USA Opts For Berkoff-Matheny-Rose-Weitzeil In Mixed Medley Relay Prelims (ALL LINEUPS)

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 23 to 30, 2023
• Fukuoka, Japan
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• Day 4 Prelims Live Recap

The lineups for the preliminary heats of the mixed medley relay at the 2023 World Championships have been released, and many notable choices have been made. In this article, we will break down the lineups of some of the top contenders in the event.

United States

The United States has gone with a Female-Male-Male-Female lineup, using Katharine Berkoff on backstroke, Josh Matheny on breaststroke, Dare Rose on butterfly, and Abbey Weitzeil on freestyle.

Arguably, the best strategy in a mixed medley relay is to use a male breaststroke and a female freestyler, so it’s pretty clear from these prelims that Matheny will be replaced with Nic Fink and Weitzeil will be replaced with Kate Douglass in finals.

In addition, although Berkoff is swimming prelims, it’s unlikely that she’ll be replaced by Regan Smith in finals—Smith has the semi-finals of the 50 back and 200 fly before the relay. So unless Berkoff is swimming twice, the U.S. will probably use a male backstroker (likely 100 back World Champion Ryan Murphy).

Because it’s likely that the U.S. has a male breaststroker and backstroker as well as a female freestyler, it can be concluded that Rose will be replaced by a female flyer in finals (probably Torri Huske).

The difference between Murphy and Berkoff’s 100 back times at Worlds is 6.03 seconds, and the difference between Huske’s 100 fly Worlds time and Rose’s time at trials is 5.87 seconds. However, Huske is known to be a bit slower on relays than she is on a flat start, so there’s an argument to be made that Rose is the better option.

That being said, the U.S. used a M/M/F/F lineup last year and won, so what’s the harm in repeating their strategy?

Australia

The Aussies finals lineup feels much more predictable based on who they put on for prelims. Bradley Woodward will be swimming back, Sam Williamson will be doing breaststroke, Emma McKeon will be on fly, and Shayna Jack will be anchoring.

Woodward will likely be replaced by Kaylee McKeown in finals, as it’s a no-brainer to use the World Champion on the relay. In turn, McKeon will probably get swapped with Matt Temple on fly, which is what has been done in the past.

Zac Stubblety-Cook was Australia’s highest finisher in the 100 breast and has swum on this relay twice in the past, so he will likely be on the finals relay too. The freestyle leg should be interesting—Jack had the fastest rolling split on her country’s 4×100 free relay (51.69) but Mollie O’Callaghan led off in 52.08. Putting Jack in during prelims seems to indicate that O’Callaghan has faster than a 51.6 split in her and will be used for finals. However, O’Callaghan does have a double session during finals, as she will race the 200 free final.

China

The Chinese have opted for the lineup of Xu Jiayu on back, Yan Zibei on breast, Wang Yichun on fly, and Wu Qingfeng on free.

With Xu and Wu being China’s best options on back and free respectively, they will likely be retained for finals. It’s also pretty evident that Yan and Wang will be replaced by Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei, who are the World Champions in the men’s 10o breast and women’s 100 fly respectively.

Zhang will have to deal with the 200 fly semi-finals before the relay during the finals session, but that’s a story for a few hours later.

Full Lineups

Heat One:

• Belgium (Frackx, Gaspard, Dumont, Henveaux)
• Tonga (Siua, Day, Ohuafi, Panuve)
• Mexico (Perez, Ojeda, Kovacs, Cabrera)
• Antigua and Barbuda (DSF)
• Mongolia (Enkh-Amgalan, Batbayar, Enkhtur, Batbayar)
• Panama (Cermelli, Santos, Harper, Christianson)

Heat Two:

• Cabo Verde (Pina, Pina, Pina, Lima)
• Armenia (Barseghyan, Chakhoyan, Manucharyan, Poghosyan)
• Bahrain (Leefahler, Khaled, Alawi, Binrajab)
• Tanzania (Save, Hilal, Saliboko, Latiff)
• Guam (Poppe, Bollinger, Hendrix, Lee)
• Maldives (Imaan, Ahmed, Shiham, Latheef)
• Federal States of Micronesia (Kihleng, Limtiaco, KIhleng, Adams)
• Papa New Guinea (Al Tom, Vele, Noka, Tarere)

Heat Three:

• Angola (Gordo, Freitas, Lima, Mascarenhas)
• Suspended Member Federation (Talib, Brunlehner, Muteti, Maina)
• Spain (DSF)
• New Zealand (Gasson, Gilbert, Ouwehand, Swift)
• Slovakia (Ivan, Jablcnik, Podmaninova, Dusa)
• Korea (Lee, Choi, Kim, Hur)
• Peru (Sotomayor, de Bever, Alayo, Vargas)
• Bahamas (Taylor, Gibbs, Carey, Thompson)
• Uganda (Kabuye, Mukalazi, Nalumoza, Namutebi)
• Northern Mariana Islands (Aleksenko, Batallones, Guerrro, Litulumar)

Heat Four:

• Hungary (Szekely, Sebestyen, Komoroczy, Meszaros)
• Israel (Gorbenko, Polonsky, Frankel, Golovaty)
• Germany (Braunschweig, Matzerath, Kohler, Finger)
• China (Xu, Yan, Wang, Wu)
• Australia (Woodward, Williamson, McKeon, Jack)
• Great Britain (Harris, Wilby, Peters, Hopkin)
• Japan (Irie, Watanabe, Soma, Ikee)
• Greece (Christou, Aspougalis, Ntountounaki, Drasidou)
• Sweden (Rosvall, Persson, Hansson, Seeliger)
• Thailand (Boonamphai, Kaewsriyong, Wonghcaroen, Kwanmuang)

Heat Five

• Columbia (Corredor, Valdes, Durango, Cervantes)
• Brazil (Basseto, Conceicao, Mota, Balduccini)
• Poland (Masiuk, Sztandera, Jaskiewicz, Fiedkiewicz)
• Italy (Mora, Poggio, Bianchi, Cocconcelli)
• United States (Berkoff, Matheny, Rose, Weitzeil)
• Netherlands (de Waard, Kamminga, Korstanje, Steenbergen)
• Canada (Wilm, Dergousoff, MacNeil, Gaziev)
• France (Mahieu, Bidad, Huille, Gastadello)
• Singapore (DSG)
• Estonia (Lelle, Jefimova, Zaitsev, Gold)