2016 LOS ANGELES INVITATIONAL
- Where: Uytengsu Aquatic Center (USC)
- Dates: July 14th-July 17th, 2016
- Results: (Meet Mobile)
- LAI Psych Sheet
- LAI Timelines
- Meet Preview
The first session of competition got underway today at the 2016 LA Invite, with just a pair of relay events and some distance events taking place. The meet opened with the women’s and men’s 200 free relays, followed by the women’s 800 free, the men’s 1500 free, and the women’s and men’s 200 medley relays.
The Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics swept all four relay events, and had two teams in the top three on two occasions. In the 200 free relay, the team of Annie Ochitwa (25.82), Taylor Garcia (25.63), Ashley Sutherland (26.09) and Katrina Konopka (25.17) won in a time of 1:42.71, well ahead of runners up Rose Bowl Aquatics who were 1:45.97.
The Tucson Ford men’s team of Matt Salerno (23.72), Parks Jones (22.95), Nick Thorne (23.04) and Thane Maudslien (23.39) won easily in 1:33.10, with Roadrunner Aquatics well back in 1:36.01 for 2nd.
In the women’s 800 free 2015 World Championship team member Katy Campbell of Pasadena came away with the win in 8:49.43, with Riley Spitser in 2nd (8:55.38) of Blue Fins Swim Team and Emma McCarthy (8:55.82) of Tucson Ford was 3rd. Campbell swam the 1500 at the World Championships after winning the 2014 US Nationals in 16:17.59. Her 800 best time is 8:30.46, done at those same 2014 Nationals where she finished 6th.
In the men’s 1500 it was New Zealand’s Matthew Hutchins, who swims for the University of Wisconsin, coming away with the easy win in 15:33.50. He just missed his best time of 15:32.06 from the 2015 US Nationals in San Antonio. Hutchins has qualified to represent New Zealand at the Rio Olympics in the 400 freestyle. 2nd place went to Nick Hogsed of Tucson Ford in 15:57.71, and 3rd was Tyler Jones of Team Santa Monica in 16:03.13.
In the 200 medley relay the Tucson Ford women’s team of Taylor Garcia (29.03), Alexandra Martelle (33.35), Annie Ochitwa (27.03) and Katrina Konopka (25.09) won in 1:54.50, with Rose Bowl Aquatics 2nd in 1:56.24. The men went 1-2, with the “B” team of Chatham Dobbs (26.21), Blair Bish (28.70), Chad Idensohn (23.98) and Renny Richmond (23.34) dropped a 1:42.23 to beat the “A” team by over two seconds (1:44.27).
The meet continues tomorrow at 8:30 AM PT with prelim heats of the 100 free, 200 fly, 200 back and 400 IM. All results can be found on Meet Mobile.
The distance races were the prelims. Finals are tonight and Saturday night.
I think that statement “benefitted from Katie Ledecky’s absence in the race” is a real low blow to Campbell. I mean she won nationals for crying out loud give her some credit even if Ledecky wasn’t there. We all know Ledecky is an incredibly fast swimmer but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate others as well
She was there, just didn’t swim that race.
Katy Campbell – Pasadena (not PASA Palo Alto)