Day 2 prelims of the American Short Course Championships saw yesterday’s 50 freestyle champions set themselves up for double wins, as Canada’s Santo Condorelli and USA’s Abbey Weitzeil scored the top times in their respective men’s and women’s 100 freestyle today.
As a refresher, the American Short Course Championships serves both as a high-level meet for Austin-area age groupers as well as nation-wide elites. Additionally, several college swimmers are also trying to score cuts as a last chance meet.
Whereas in the past the meet was held entirely in short course, this year’s event sees its first two days as LCM before reverting back to SCY on Saturday and Sunday.
As such, Condorelli’s 100 free prelims time today came in at 49.47 long course meters, the only sub-50 swimmer of the field. For Weitzeil, she clocked a time of 54.60 to represent the only woman under the 55-second threshold.
Also lining up in the pole position is yesterday’s 100m breaststroke winner for the men, Andrew Wilson, who registered a time in the 200m today in 2:13.52, the 5th-fastest time of his career. We know of what this 22-year-old is capable, as Wilson earned bronze at last summer’s U.S. Nationals in this 200m breaststroke event, stopping the clock at 2:10.35 for a personal best.
Michael McBroom also made an appearance in Austin, racing his way to the top seed in the 400m freestyle in a time of 3:49.45, the only swimmer to dip beneath the 3:50 mark. McBroom’s swim today was his fastest since taking 8th in the event at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, touching there in 3:46.69. McBroom’s also slated to swim the 1500m event later this weekend.
Finals kick-off at 6pm local time tonight.
Wilson went 2.09.8 for his pb in prelims at nationals last August.
Does McBroom have what it takes to make it to the olympics? Jaeger seems to have a spot pretty much solidified for the 400 and 1500. It also looks as if Texas star Clark Smith has been working toward that 400 spot. I will be very interested to see what happens in a few months.
U might also mention Dwyer and Zane Grothe . Those 2 can be dangerous for that spot left .