Sandeno Leads SwimSquad Points After Day 1 In Mesa

2018 TYR PRO SWIM SERIES – MESA

• Thursday, April 12 – Sunday, April 15
• Skyline Aquatic Center, Mesa, AZ
• Long Course Meters
• Meet site
• Psych Sheet
• Live Stream
• Thursday Finals Heat Sheet
• Live Results

Team Sandeno had four different scorers on Thursday to nab the early Mesa SwimSquad points lead.

Meanwhile Team Krayzelburg picked up two wins in his squad’s only two events on Thursday to sit second.

• Pre-meet projections here

SandenoSquad, the winners of the Atlanta stop, got points from four of five active starters on Thursday. Leah Smith won the 200 free, Jacob Pebley and Michael Andrew were runners-up in the 200 back and 100 fly, respectively, and Andrew Wilson took 8th in the 200 breast after scratching into the final. Katie McLaughlin disqualified in the 400 IM prelims. Sandeno has 7 more chances to score, holding a 7-point lead with two days of scoring swims to go. (No team has anyone scoring in the 1500 on Sunday morning, so points should be wrapped up by Saturday night).

It’s been a stellar tour so far for Krayzelburg, who won Austin and led the series by 18 points after Atlanta. On night 1 in Mesa, he got back-to-back wins from 400 IMer Chase Kalisz (who remains undefeated in the 200 and 400 IM in five appearances on the Pro Swim Series so far this year) and 100 flyer Kelsi Dahlia (previously Kelsi Worrell).

Krayzelburg’s two swims tonight were less than any other team, yet he still leads the remaining two teams by 3. The other teams are tied together at 17 points apiece. Krayzelburg’s team has a meet-high 10 scoring swims remaining over the next two days, half of them in the 50 stroke shootouts on Saturday.

Team Coughlin, second on the tour right now, had up to three scoring chances today, getting a win from Ryan Murphy in the 200 back and a third-place from flex play Melanie Margalis in the 200 free. Hali Flickinger didn’t swim the 100 fly, where she was a starter for Coughlin. Without an IMer when Madison Cox scratched, Coughlin has 7 scoring swims remaining.

Team Lezak got a runner-up finish from Josh Prenot in the 400 IM, a bronze from Pace Clark in the 100 fly and a 7th-place showing out of Mallory Comerford in the 200 free. Without a backstroker, Lezak has 7 more scoring chances, most of them tomorrow.

Relay Wrinkles Continue

The mixed medley relay has been by far the least successful of the tweaks to the Pro Swim Series format. With no prize money, team or individual points on the line, the inaugural SwimSquad relay in Austin struggled to find athletes to fill out four relays. Team Coughlin, in fact, had to poach breaststroker Nic Fink from Team Krayzelburg to fill its butterfly leg, despite results listing Tom Shields in that spot.

Despite the relay being shortened from the advertised 4×100 medley relay swum in Austin to a 4×50 medley relay, the Mesa edition still had issues filling out the 16 competitive slots.

This time around, Team Lezak was for some reason allowed to enter a relay team of four men in the mixed medley relay, winning by three seconds over the field. Lezak has an active roster of 13 competing in Mesa, but that only includes three women: Lia Neal, Mallory Comerford and Cierra Runge. None of the three appeared on the winning relay, which ultimately included flyer Pace Clark (27.50) on backstroke, Josh Prenot (28.15) on breast, Tim Phillips (24.18) on fly and Nathan Adrian (22.21) on free for a final time of 1:42.04.

They beat a traditional two-man, two-woman lineup of Matt Grevers (25.88), Nic Fink (27.76), Kelsi Dahlia (26.41) and Olivia Smoliga (25.04) from Team Krayzelburg (1:45.09), despite Lezak’s team trailing by two full seconds after the first two legs swum by males swimmers on both teams.

Update: USA Swimming says the Lezak relay was “essentially an exhibition” and that the event technically did go to the KrayzelburgSquad, though the entire event is technically an exhibition as-is.

CoughlinSquad was third in the relay (1:45.37) and SandenoSquad fourth (1:46.21).

Points Through Atlanta:

• See full Atlanta breakdown here

SCORING FORMAT

• Prior to each meet, the captain will select 6 swimmers from their overall roster to score.
• Each of the six athletes is designated for one specific category, and can score in up to two events from that category. The categories are:
  • Free (50 through 1500)
  • Back (50 through 200)
  • Breast (50 through 200)
  • Fly (50 through 200)
  • IM (200 and 400, not the mystery order 200 IM)
  • Flex (any two races)
• An athlete must make the top 8 to score points:
  • 1st: 10
  • 2nd: 8
  • 3rd: 7
  • 4th: 5
  • 5th: 4
  • 6th: 3
  • 7th: 2
  • 8th: 1