Michael Phelps Retains 3 Entries to Close Arena PSS at Santa Clara (Heat Sheets)

2015 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES AT SANTA CLARA

• Thursday, June 18 – Sunday, June 21, 2015
• George F. Haines International Swim Center, Santa Clara, California
• Prelims 9AM/Finals 5PM Pacific Time (Fri-Sun), Thursday: 4PM
• Psych sheets
• Unofficial timeline
• Live video
• Live results

After cruising through the first 3 days at the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara, Michael Phelps will take on his toughest session yet in the 4th and final day of competition.

• Sunday prelims timeline.
• Sunday prelims heat sheets.

Phelps, despite a general expectation of a scratch, has held on to his entries in the 200 IM, 200 back, and 100 freestyle for Sunday’s prelims sessions. In Charlotte, we saw him declare a false start once, so there’s still a possibility of that, but otherwise, Phelps will swim the 200 IM, 200 backstroke, and 100 free.

While Phelps has held on to all three events for now, there were a few noteworthy scratches on the final day (outside of the known-quantities, like the team from the University of Florida, who opted for an alternative meet in Georgia this weekend instead.

Highlights of the scratches:

• Dutch swimmer Femke Heemskerk dropped the 200 IM as the 3rd seed to focus on the 100 free where she’s the top seed. She’s best known as a 100/200 freestyler, but is also the Dutch National Record holder in the 200 IM in long course (and short course for that matter).
• Kylie Stewart was set to swim multiple races at this meet, but has now officially dropped them all with a scratch as the 4th seed in the 200 back.
• The men’s 200 back, 200 IM, and 100 freestyle fields have stayed mostly in-tact at the top; as has the men’s 50 breastsroke, with the exception of Kevin Cordes, who has missed the entire meet. Remember that Cordes is now overseas training in Singapore, which made participation in this meet unlikely anyway.
• Katinka Hosszu has dropped the women’s 100 free, which will be an incredible field with Natalie Coughlin, Missy Franklin, Heemskerk, and Simone Manuel all racing. The Hungarian still will swim the 200 IM and 200 back on Sunday – the latter of which will include a showdown with Franklin, the defending World and Olympic Champion.

Top Races to Watch Cheat Sheet

All times local on U.S. west coast. Times are first heat start times, with the fastest swimmers being in the last heat, so add 10 minutes if you want to skip through.

• Men’s 200 IM – 9:30 A.M. (Phelps race 1)
• Women’s 200 backstroke – 9:58 A.M. (Hosszu and Franklin as top seeds in the last two heats)
• Men’s 200 backstroke – 10:20 A.M. (Phelps race 2)
• Men’s 50 meter breaststroke – 10:53 A.M. (Cody Miller on American Record watch)
• Women’s 100 meter freestyle – 10:59 A.M. (Heemskerk, the great American sprint hope Simone Manuel, and Franklin swim #2)
• Men’s 100 meter freestyle – 11:16 A.M. (Phelps race 3)