Ryan Lochte And Connor Jaeger Set up To Battle Again In Athens

The Speedo Sectionals in Athens continued to be a fast meet on during day two prelims as several swimmers managed to come close to their season best times including American swim star Ryan Lochte.

Melanie Margalis has been having a fairly good meet thus far, claiming two golds. This morning she set herself up for another one after taking the top seed in the women’s 200m freestyle. Margalis swam a 2:00.56 to take the top seed by a sizable margin over Andrea Kneppers. Kneppers was a 2:02.02 to claim the second seed ahead of Kristi Wilson’s 2:02.72. Margalis has already been a 1:57.91 on the Mare Nostrum Tour this season.

After revealing his new underwater technique yesterday in the 200m IM final, Ryan Lochte swam a very solid 200m freestyle Friday morning to grab the top seed heading into finals. Lochte was a 1:48.63, the second fastest he’s been all season. He was fairly stable throughout all his splits, ranging from 27-mids to a 28-flat.

Behind Lochte was Georgia’s Matias Koski in 1:49.02. Koski won the 800m freestyle earlier in the meet in 7:56.44, a time which brought him very close to cracking the top 25 world rankings this season. Koski and Lochte won’t be the only two battling it out in the final however; Bobby Hurley and Connor Jaeger qualified third and fourth respectively and both can bring some speed.

Jaeger showed in the 200m IM that he can close well on the last 50 (the freestyle leg). He was a 1:49.87 in the 200m freestyle Friday morning. He looked as though he held back right from the start of the race, splitting a 26.18 on the first 50. After that he was 27-high consistently, finishing in 27.85.

SwimMAC’s Kathleen Baker grabbed the top spot in the 100m backstroke this morning with a 1:00.88. Baker is currently ranked seventh in the world this season for the 59.86 100m backstroke she swam at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Charlotte. She’s the definite favorite heading into finals tonight, although a win won’t be easy with Kristy Coventry hot on her trail.

Coventry was a 1:01.06 this morning, just a little more then a half-second slower than the 1:00.44 season-best she swam earlier this season. Ali Deloof qualified behind her in 1:01.18 followed by Danielle Galyer in 1:02.17.

In the men’s 100m backstroke Japanese backstroker Junya Koga let fly a very solid swim to touch in at 54.25 at the wall. Koga’s been a 53.87 this season, a time that definitely could be attainable Friday night during finals. Grigory Tarasevich will make things interesting for Koga. He was a 55.14 this morning.

Cammile Adams swam the fastest women’s 400m IM of the morning in 4:42.78. For the men, Ian Rainey led the way in 4:23.10. Mick Litherland who swam a very solid 200m fly earlier in the meet will also be present in the 400m IM final Friday night.