oberlander (2:13.59). Surprisingly top seed Belinda Hocking of Australia missed qualifying for the B final after posting a time of 2:14.02 this morning. Hocking has recently returned to swimming after taking some time off.

Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay

There will be 3 heats of the men’s 4x200m free relay tonight. The 1st heat will feature University of Kentucky, Nitro Swimming, Crimson Aquatics and top seed in the heat University of Louisville (7:33.59). The top seeded heat will be heat 2. Swimming in this heat includes Club Wolverine, Auburn University, Stanford Swimming, Dynamo Swim Club, Wisconsin Aquatics and top seeded California Aquatics who are entered with a time of 7:24.39. Hopefully we will see David Nolan swim for Stanford, as his 200 free prelim was a disappointing 1:51.89, well off his personal best of 1:48.87 from 2013. Nolan could very well be a threat to make the Olympic team next year in both freestyle relays.