On the 3rd and final day of the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix on Saturday morning, there are no major night-before scratches from swimmers who we didn’t already know were absent from this meet (though there surely could still be some when the preliminary heats step up.)
This means that Ryan Lochte, as of now, is entered in the 100 back and the 200 IM. That’s a 200 IM that Lochte hasn’t swum since injuring the ligaments in his knee in late 2013. He’s looked very good in Mesa, but this will be his first race test of that knee while swimming breaststroke – which puts the most strain on the knee.
See Saturday morning’s heat sheets here.
Among the somewhat-notable absences from Saturday’s heat sheets include former NCAA Division II Champion Eetu Karvonen, who would have been the 10th seed in the 100 breaststroke, and Sonia Wang, who would have been the 8th seed in the 200 fly. Wang is slotted to still race the 100 back prelim, where she is now seeded 29th, while Karvonen has been absent all week as he’s back home racing at the Finnish National Championships.
Equally as interesting is who is entered in some races. Laura Sogar, who scratched the A-Final of the women’s 200 breast on Thursday with what she called an allergic reaction, had no races on Friday, but is entered in both the 100 breast and the 200 IM for Saturday. It seems as though she’s feeling well enough to at least test things in the morning.
There are two really big “I wonder how fast they can go” entries for Saturday’s preliminary session. Conor Dwyer has held his entry in the 100 backstroke, which seems like an important training race for him as he shifts more-and-more toward an elite international IM’er. The front half of his IM is more of an unknown quantity than the back-half.
The other is Katie Ledecky’s entry in the 200 IM. Her best time in that race is from the Austin Grand Prix, where she swam a 2:16.2. It’s pretty clear that she’s capable of a faster time than that on a taper, as she’s shown enough in other strokes and other courses that she’s more than just an IM’er. After swimming extremely well all week, though, expect her to beat that lifetime best even here in April.