The Saturday night finals at the Austin Grand Prix were jam-packed with excitement, and extremely fast times for this point in the season.
The womans 400 IM final came down to three swimmers after Leah Stevens and Ally Howe scratched following this morning’s prelims. Alexa Komarnycky from Canada came out with a big win tonight in 4:47.15. Second place Margaret D’innocenzo swimming out of Crimson Aquatics came second, 12 seconds behind Komarnycky in 4:59.12. Fifteen year old Peyton Greenberg was third in 5:08.01
Tyler Clary won the mens 400 IM in incredible fashion, leading the pack start to finish. Clary hit his goal time of 4:20 right on the target with a 4:20.36. Canada’s Alec Page came second behind Clary in a 4:23.05 closly followed by Santa Clara’s Alex Wold in 4:25.46.
Franklin came out on top in the first of her two finals of the evening, taking the gold in the womans 200 free in 1:57.69. Quinn Carrozza swimming out of Longhorn Aquatics came second in 1:59.42 to add to her bronze medal in the 400 free from the night before.
The mens 200 free was laced with talent, having four members of the 4×200 Freestyle Olympic relay team in the running for gold. It was Ricky Berens who managed the win in a quick 1:48.39. Lochte who lead the pack for the first 150m ran out of gas on the final 50 and faded to third behind Michael Klueh, finishing in a 1:50.19 to Klueh’s 1:49.28.
With a win in the womans 200 back Missy Franklin pulled off a tough double tonight, having little time to prepare for the event after winning the 200 free shortly beforehand. Franklin’s time of 2:07.31 dominated her closest competitor Hilary Caldwell who finished far behind Franklin in 2:12.13.
Matt Grevers proved that not only can he sprint backstroke, but he can swim the longer distance as well. Grevers defeated Olympic champion Tyler Clary 1:58.84 to 2:01.02, taking the race out fast and not giving up anything at the end. Clary, tired from his win in the 400 IM earlier tonight didn’t have the back-half speed that he usually has when swimming this race.
The womans splash-and-dash came down to the final few strokes where Amanda Weir took the win in 25.53. Canadian Victoria Poon out-touched sixteen year old Simone Manuel 25.84 to 25.85 to win the silver.
The mens 50 freestyle was home to Olympians-galore having 5 Olympic medalists competing for gold. Nathan Adrian surged through the last 15 meters to create a huge lead over the field, finishing in 21.70. Anthony Ervin and Jimmy Feigen tied for second in 22.43, over 7-tenths of a second behind Adrian. With this win Adrian completed the sweep of the sprint freestyles.
21.7 is crazy fast right now. But, Adrian swims fast all year and drops almost nothing when he is shaved in the 50
I believe Adrian is still trying to find his pace in 50/100 parity.I remember 2011 world semis, when Adrian made 48.0something opening with 22.58!I was thinking at the time:”HE is gonna destroys 50 free”, but he made only 21.9…
Is not that easy to find the correct pace to be a TOP 50 and 100 free guy.I will not be surprised if Adrian blasts a 21.3 at Worlds, but a time like that can be enough only for a medal, not a lock for gold.I am a bit with Rafael, i can t see a favorite right now, for 50 free.For 100 free, even Adrian being Olympic Champion, Magnussen still is the man to beat.
21.7 for Adrian wow. can’t help but wonder what he could of pulled at the Olympics.
he will be the biggest threat to Magnussen this year . I bet on that all the way
Magnussen can still throw a sub-47 soon.. Adrian will have to catch up with that, he have a shot but Magnussen 47.1 is still ahead of everyone else.
50 free on World will be huge.. won´t choose a favorite..
I will be waiting for Him to do that ! many people were talking like that after March 2012 …..stilll talking but no results yet . I maintain what i said : Adrian will truly be the closest threat to Magnussen ( whatever Magnussen delivers ) .
Jean
Magnussen did terrible at the olympics.. but even you have to admit that 47.1 is still 0.5 faster than anyone else ever on textile and he is the guys who is still the nearest to sub-47..
I surely agree with that of course ! nobody came close to that stratospheric time on 100 free without a fast suit .
Ridiculous system here … having olympians swimming in front of 200 people is pretty weird . I truly hope they will change that for the next big meets . Many swimmers who need those meets could not even be here to test their january shape !!!
Yes! The women’s 400 IM has beaten the women’s 200 breast for the joke award. 3 swimmers in the final against 5. Please next time accept at least 5 to 8 heats of 8 swimmers per race. It’s not huge. You will allow the young swimmers to swim. They are for some of them the future champions. And you will have 3 finals per race. And where is the podium after each race? I don’t understand all these changes. USA has had an incredible success last year in London. Your system has shown it worked.
Back to the water. Really impressed by Nathan Adrian. He’s kilometers ahead of the other American sprinters who have to wake up in the… Read more »
21.70 for Nathan Adrian on 50 free !!! pretty impressive considering he didn’t swim many meets since London . Way to go Nathan