1ST ANNUAL SUN DEVIL OPEN
- June 2-4, 2023
- Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, Tempe, Arizona
- Long Course Meters (50m)
- Psych Sheets
- Results on Meet Mobile “2023 Sun Devil Open”
- Day 1 Recap
Regan Smith swam a 57.83 in the 100 backstroke tonight in Tempe, taking over the top time in the world so far this season by 0.01 seconds. Smith’s previous season best stood at a 57.90 which she swam in April at Pro Swim-Westmont. She takes over the top time from Australia’s Kaylee McKeown who swam a 57.84 during the middle of March.
Smith’s personal best comes from July 2019 when she led off Team USA’s 400 medley relay at Worlds. There Smith swam a 57.57 which set a World Record at the time. McKeown has since broken that record as she swam a 57.45 at 2021 Australian Trials.
Smith’s Split Comparisons:
| Sun Devil Open | Westmont |
2019 Worlds Relay
|
|
| First 50 | 28.26 | 28.13 | 27.74 |
| Second 50 | 29.57 | 29.77 | 29.83 |
| 57.83 | 57.9 | 57.57 |
Smith had a busy night as she competed in the 100 fly earlier in the session. Smith had about 52 minutes after the 100 fly before she swam the 100 back.
Smith won the 100 fly in a 57.05. Although that was off of her personal best of 56.60 which she swam in Westmont, it still is faster than she had ever been prior to this season. Tonight’s swim was her third-fastest swim in the event ever. Her 56.60 from Westmont places her as the fastest American this season.
Also highlighting the night was 14 year old Paige Downey who dropped another four seconds off her best time. Downey already dropped eight seconds off her best during prelims, making it a total of over 12 seconds total as she touched in a 5:01.63 tonight.
Hali Flickinger won the women’s 200 free in a 1:58.70. That was her first time swimming the event (flat start) since 2022 International Team trials when she sam a 1:57.53 to finish fourth, earning her a spot on the 2022 Worlds relay in the 4×200 free relay. She swam in prelims of the relay splitting a 1:57.05 before the finals relay went on to win gold.
Highlighting the men’s side was Hubert Kos who won two events on the night. Kos first won the 100 fly in a 52.15. His best time stands at a 51.33 from 2022 Euros where he was fourth. He also won the 100 back in a 54.00, just off his personal best of 53.83 which he swam at Pro Swim-Westmont. Tonight’s swim was his second fastest ever.
Jay Litherland swam to a season-best in the men’s 400 IM swimming a 4:16.45. That was faster than the 4:17.97 that he swam to finish second at Pro Swim-Knoxville in January. Litherland won silver at the 2020 Olympics and 2022 Worlds in the event.
After being just off his personal best this morning, Patrick Sammon crept even closer to his best time tonight as he won the 200 free in a 1:47.84, only 0.04 seconds off his personal best. His best time of 1:47.80 earned him a 10th place finish at 2022 Summer Nationals.
Rising Arizona State sophomore Andy Dobrzanski swam to a personal best of 1:01.18 in the 100 breast. His previous best stood at a 1:01.94 from Mission Viejo a few weeks ago. He has now already dropped over two seconds in the event so far this season.
We could be looking at a sub 57 women’s 100 back over the next two years
Jonny Kulow at 18 going 48.8 in the 100 free prelims 👀👀👀 Bowman is working all kinds of magic.
Ughhhh USA is so not fair with their talent. They just come out of no where!
Stick to ice hockey.
Fools, playing country against country. This is not a trash-talking sport; have your favorites, of course, but cheer them all on. And so saying…
The 56.6 fly in Lauderdale was Regan’s statement. This woman is primed! And now we only have to wait 10 days for the Sun Devil rebuttal from Down Under. Look out! These are absolute titans clashing for the next 14 months! What races the women’s backstrokes — Kaylee, Regan and the Canadians et al (maybe et al) — are going to be in Japan and France! It’s an overload of ‘can hardly wait’!
The most competitive event at the 2023 Phillips 66 National Championships has to be the women’s 100 meter butterfly:
Curzan, Claire
Douglass, Kate
Huske, Torri
Smith, Regan
Walsh, Gretchen
Well four of those girls could be the 100 free relay team at world championship.
Abbey Weitzeil would like to have a word with you.
I’m not sure Simone is out of it yet either right? She could definitely earn a relay spot still
Too bad there is no 4×100 FLY relay.
#altitudeworks
Gretchen walsh 54.2 in prelims 100 free
@YanYan, Brendan, Coleman — the powers to be. I’m sure swimswam has done an article similar but would love a deep dive into all four 100s for the women. It seems as if the 100 back WR is the weakest out of the 4 or maybe the talent is just crazy right now? I remember when Masse went 58.1 and then Baker went 58:00 a few years ago. Since that Masse, Smith and Kaylee have swam under 58 on multiple occasions. You don’t really see anyone swimming within half a second of King’s 100 breast record every time they race. Also something else that suggests you hat the 100 back WR should be lower is based on the SC yards… Read more »
@YanYan, Brendan, Coleman — the powers to be. I’m sure swimswam has done an article similar but would love a deep dive into all four 100s for the women. It seems as if the 100 back WR is the weakest out of the 4 or maybe the talent is just crazy right now? I remember when Masse went 58.1 and then Baker went 58:00 a few years ago. Since that Masse, Smith and Kaylee have swam under 58 on multiple occasions. You don’t really see anyone swimming within half a second of King’s 100 breast record every time they race. Also something else that suggests you hat the 100 back WR should be lower is based on the SC yards… Read more »
To do a quick analysis based on what you’ve raised:
You said “you don’t see people swimming within half a second of the breaststroke world record every time they swim”.
100 Back: 19 swims within 0.5 of the WR, 3 swimmers
100 Free: 9 swims within 0.5 of the WR, 5 swimmers
100 Fly: 26 swims within 0.5 of the WR, 6 swimmers
100 Breast: 6 swims within 0.5 of the WR, 4 swimmers
So 100 Fly is technically the weakest, with the most amount of swims and swimmers close to the record. 100 Back has a lot of swims close to the record, but has the least amount of swimmers, suggesting that it’s just a few… Read more »
I expect to see some very fast times this afternoon in both the women’s and men’s 200 back tonight. Watch Smith and Kos!
Smith is doing the 200 Fly instead
I would have liked to have seen Regan Smith attempt the W 200 BK, W 200 FL double.
https://www.usaswimming.org/news/2023/01/25/u.s.-olympic-team-trials-swimming-2024-event-order-announced
Note the event schedule for 20 June 2024.