Men’s 200 freestyle
In the past 6 months, Matt McLean has scored a ton of personal firsts that show why he is one of the hottest-rising names in American swimming right now. In March, he scored his first ever NCAA title (in the 500 free). Two weeks ago, he scored his first-ever USA Swimming National Title, that time it was the 400 meter free. Now he’s won his first-ever interntaional title, with a World University Games gold medal in the men’s 200 free in 1:47.44, just .02 off of the Meet Record. That is the fastest that he’s ever been and moves him up to 17th in the world this year (and, perhaps more notably, the 4th-fastest American this year). Like Harris above, McLean is another one who’s gone west this summer after graduation, though he’s in Fullerton at the FAST National Center of Excellence, and things are really paying off for him, as well.
Former USC Trojan, and current Trojan Aquatics swimmer, Clement Lefert of France took the silver in 1:47.78. That time, which is a career-best for him as well, likely seals up his decision to not use up his final year of college eligibility and instead focus on the French Olympic trials, which are the same weekend as NCAA’s. The swim ties him for 26th in the world, and makes him the third-best Frenchman in 2011. A repeat performance like that should ensure him a spot on fhte French 800 free relay, which were silver medalists in Shanghai.
Japan’s Sho Uchida added this 200 free bronze to one in the 400 earlier in the meet with a time of 1:49.06. Other results of interest include Tennessee/Ireland swimmer Ryan Harrison in 5th in 1:49.18, which is very similar to the time at which he finished the 2010 long course season as well.
Men’s 400 IM
Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh became the meet’s first three-time individual champion by winning the men’s 400 IM in 4:12.67. This race shook out very early, and by the 250 meter mark, the swimmers were pretty well set in their final placings. Japan’s Yuya Horihata took silver in 4:13.66 and the US’ Tyler Harris was 3rd in 4:15.40.
That marks Harris’ career-best time by more than two seconds in this race. Things are really clicking for him in his new training grounds at USC. While the Trojans are really known for their breaststrokers, their middle-to-distance training group is becoming almost as impressive at this point, with Harris training every day with the likes of Thiago Pereira, Dominik Meichtry, and Ous Mellouli.
Men’s 50 breaststroke
New Zealand’s Glenn Snyders took his second title of the meet, with this one coming in the men’s 50 breaststroke, to even the score with Lithuania’s Giedrius Titenis (who also has two breaststroke golds, by way of the swimmers’ tie in the 200). The time of 27.37 went for his second National Record of the meet, and broke the old mark that he had previously swum a few weeks ago at Worlds of 27.52. Snyders also moves to 7th in the world in the distance.
Brazil’s Joao Gomes Junior took silver in 27.60 for his second medal of the meet (along with bronze in the 100), and Italy’s Mattia Pesce took bronze in 27.80. No Americans finaled in this race.
Full men’s 50 breaststroke results.
Women’s 50 backstroke
In the women’s sprint race of the day, we saw both an incredibly close finish, and a Meet Record, which made it one of the more exciting races of the day, albeit not Olympically significant. The United States’ Jenny Connolly, a Tennessee Volunteer by trade, out-touched Belarus’ Aleksandra Herasimenia 27.92-27.93. Both cleared Connolly’s Games Record, which was set in the morning heats at 28.13. The mark coming into the day was set by Japan’s Shiho Sakai in 2009 (28.17), though Saka finished 4th in this race (28.43).
Those times rank the pair as the 3rd-and-4th best 50 backstrokers in the World this year (ranked behind only Anastasia Zueva of Russia and Aya Terakawa of Japan). Connolly’s time makes her the 2nd-fastest American in this event ever, behind only Hayley McGregory. Extremely impressive swims from the pair.
Australia’s Grace Loh finished 3rd in 28.37.
Women’s 1500 free
From a close touch in a sprint, we move to a close touch over a marathon. The two freestyle stars in this meet so far have been Lauren Boyle of New Zealand and Melania Costa-Schmid of Spain with *insert American here* coming along for the party. This 1500 had the same three medalists as the shorter 800 did, albeit none of the triad were in their same order. Costa-Schmid did surprisingly well to hang with USC/USA swimmer Haley Anderson, who has spent her summer training in open water training, throughout this 1500, and even held the lead for most of the last third of the race. It was the final 10 meters, however, where Anderson finally took over the race for good to touch in 6:21.72, which is slower than she was at Nationals. Costa-Schmid took silver in 16:21.79.
If one were to look at just final results, they might have thought Boyle was a distance third in this race. In watching the swim, however, she actually led the majority of this race. Simultaneously with Costa-Schmid making her move into the lead at the 1150 mark, Boyle started to slide well back of the leaders, and over the last 50 meters was really left in the dust.
Full women’s 1500 free results.
Women’s 200 fly
There wasn’t a women’s individual race on the 5th day of competition where gold and silver were separated by more than a tenth. In the women’s 200 fly, it was Great Britain’s Jessica Dickons who out-touched Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi 2:08.91-2:08.94. This was a significant upset for Dickons, as she moved into the World’s top-25 over Hoshi, who placed 4th at World’s. Dickons’ career was a bit derailed after finishing 3rd at the 2008 British Olympic Trials in this race, and she seems to finally be getting things back together. This swim is a second-and-a-half better than she was in 2010, though it’s still off of her best-time from when she was only 17.
Kore’as Hye Ra Choi took bronze in 2:09.35. The top-finishing Americans was Stanford’s Andi Taylor in 7th at 2:12.94.
Women’s 400 medley relay
Jenny Connolly had her 2nd fanatastic swim of the day to lead off the American relay in 1:00.21, which is a new meet record (and better than her silver-medal time in the individual 100 back). That career-best swim moves her into the World’s top 20, at 18th-place to be exact, though she still ranks 5th in the American Rankings.
Despite Connolly’s great start, the Americans couldn’t hold on to the lead as the Chinese breaststroker, butterflier, and freestyler chipped away at their lead. The Chinese foursome of Gao Chang (1:01.59), Ye Sun (1:06.81), Ying Lu (57.52), and Yi Tang (53.23!) took the win in a new Games Record of 3:59.15. Tang’s anchor was almost as fast as her best split from World’s. They, along with the other two medalists, cleared the old mark set by the American relay in 2009.
The Americans touched exactly a second behind in 4:00.15. Besides Connolly’s leadoff, Megan Romano had a great anchor mark of 53.70. Interestingly, that mark on the American 400 free relay at Worlds would have been good enough to put them within a touch of the gold medal. If she continues to develop, she’s got a very good shot at a spot in London.
In 3rd in this race was Japan in 4:00.98.
Full women’s 400 medley relay results.
Medal Table
On this day, the Americans did just enough to guarantee themselves the top spot in the medal tables with one day of competition to go. New Zealand, China, and Japan are still in the mix for 2nd overall with 6 finals left to be swum. All three countries have one great gold-medal opportunity left, though with New Zealand’s lead in the silver medal column, I think they’ll maintain the second position.
Full day 5 results available here.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
12 | 9 | 4 | 25 |
| 2 |  New Zealand |
5 | 3 | 3 | 11 |
| 3 |  China |
5 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 |  Japan |
4 | 6 | 11 | 21 |
| 5 |  Hungary |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 6 |  Italy |
2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 7 |  Australia |
2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 8 |  Lithuania |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 |  Spain |
1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 10 |  Great Britain |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 |  Brazil |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 12 |  Russia |
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 13 |  Belarus |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 |  France |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 13 |  South Korea |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 |  Canada |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 |  Germany |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 |  Israel |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 |  Romania |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 |  Ukraine |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 |  Austria |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 21 |  Poland |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 37 | 35 | 37 | 109 | |