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
Men’s 100m Freestyle
Caeleb Dressel will be looking for a good showing in the 100 freestyle after popping a massive lifetime best of 21.53 in the 50 tonight that would have good enough for bronze at the World Championships. Dressel is seeded 19th in 49.93, but I think we’ll see him well under 49 seconds come the final. Michael Chadwick is the top seed with a time of 48.87. He is followed by 100 and 200 fly silver medalist Jack Conger, John Murray, Cullen Jones and Blake Pieroni. Jones had a good showing in the 50 free final last night, winning silver in 21.87. Heat 5 of 9 will feature 200m freestyle champion Maxime Rooney along with teen sensation Michael Andrew. Heat 6 will feature Michael Wynalda, 2004 Olympic silver medalist in this event Roland Schoeman and NCAA 500 free champion Clark Smith. Dressel will swim in the 7th heat along with Pieroni, David Nolan and Junya Koga. Heat 8 will have Conger along with Townley Haas, and in the 9th and final heat we will see Chadwick and Jones along with Matt Ellis and Bruno Ortiz.
Women’s 200m Butterfly
Hali Flickinger of the Athens Bulldogs has had a great meet so far, and is the top seed in the 200 fly with a time of 2:08.33. Flickinger has made 3 A final appearances at these championships, including two silver medals from the 200 and 400m freestyle. She is followed by Alys Margaret Thomas (2:08.62), Katherine Mills (2:08.89) and 15 year-old Cassidy Bayer (2:09.08). Kelsi Worrell, the 100m fly champion, is seeded 19th in a time of 2:12.42, and 200 and 400 IM champion Caitlin Leverenz is seeded 13th in 2:11.64. Mills, Leverenz and Worrell will all swim in heat 9, Thomas will swim in 10 and the final heat will see Flickinger and Bayer in the middle of the pool.
Men’s 200m IM
After some sensational performances in both the 100 and 200 butterfly so far at these championships, Michael Phelps will swim the 200 IM on day 4. Phelps posted top times in the world this year in both butterfly events, and will look to do the same in the 200 IM. His longtime rival Ryan Lochte won the event at the World Championships in 1:55.81, which is now the top time in the world this year, one Phelps definitely has in mind. Phelps is the top seed with a time of 1:56.04 which he swam at the Pan Pacific Championships last year. Following Phelps in this event is Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (1:59.11), Kyle Whitaker (1:59.13) and 400 IM champion Gunnar Bentz (1:59.19). Also swimming this event will be David Nolan and Will Licon, who went 1-2 at the NCAA Championships in this event. Nolan broke the American record in 1:39.38, while Licon swam the 3rd fastest time ever in 1:40.09. Both will be looking for some big drops in time from their long course personal bests. Teen breastroke sensation Reece Whitley will swim in the 1st of 11 heats. Nolan will swim in the 6th heat, Whitaker and Licon will swim in heat 9 along with Max Williamson and in heat 10 we will see Solaeche-Gomez along with Travis Mahoney, Max Litchfield and Austin Surhoff. The 11th and final heat features Phelps, Bentz, Michael Andrew and Matthew Josa.
Women’s 200m Backstroke
Two-time World Championship silver medalist in this event Belinda Hocking of Australia holds the top seed in this event with a time of 2:07.24. She is followed by Lisa Bratton (2:09.31), Hannah Moore (2:10.18) and Ervin Voss (2:10.58). Also swimming this event will be Megan Romano, Clara Smiddy, Hali Flickinger and Meghan Small. Small will be joined by Moore and Hannah Stevens in heat 9. In heat 10 we’ll see Flickinger, Bratton and 15 year-old Grace Ariola, and the final heat will feature Hocking, Voss, Romano, Smiddy and Kathleen Dawson of Scotland.
Women’s 800m Freestyle
Unlike past National Championships, the distance events will have both prelims and finals, rather than just having the fastest heat swim in finals. Sierra Schmidt is the top seed in this event with a time of 8:27.54. She is followed by 400 free champ Lindsay Vrooman (8:29.06), 400 IM silver medalist Sarah Henry (8:31.43) and 16 year-old Courtney Harnish (8:31.88). Vrooman and Harnish will swim in heat 2 with Gillian Ryan, and Schmidt and Henry will swim in heat 3. There will be 8 total heats with the first 3 being the fastest, and the 2nd and 3rd circle-seeded. The remaining 5 heats will be the rest of the field.
Men’s 1500m Freestyle
The men’s 1500 will have the same setup as the women’s 800, with the top three heats going first and then the rest going afterwards. Heat 2 and 3 are the two circle-seeded heats. 400 champion Zane Grothe will swim in heat 1. He is seeded with a time of 15:31.85. Heat 2 will feature 2012 Olympian in this event Andrew Gemmell, along with Nicholas Sweetser and Liam Egan. Gemmell is seeded in 15:07.82. Jordan Wilimovsky comes into the meet with the top seed of 14:56.34 that he swam at US Nationals last year. He is coming off a World Championship title in the Open Water 10km event in Kazan. He will swim in heat 3, along with Ryan Feeley, Arthur Frayler and Matthew Hirschberger. Also swimming this event will be Bobby Hurley (Heat 4) and Townley Haas (Heat 5).
Rafael, I try.
So complicated to look at all the times from prelims and finals! 🙄
It would have been so much simpler to make world junior trials at US juniors last week and take the first 2 in each event like at olympic trials but that’s the way it is.
Picking a team based on times rather than on places is weird. I prefer send a guy who has shown he performs well in a final rather than a guy who swam a faster time in prelims but then disappeared in final. But that’s the way it is.
I post the 2 fastest US juniors per event so far but maybe some of them will not… Read more »
I am going to guess that Phelps’ original plan wasn’t going 50.45 in 100fly, but after the times in Kazan he went all in. Given that he is getting older, and he may feel some fatigue, and that the best time in the world doesn’t require a 1:54, I am guessing 1:55.6. I would be thrilled to be wrong and see him go lower.
I highly doubt he is going to try “just” for the world best time. He is going to swim as fast he can. No matter if the world best time is 155.81 “which it is” or if the world time was 154.81.
People need to stop with the older stuff. Yes it has a little effect but he is not 40. Plenty of swimmers in high 30s have shown to swim faster then they even swam in their Early twenties.
It is all based on the person and their training and their nutrition and their motivation and their taper.
Until now who are the ones who are qualified to Jr worlds?
100 should be a good, crazy race. Chadwick was 22.0 in the 50 – I think that was a pretty good drop for him, and he recently went 48.8 in the 100… If you want a dark horse pick there he is.
Hope MA goes sub 2 200IM
Dressel drop the 200im. I’m hoping we see something huge in the 100!
1:53.99 for MP tomorrow. He is in record form.
Agreed. If his breaststroke is at top form then Lochte’s record is in serious jeopardy.
Really hope it works out for Nolan – he seems like such a nice hard working who really deserves to finally have that breakout 200 in LCM. Also, would like to say that I really like James Sutherland’s way of previewing sessions – nice to see a heat by heat record of who is swimming where.