Mesa Grand Prix: Deep Free Fields Highlight Friday Morning

Night 1 of the 2013 Mesa Grand Prix brought us great weather and fast times.  Here’s a quick recap of this morning’s events.

Women’s events

The women’s 400 IM opened up the morning session without anything that would really cause any heads to turn.  The three big names–Caitlin Leverenz, Camille Adams, and Katinka Hosszu—are all safely in the A-Final, along with three teenagers (Celina Lee, Rachel Zilinskas, and Sofia Wang).  With anything under 4:59.5 making the top heat, there wasn’t much of a reason for the fastest women to put 100% into this morning swim, particularly for Hosszu, who is tackling a borderline-insane event lineup this weekend.  Overall, the top seed going into tonight is actually Stina Gardell at 4:44.35.

Hosszu came back to have another solid swim later in the session in the 200 backstroke (2:15.30).  The Hungarian Olympian is seeded 4th going into tonight, and though she can challenge for a podium spot, she will be hard pressed to contend for a title with American record holders Elizabeth Pelton and Missy Franklin.  Between a very strong 100 free last night and a pretty quick 2:11.75 this morning, Franklin (the Olympic Champion and world record holder) is a heavy favorite to run away with this event.  Notably, 17-year-old Clara Smiddy of the AK Sharks swam almost three under her seed time to finish second, clocking in at 2:14.14.

After a relatively light day yesterday, Missy will be looking for a triple of her own; she also has second swims tonight in the 200 free and 50 free.  Although she slipped into the B-Final in the 50, she’ll have a great battle in the 200 with Katie Ledecky, who is fresh off a great 400 freestyle last night (her 4:05.21 is the second-best time in the world this year).  Teens Chelsea Chenault and Leah Smith also finished easily in the top 8, and are in the hunt for a podium spot tonight.   Chloe Sutton and Elizabeth Pelton actually got stuck in the B-Final, finishing 9th and 10th, respectively.

The final event of the morning, the women’s 50 free, was highlighted by a trio of Olympians (Natalie Coughlin [25.42], Christine Magnuson [25.48], and Jessica Hardy [25.62]) sweeping the top spots.  Liv Jensen and Olivia Smoliga also snuck into the top heat.

Men’s events

The men’s session started off with a 400 IM that ended in very similar fashion as the women’s.  Olympians Tyler Clary and Scott Weltz appeared to cruise through their morning swims, touching in 2nd and 4th respectively.  Overall, the field was pretty thin, with just 21 swimmers competing.  The top seed went to incoming Princeton freshman Sam Smiddy of the AK Sharks, who finished in 4:28.64.

There was a bit more action in the 200 free, where we saw seven Olympians and two additional U.S. National Team members finish in the top ten.  Leading the way was Michigan freshman and Danish Olympian Anders Nielsen, touching in 1:50.43.  Nielsen is coming off a stellar first year competing for the Wolverines, where he was an All-American .  Ricky Berens, Australian Olympian Robert Hurley (competing here for Tucson Ford in Arizona), South African Olympic gold medalist Darian Townsend, and Ryan Lochte finished 2-5, all breaking 1:51 in the process.  Stanford freshman Tom Kremer, Michael Klueh (now training at Club Wolverine), and Tom Shields rounded out the top 8.  Conor Dwyer, Matthew McLean, and Dan Madwed are seeded in the top three slots in the B-Final.

More big names can be found near the top of the final two events in the session.  In the 200 back, Clary, Lochte, and Matt Grevers will try to chase down top-seed Ryan Murphy (2:02.71) in what has the potential to be the race of the evening.  Although Clary, Lochte, and Grevers are all world record holders and some of the best backstrokers to ever walk the planet, Murphy will be the freshest of the bunch.  Clary is entered in the 400 IM, Lochte has the 200 free (and is undoubtedly in the middle of some grueling Florida training), and Grevers is just days removed from getting married.

In the final event of the morning, Cal training partners Anthony Ervin (22.34) and Nathan Adrian (22.61) posted the two fastest times of the heat.  Joey Hale and Mindaugas Sadauskas also cracked 23 seconds, touching in 22.90 and 22.94, respectively.