Lochte Takes Top Seed in 400 IM on Day 3 at 2013 Santa Clara Grand Prix

Day three of the 2013 Santa Clara Grand Prix kicks off under the warm daytime sunshine. There’s plenty of anticipation abound after a first day of spectacular swimming on the meet’s first day. With Ryan Lochte suited-up and swimming very well, he’ll taken on back-to-back races in the 400 IM and the 200 back.

Missy Franklin will take on a double of her own with the 200 free and the 200 back, and we’ll get to see Nathan Adrian follow up his great win in the 100 free with a try at the 50.

The timeline shows prelims running from 9 AM until just after noon west coast time.

See the day 2 finals recap here.

Women’s 400 IM Prelims

Top three seeds in this women’s 400 IM went to the three circle-seeded heat winners, led by Cal’s Caitlin Leverenz and Florida’s Elizabeth Beisel: the two American representatives in the race at the London Olympics.

Leverenz was very strong through the breaststroke race and then looked as though she shut things down going into the freestyle leg as she touched in 4:44.28. Beisel, meanwhile, didn’t push the front-half of her race very hard, but had a lot of energy saved up for a very strong breaststroke split. She touched in 4:46.97 in this event, which she scratched last week in Canada. The time seems to show no serious lingering effects from some rib soreness she had in May.

Into the final 3rd will be Canadian Marni Oldershaw, who won her heat in 4:48.68. She’s just finished her freshman year at Michigan, and this time is only two seconds off of her lifetime best. A little bit more of a push on her opening 50 and her breaststroke leg could get her to that best time in finals – another good sign of the positive influence Mike Bottom has had on the Michigan women’s team since taking over prior to this past season.

Stanford’s Andie Taylor (who is not 18 as the results show she is) was 4th in 4:49.43. She pushed Beisel for the first 20o meters before falling off on the breaststroke leg.

Another Canadian and NCAA finish (who like Oldershaw is from Ontario) Annie Harrison is seeded 5th in 4:50.18 – faster than she was at Canada’s Worlds Trials in April.

A pair of Georgia Bulldogs (Amber McDermott and Annie Zhu), plus future Cal Bear Celina Li and Canadian Vanessa Treasure will round out the A-Final tonight.

Men’s 400 IM Prelims

Ryan Lochte is back in the 400 long course IM for the first time since the London Olympics, and though you can never tell much from prelims swims of these longer races at Grand Prixs, he looked no worse-for-wear. His 4:19.60 came in with the top seed, followed by NBAC’s Chase Kalisz in 4:20.21 and Lochte’s fellow Gator Swim Club’er Conor Dwyer in 4:20.41.

Lochte and Dwyer were swimming in the same heat and were nose-to-nose throughout most of the race. Lochte had a clearly-defined plan to build each 100 meters: he’d let Dwyer take a lead going out, and then coming back would overtake him.

Canada’s Alec Page had a very good back half, much like Kalisz did, to take the 4th seed in 4:22.69. Cal’s Josh Prenot was swimming in he same heat as Page and was great through 300 meters before Page overtook him to win that race.

Adam Hinshaw, Stephen Schmuhl, Gunnar Bentz, and Michael Weiss round out the top 9 that will swim the A-Final. Bentz is the only high schooler to make that A-Final.

Beyond those A-Finalists, a pair of name who will swim in the C tonight but worthy of recognition out of the Big Ten: Indiana’s Cody Miller (4:35.04) and Wisconsin’s John Bushman (4:34.17), both breaststrokers, swam lifetime bests to win the first two heats of this race. Both are better known as breaststrokers who may never carry this race at a national or international level, but that is a good sign for their trainings.

Women’s 200 Free Prelims

Another Grand Prix, and another Missy Franklin vs. Allison Schmitt showdown in the women’s 200 free. The two American “it” women of this event will be the top two seeds in the final, with Franklin swimming 1:59.69 for poll position and Schmitt sitting second in 1:59.84.

Australian 18-year old Brittany Elmslie and Schmitt’s teammate Shannon Vreelandswam neck-and-neck with Allison in the final heat; SElmslie was 1:59.97 for the 3rd seed overall followed by Vreeland in 2:00.22. Chelsea Chenault (2:00.48), Liz Pelton(2:00.78),  Megan Romano and Maya DiRado will also be in the A-Final.

Also of note, Texas’ Sarah Denninghoff knocked a full second-and-a-half off of her lifetime best in this event with a 2:01.49 to win an early heat. That will make her the 9th and final entrant into tonight’s fastest heat.

There was a big group of swimmers at 2:01’s, including 400 free winner Gillian Ryan. Jasmine Tosky took 15th in 2:02.02.

Men’s 200 Free Prelims

Though there was incredible depth in this men’s 200 free (22 swimmers were better than 1:52), nobody showed a whole heap in prelims of the race. That is aside from Conor Dwyer of the Gator swim Club, who has been having a spectacular meet thus far. Coming off of back-to-back races, he torched the last heat of the event in 1;47.01.

That is the second best time of his career and only four-tenths of a second away from the mark that put him on the Olympic Team in the 800 free relay last year.

The next-closest to him was Club Wolverine’s Anders Nielsen in 1:49.35 (he’s Danish by decent) and Tom Kremer from Stanford took 3rd in 1:49.65 (he represents Israel internationally). Bobby Hurley from Australia was 4th in 1:49.89, making four different flags in the top four seeds.

Michigan senior-to-be Connor Jaeger was 5th in 1:50.00, with the A-Final rounded out by his teammate Michael Wynalda, Florida/New Zealand swimmer Corey Main, another Wolverine Michael Klueh (post-grad), and Brazilian Fernando dos Santos.

Ryan Lochte saved his second event on the day for the 200 backstroke, which like the 400 IM is a race he hasn’t swum very much this season.

Women’s 200 Back Prelims

The women’s 200 back preliminary swims were mixed up a bit. Though the top two finishers were both teenagers, it was not Missy Franklin in the cat-bird’s seat headed into the evening. That spot instead goes to USC freshman Kendyl Stewart takes the 2nd seed in 2:11.66, followed by Franklin 3rd in 2:11.90. Franklin and Stewart were both out in 1:04’s, which is a good opening split for the prelims, so there should be better in them tonight.

Canadian Hilary Caldwell, another representative of Island Swimming, is the 4th seed in 2:12.86, with Texas’ Sarah Denninghoff 5th in 2:13.07. That’s another lifetime best for Denninghoff after doing so in the 200 free earlier in the meet.

Arizona’s Bonnie Brandon, Australian Emily Seebohm, Stanford’s Felicia Lee, Elizabeth Beisel, and Kylie Stewart will also all be in the A-Final, ranging down to a 2:14.63 for the 9th seeded Beisel.

Liz Pelton, who was a 2:11.00 at the touch, was DQ’ed some time after results were first posted. She had a very neat set of splits, going out in 1:05.00, and coming back in 1:06.00 and would have been the top seed. We haven’t been able to find out exactly what her infraction was.

Men’s 200 Back Prelims

If Wisconsin’s sophomore NCAA Champ Drew Teduits is looking for a pre-Trials chance to show that he can hang with the best backstrokers in the world, he’ll get his chance in tonight’s finals session. Swimming in a heat next to Ryan Lochte and Arkady Vyatchanin, who are training partners down in the swamp, Teduits put up the only sub-two minute time in the final with a 1:59.05. That’s half-a-second better than his lifetime best set in Charlotte.

It’s no real surprise, after his yards performances, that Teduits is going so many lifetime bests in-season, but tonight he’ll contend with Tyler Clary, the 2nd seed (2:03.44), countryless Arkady Vyatchanin (2:00.64), Cal’s Jacob Pebley (2:00.80), and Ryan Lochte (2:01.24.). That’s the winners of the 2010 and 2011 World Championships, the 2012 Olympic Championship, and the 2011 World Junior Champion, while Teduits has never even been on the National Team.

Brazil’s Leonardo de Deus, Daniil Bukin from Uzbekistan, Corey Main from New Zealand, and Matthew Myers will round out the A-Final tonight.

Women’s 50 Free Prelims

It wasn’t quite as good as she was in prelims of the 100 free, but Natalie Coughlin put up a solid 25.49 to take the top seed in the women’s 50 free in the morning. She was followed closely by Jessica Hardy (25.51) and Margo Geer (25.71) as the top three seeds, swimming out of the same last heat.

The top-finishing international in the morning was Canadian Chantal van Landeghem, who just finished her freshman season at Georgia, in 25.73. In a change of course from where we we’ve seen most races, van Landeghem was the only international to qualify for the A-Final.

Her teammate Megan Romano (25.75), American high school swimmer Simone Manuel (25.77), Madison Kennedy (25.78), Christine Magnuson, and Ivy Martin round out the A-Final.

There were a lot of swimmers who used this race as a test for their 50 meter strokes, which will be swum at this year’s World Championship Trials. That includes Kendyl Stewart, who actually won heat 3 of the race with a 26.63 swimming all butterfly. Though it might not officially stand on her results as a 50 fly, it is her lifetime best and the second-fastest by an American this year.

Also of note, Ashley Wanland (31.94) and Ellyn Baumgardner (32.40) race breaststroke to very good times of their own.

Missy Franklin, swimming her 3rd event of the day, was a 26.29 for 25th place.

Men’s 50 Free Prelims

The men’s 50 free final is lined up with all of the right guys making it into the top 9. In the final heat, American Nathan Adrian (22.25) out-touched Brazilian World Record holder Cesar Cielo (22.38) as the two finished first and third, respectively. Both swimmers are looking for some redemption in 2013 in this 50 after disappointing results in 2012.

Cullen Jones, the Olympic silver medalist, will also be in the A-Final in 22.62, and more-often-buterflier Tyler McGill will be as well in 22.78.

Of note, Michigan’s Miguel Ortiz, who holds several passports but officially represents Spain, was a strong 22.88, just ahead of American Jimmy Feigen in 22.90. Spain needs a new male star to buoy their ranks as the women have, and with the Ortiz brothers swimming so well at Michigan, they could be those new stars.

Nicolas Oliveira and Shayne Fleming round out the A-Final.

Also, U.S. Paralympian Ian Silverman swam a 24.77 in prelims for 68th place. That’s only a tenth of a second away from his S10 American Record as he prepares for the upcoming IPC World Championships in Montreal.

Full, live meet results available here.