Arena Pro Swim Series at Mesa
- Thursday, April 14 – Saturday, April 16, 2016
- Skyline Aquatic Center
- Mesa, Arizona (same as Pacific Daylight Time, GMT -7 hours)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (12PM/8PM Eastern Standard Time)
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Meet Central
SCHEDULE
Thursday:
- 200 free
- 100 breast
- 100 fly
- 400 IM
Friday:
- 200 fly
- 50 free
- 100 back
- 200 breast
- 400 free
Saturday:
- Women’s 800 free
- 200 IM
- 200 back
- 100 free
- Men’s 1500 free
PRIZE MONEY/SCORING SYSTEM
Every individual, Olympic-distance event gives out prize money and series points to the top three finishers:
- 1st place: $1000, 5 points
- 2nd place: $600, 3 points
- 3rd place: $200, 1 points
At the end of the series, the male and female points leaders will win $10,000 each, plus a 1-year lease of a BMW (though the BMW is only available to U.S. citizens).
CURRENT POINT STANDINGS
Men:
- Nathan Adrian – 30
- Michael Phelps – 26
- Conor Dwyer – 24
- Chase Kalisz – 23
- Ryan Lochte – 18
Women:
- Katie Ledecky – 40
- Missy Franklin – 31
- Maya DiRado – 23
- Melaine Margalis – 19
- Hosszu, Mann, Sjostrom – 18
5 STORYLINES TO WATCH
1. USA 100 Freestylers: most of the USA’s top 100 free stars are expected to be at Mesa. On the women’s side, the top names in the 100 free include Simone Manuel, Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky, Abbey Weitzeil, Margo Geer, and Lia Neal, among others. Similarly, with many other countries having trials around this time, the top seven men on the psych sheet all swim for the red, white, and blue, including Nathan Adrian, Anthony Ervin, Michael Chadwick, Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger, and Conor Dwyer. Another notable name a little further down the psych sheet is 32 year-old Cullen Jones, who’s been fairly quiet since 2012, but who has a reputation for showing up when it counts. While none of the US stars should be anywhere close to their peak, any forward progress, especially by some of the younger swimmers, may help assuage some fears about the state of the USA’s 4×100 relays over the next few months after what the Australian men and women and the French men have shown over recently.
2. Small, But Strong, NCAA Contingent: after a crazy couple of NCAA championships last month, particularly on the men’s side, most of the big collegiate names are presumably back to heavy training, focusing on Omaha. However, a few college stars are expected to swim at Mesa and will test out their long course mettle. Louisville’s Kelsi Worrell swept the fly events at NCAA’s last month, and is slated those two here, plus the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 backstroke. She’ll face defending Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer, who’s she likely be battling it out for the top spot in Omaha. Texas Longhorn Jack Conger has the top seed in the 100 fly in Phelps’s absence, and he’ll be swimming the 200 fly and the 100 and 200 freestyles. That could possibly be his lineup in Omaha, although that would make for a few doubles. Other college stars listed on the psych sheet include Hali Flickinger, Clark Smith, Matias Koski, Andrew Seliskar, and Gunnar Bentz.
3. The Point Battles: on the men’s side, Adrian leads this season Arena Pro Series point earners with a score of 30, but he’s only swimming two events to Phelps’s four, giving the latter a chance to close. Dwyer, last year’s champion, and Chase Kalisz are close behind. Dwyer is scheduled to swim four events and Kalisz five. It’s not nearly as close on the women’s side, where Ledecky has a nine point lead over Franklin, and even if she scratches a few events, should maintain a comfortable lead.
4. Michael Phelps Drops the 100 Fly, Opts for the 200 Free: while Phelps and coach Bob Bowman have not specifically revealed what events the GOAT will be swimming at Trials, it is pretty clear at this point that he will at least be competing in the 100 fly and 200 IM, with the 200 fly also very likely. Yet, Phelps was at one point the world record holder in the 200 free, has been on the USA 4×200 relay the past three Olympics, and also swam on that relay at Pan Pacs, despite having not competed in the individual event at Nationals or Pan Pacs. So, Phelps could merely be trying to switch things up, or he could be focusing on the 200 free this week, hoping to throw down a time that will help USA coaches justify selecting him to swim on the relay in Rio, even if he doesn’t swim the individual event at Omaha. He’s seeded 9th with a 1:48.20, while the fastest time in the country this year belongs to Dwyer, with a 1:46.62 he did at Winter Nationals in December.
5. Katie Ledecky World Record Watch: yes, pretty much anytime Ledecky gets in the pool, there’s a decent chance that a world record could be broken. However, Ledecky has spent the past few weeks training at altitude at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and we know happened last time she did that before a Pro Series event.
Just to remind..
In that 2008 Olympic final, Italian Christian Galenda swam a 47.49 relay-leg vs 47.65 from Cullen Jones. Bousquet, for France, was more than a full second faster than Jones.
Maverick, because Jones was in the 2008 US relay doesn’t mean he was a great 100 free swimmer. And if I remember well, he was not very fast in that relay with a 47.65 split. Not fast during that suit era. Bousquet had destroyed him.
A lot of coaches in 2007 thought he would be the next big thing in the 100 free. Unfortunately it never happened.
PVSFREE – Some of you all forgot Clark Smirh has won several Junior National Championships long course in 200 fly back to back years in 2011 and 2012 and finished second at US Nationals in short course in 2012. He has made numerous finals for juniors and nationals . He also won NCCAs his sophomore year in 500 free in 2015. When a swimmer is one of the top 8 in US, there is always pressure to perform. I heard he was sick at NCAAs this year.
Lol where did you here he was sick? Certainly not any of his coaches or teammates. Eddie Reese specifically said he was nervous the night before and didn’t get any sleep. That’s it. As far as his long course prowess, his stroke certainly seems to fit it, but until we get a 3:45, or 1:46 mid, the past accolades do not really matter. He is right on the cusp of those times, his best I believe are 1:47 high, 3:47 neighborhood, not too sure.
Missy’s underwaters have always been poor compared to the other top swimmers. Some people just don’t have the ankle, hip, or back flexibility you need to be a top level underwater kicker. I’m almost certain that she’s worked a lot on it over the years, and what we see is her best.
My guess is that she hasn’t improved much underwater since 2011 and the rest of the world has. I’m guessing it’s not even her fault, it’s that she just isn’t built to underwater kick.
It’s kind of like saying that the other backstrokers need to learn how to swim as fast on top of the water as Missy does. It’s not like they aren’t trying, it’s… Read more »
Not specifically relevant to this article, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Missy’s backstroke turns/underwaters… they have certainly been a topic of criticism in the past 2 or so years. I looked up some older videos, specifically from 2011 World Champs, which was her big international breakout, and her underwaters look fine – above average even. The announcers even comment on how effective she is underwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXfsj8VGUY
I have a strong swimming background and a decent understanding of stroke/biomechanics, but I’m interested in what others have to say about this. I would have thought that in her years at Cal she would have improved on her underwater abilities, having competed SCY. Could it… Read more »
Your claim to have a strong swimming background and a decent understanding of stroke/biomechanics suddenly became meaningless when you said “She is still in my opinion the best there is on top of the water (100 and 200)”
On top of water Cate Campbell KILLED Missy in 100, not to mention Bronte, and Sarah.
This is Missy at her absolute best (right before she started her year in CAL), with her swimming side by side next to Cate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73T1biBRHg
You can even see how Missy was gaining on the turn and underwater, but was promptly destroyed by Cate on top of water.
He was talking about B-a-c-k-s-t-r-o-k-e. But feel free to jump on his neck
In 100 back, I argue that Seebohm is as at least as fast on top of water as Missy.
Have a look from Kazan:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30cg6b_women-s-100m-backstroke-final-world-swimming-championships-kazan-2015_sport
Missy did not gain on second half after surfacing. She did lose on the start but she definitely did not gain on Seebohm on top of water.
In fact, it’s clear that Seebohm was accelerating away from Missy in 70-95 m.
You say “needless weight training,” yet many of the best at underwater kick in the world spend considerable time lifting (Lochte, Coughlin, Murphy, Shields, Manaudou, Phelps and the list goes on). If there is any part of the race where extra muscle mass would help it would be on the start and underwaters. Missy certainly has gotten bigger from 2011 to now, but some of that is natural filling out as she grows into her 6’2″ frame.
If you watch her start in the 2011 race vs 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCEVVJlxtjg), she has changed her starting position to what was popularized by Japanese backstrokers with a slight backwards lean and a straight torso. This start… Read more »
Andrew Wilson was really solid at the big meet in Austin that took place last month over the same weekend as the Arena PSS in Orlando. I’m eager to see what he will do. I think it would be super cool to see a D3 swimmer make the Olympic team this summer.
It will be very interesting to see wilson and Miller going head to head in the 100 breast. Both 59 high last month (but Miller dq). This suggests to me possible 58 highs tapered at OTs. Cordes is a big mystery. He had a couple of minor meets since January in Singapore, but his times weren’t great. I can’t figure out what Sergio’s strategy is with him. Wilson should be starting to show the benefits of a full year training with Eddie Reese (and racing Licon every day in practice). Fink is a big taper guy– so we likely won’t see what he has got til OT’s.
Chadwick is to watch closely as well – he might sneak into the final at OT ( 100 free ) .
Just out of curiosity, who are your favorites to be the six that go to Rio for the 400FR?
My 6 : Adrian , Dressel , Grevers , Phelps , Conger and either Hoffer / Schneider / Chadwick / ?
Excited to see Conger swim 100 fly , 100 free and 200 free . He is one of the guys to watch …and would love to see him as the 4th relay swimmer on the 400 free relay this summer .