After fast in-season swims from the likes of Nathan Adrian, Katie Ledecky, and Simone Manuel one night one, we’re back this morning with day 2 prelims of the 2014 Austin Grand Prix. The 400 IM’s kicked things off, with 17-year-old Megan Kingsley and Cal’s Josh Prenot taking the top spots in each (we’ll recap those more heavily shortly). Saturday morning will also bring us some particularly loaded men’s fields in the 200 freestyle (although World Championship medalist Conor Dwyer isn’t competing), 200 backstroke, and 50 freestyle.
Keep hitting refresh and follow along as we continue to recap the morning session.
Here’s the link for everything needed to follow the meet, including live results and a live feed.
Women’s 400 IM – Prelims
With the fastest opening 100 in the field, 17-year-old Megan Kingsley of Mount Pleasant Swim Club qualified first with a time of 4:52.11. Neither of those points are particularly shocking; Kingsley was the third overall seed in this event, and is an excellent butterfly swimmer (she was fourth overall at 2013 U.S. Open). The particularly notable thing about her 4:52.11, though, is it’s the fastest non-Nationals time of her career. That–combined with her 100 butterfly that was just off her best time last time–is a a great sign for the prospects of the future Georgia Bulldog this spring and summer.
Caitlin Leverenz utilized a great breaststroke leg to finish in the second spot, less than a second behind Kingsley in 4:52.81. Leverenz hasn’t looked good in this event since the 2012 Olympics, but a win tonight could be part of what she needs to turn things around.
A pair of young guns grabbed the next two spots: 13-year-old Madison Homovich, coming off a great 400 freestyle yesterday where she dropped more than seven seconds, touched third in 4:53.67, and 14-year-old Isabel Rongione was fourth in 4:54.54. Homovich and Rongione will be charging hard over the final 100 tonight; they had the two fastest freestyle legs in the entire field this morning.
Leah Stevens, the B final champion in the 400 freestyle last night, finished fifth overall in 4:55.84. 16-year-old Destiny Nelson cracked the 5:00 barrier for the first time to touch sixth in 4:56.99. Makayla Sargent (4:57.91) and Tera Van Beilen (4:57.98) finished seventh and eighth, respectively, to round out the top eight.
Men’s 400 IM – Prelims
This will be a fun one to watch tonight, with the top seven swimmers all have a realistic chance to win.
Josh Prenot bounced back from a DQ in the 200 breaststroke yesterday morning to grab the top spot in the men’s 400 IM. The Cal sophomore held steady over the front half before turning in the second fastest breaststroke leg in the field to jump in front of Tyler Clary and Curtis Ogren. Although he really shut things down in the final 100, Prenot still managed to touch first in 4:25.07.
Clary looked very smooth throughout the first 300, and briefly hit the throttle over the final 100 to finish just behind Prenot in 4:25.15.
Conor Dwyer, the overall Arena Grand Prix leader coming into this meet, elected to focus on this event in Austin in lieu of the 200 free. Like Clary, he cruised through his morning swim to finish third in 4:26.08. Dwyer will be joined be his newest North Baltimore teammate Ous Mellouli, who will be swimming in lane six tonight after touching fourth in 4:26.36.
Breaststroke specialist Scott Weltz, coming back from an injury-riddled 2013, put together the fastest third 100 to finish fifth in 4:26.88.
The three top junior swimmers in the field rounded out the top eight: Curtis Ogren (4:26.95), Andrew Seliskar (4:28.01), and 15-year-old Sean Grieshop of Nitro Swimming (4:28.38).
Women’s 200 Free – Prelims
After a great 400 freestyle last night, it’s no surprise to see Katie Ledecky in the number one spot in the women’s 200 free. The 16-year-old from Nation’s Captial Swim Club jumped out in front early and swam a controlled final 100 to finish in 1:59.96, giving her the middle lane this evening.
Plenty of other familiar faces will join Ledecky and Manuel tonight, including North Baltimore teammates Allison Schmitt (second – 2:00.45), who continues to look solid in her first meet since World Championship Trials last summer, and Lotte Friis (seventh – 2:02.34). Pool and open water Olympian Chloe Sutton finished fifth in 2:01.48.
Ledecky is just one of four junior swimmers who will be a part of the A-final tonight. Fresh off a great 100 freestyle last night, Simone Manuel came back this morning to touch just behind Schmitt in 2:00.60, the lifetime best in-season 200 freestyle of her career. 16-year-old Kathleen Baker of SwimMAC, one of the most versatile prep swimmers in the country, cut more than a second off her previous best to finish fourth in 2:00.75. 17-year-old Megan Burns, who has only swam the 200 meter freestyle in one other competition in the last five years, finished sixth in 2:01.79.
Men’s 200 Free – Prelims
In his first long course meet since moving to Baltimore, Yannick Agnel was very impressive this morning in the 200 free. Agnel hit the gas early, flipping at 51.93 for the opening 100 (the only swimmer under 54 seconds), before pulling back a little bit to finish in 1:47.18.
U.S. World Championship Team members Michael McBroom, Matt McLean, and Michael Klueh were a distance second, [tied-for] third, and fifth, touching in 1:50.59, 1:50.98, and 1:51.01 respectively. Ous Mellouli finished even with McLean for the third spot.
Stefan Milosevic (1:51.49), Jeremy Bagshaw (1:51.71), and Tom Shields (1:51.78) rounded out the top eight.
Women’s 200 Back – Prelims
The women’s 200 backstroke came and went without a lot of drama. Multi-time NCAA All-American Dominique Bouchard easily took the first overall seed, finishing 2:13.50. Megan Romano bounced back from a sub-par 200 freestyle (she’s stuck in the B-final) to finish second in 2:16.25. 15-year-old Meryn McCann from Swim Ontario was third in 2:16.41.
Future Stanford Cardinal Ally Howe (2:16.60), Hilary Caldwell (2:17.55), 15-year-old Megan Byrnes from Nation’s Capital (2:17.94), 17-year-old Mary Kate Davis (2:18.31), and Danielle Hanus (2:18.38) will make up the rest of the A-final tonight.
Men’s 200 Back – Prelims
Cal teammates Ryan Murphy and Jacob Pebley were the only two swimmers under 2:00 this morning, touching in 1:58.81 and 1:59.98, respectively.
While the pair of Bears separated themselves from the field this morning, they will almost certainly be challenged tonight by the likes of Christian Diener, Arkady Vyatchanin, Tyler Clary, Craig McNally, and Nick Thoman.
Diener had the fastest 150 split (1:29.62) before fading over the final length to finish in 2:00.76 for third. McNally, the second seed coming into the meet, was fourth in 2:02.00. Vyatchanin, a multi-time Olympic medalist, clocked in at 2:02.57 for fifth.
Curtis Ogren qualified for his second championship final of the night, finishing sixth in 2:02.69, just off his lifetime best of 2:02.39. Clary and Thoman, both Olympic gold medalists in backstroke events, were seventh and eighth, touching in 2:02.71 and 2:02.94.
Notably, unless they scratch, Conor Dwyer, Matt Grevers, and Andrew Seliskar will all be in the B-final tonight.
Women’s 50 Free – Prelims
While there are some great men’s fields, the race to watch tonight could be the women’s 50 free, where the entire A-final is separated by 0.21.
The top four seeds are even tighter, with Ariana Vanderpool-Wallace (25.50) just a hair in front of Amanda Weir (25.51), Simone Manuel (25.51), and Natalie Coughlin (25.53).
Canadian teammates Hannah Riordan (25.64) and Victoria Poon (25.71) bookended the final four spots in the field, with Amanda Kendall (25.67) and Puerto Rico Olympian Vanessa Garcia Vega (25.70) touching sixth and seventh.
Men’s 50 Free – Prelims
Male Cal-affiliated swimmers had their second 1-2 finish in as many events, with Nathan Adrian and Anthony Ervin clocking in at 22.79 and 22.82.
Fellow U.S. Olympians Cullen Jones, Matt Grevers, and Jimmy Feigen were close behind at 22.85, 22.92, and 23.03 for third, fourth, and sixth place.
Jones’ SwimMAC teammate Roy-Allan Burch was fifth in 22.96. Former Auburn Tiger Karl Krug (23.16) and former Stanford swimmer Geoff Cheah (23.18) make up the rest of the top eight.
Notably, Michael Andrew tied his own 13-14 National Age Group record to finish tenth overall (23.38). Andrew now owns the four fastest swims of all time in the age group.
Why did a guy (didn’t catch who it was) swim breaststroke in his heat of the 50 free?!
I didn’t watch the prelims but they are posted on the new USA swimming youtube channel.
Link here.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl3ymoh7imAG4YVFamUb86w
It would better to have the finals but it’s another thing.
I have conducted my investigation and I have seen 3 guys who swam breaststroke. Craig Benson in heat 1, Austin Temple in heat 4 and BJ Johnson in heat 6.
Actually it’s pretty common to do non-free in the 50 free at these meets since they don’t have 50s of stroke and they want to practice that event.
You know what, I just remembered that “freestyle” doesn’t strictly refer to the front crawl stroke, and swimmers can do whatever stroke they like. My above comment looks a bit foolish now!
Did anybody else notice the absolutely crazy swim by Vanessa García Vega from Puerto Rico (women’s 50m free)? 60 strokes in one length! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life! :O
Race to watch tonight might be women’s 50…top 4 seeds separated by 3 hundredths and the entire A final by only 21 hundredths.
It will be very close. But unfortunately, Simone Manuel will swim the 200 free before. Big disadvantage against fresh sprinters.
I still think she’ll take it. She’s on a roll.
Unless he was DQed Michael Andrew tied 50 free NAG.
You are correct – it was an awesome swim! (Still got a large chunk of time to take off before he reaches Darren Lim’s 14y/o world best (is it the world best?) of 22.7 though!)
So Nathan Adrian is the top seed for the Men’s 50 free final right? Who are the other finalists I missed the announcements?
Top seed-Adrian
2-Anthony Ervin
3-Cullen Jones
4-Matt Grevers
5-Roy-allan Burch
6-Jimmy Feigen
7-Karl Krug
8-Geoffrey Cheah
Thank You. It will be a race to watch
Everybody, if you want to see the replays, go check “UniversalSports” youtube channel
Nothing on that youtube channel.
And if there were videos, it would be forbidden outside of USA or perhaps North America.
Please stop suggesting universalsports.
ABSOLUTELY OF NO USE FOR PEOPLE OUTSIDE USA.
Amanda Weir is back!!
Simone Manuel is going to be even faster in the future, mark my words.
Vanderpool-Wallace’s move to Swimmac seems to be paying dividends
Amazing 400 IMs from Homovich and Rongione on the women’s side. Considering that outside of DiRado, Beisel, and Leverenz there haven’t really been too many American women performing at super high calibers in the event, Homovich and Rongione could be forces in that event as well as distance free.
Yes, they should be congratulated. Those are very promising swims considering their age, and I would hope/expect to see them continue to improve.
But some perspective, please — they are still very far away from “super high caliber” (not sure these would even be Oly Trials cuts in 4IM?)
On the other hand, someone like 16 year old Ella Eastin at 4:38 (ranked #14 in the world last year) or 15 yr old Becca Mann at 4:40 have already proven themselves as world class in the event.
Don’t forget Celina Li- 4:39 at the US open and won. Brooke Zeiger also has been 4:42 so I would say the US has plent of up and coming talent infront of these two youngester, however they are very promising times for their age.