Megan Kingsley Scratches 100 FL at U.S. Nationals with Illness, Hopes to Return

2019 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 31 – August 4, 2019
• Prelims 9:00 AM/Finals 5:00 PM (U.S. Pacific Standard Time)
• Avery Aquatics Center (Stanford, CA)
• LCM (50 Meter Pool)
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• Pre-scratch timeline
• TV & Livestream Schedule
• Omega Results

Two days after swimming a breakthrough 200 fly, Georgia post-grad Megan Kingsley scratched the 100 fly Friday due to illness, she told SwimSwam. She swam the 400 IM earlier in the session, finishing 31st overall with a 4:51.26.

“After consulting with my coaches and the physician on call I pulled out of the 100 fly due to severe dehydration and a viral infection but will hopefully be able to finish the meet later on,” she said. Kingsley is entered in the 200 on Sunday.

Despite being hit by a car in April, she continued her breakthrough 2019 with her first ever sub-2:10 swim in the 200-meter fly earlier this week. Kingsley went 2:09.73 at U.S. Nationals prelims Wednesday morning, qualifying fifth overall. That was best time by half a second, and her first swim ever under 2:10, but then in finals, she lowered her best even further, finishing fifth in 2:08.26. Kingsley’s finals swim ranks her the N0. 8 American woman this season.

Kingsley took to Twitter back in March, noting that she’d gone a best time in the 200 fly for the first time in six years. She’s dealt with a number of issues in that period, she said, including “surgeries, mental health & other personal issues,” and hasn’t had a healthy season since 2013, when she was a junior national champ and one of the nation’s top high school recruits.

Kingsley had been 2:11.13 at age 17, but couldn’t better that time until this past March, when she went 2:10.91 at the Des Moines Pro Swim Series. A month later, she went 2:10.25 at the Richmond Pro Swim Series, but was hit by a car that same weekend. At the time, Kingsley said she’d be taking some time out of the water to recover, and she didn’t log a swim until mid-May, when she was only 2:12.2 at the Atlanta Classic.