Michael Phelps recovered from a poor start in the men's 100-meter freestyle to qualify third overall for tonight's 'A' final. (Harry How/Getty Images)
The first day of preliminary heats is in the books at U.S. nationals in Irvine, California. Potomac Valley Swimming will be well represented in tonight’s finals with Andrew Seliskar, Cassidy Bayer and Katie Ledecky all qualifying for championship finals and four others advancing to a ‘B’ or ‘C’ final.
Before tonight’s finals, get caught up on the morning races here:
200-meter butterfly
Cammile Adams, 22, of SwimMAC Carolina qualified first in the women’s event in a time of 2 minutes 8.06 seconds. The reigning two-time national champion in the event was the favorite coming into the meet and remains the favorite heading into finals. She’s seeded over a second ahead of University of Georgia swimmer Hali Flickinger, 20, and Mission Viejo’s Katie McLaughlin, 17, who came in a 2:09.31 and 2:09.49, respectively. Those two, along with Courtney Weaver, 18, of Flint Falcons YMCA, should vie for the second spot on the U.S. team in this event.
Rounding out the championship final are Kate Mills, 25, of SwimMAC, Elizabeth Beisel, 21, of the University of Florida, Emma Nunn, 20, of Richmond-based NOVA of Virginia and Nation’s Capital’s Cassidy Bayer.
The 14-year-old junior national star is hoping to qualify for Junior Pan Pacs in this event by finishing top two among 18-and-under swimmers, which means she either needs McLaughlin to qualify for the senior national team or to beat out Weaver; both are likely outcomes. Bayer also has an outside shot at grabbing the national age group record in the event, which stands at 2:07.01. The record stood as the world record when it was set in 1979 by Mary T. Meagher – Bayer broke Meagher’s yards record in the event earlier this year at the Tom Dolan Invite.
Advancing to the ‘B’ final was former All-Met Swimmer of the Year Kaitlin Pawlowicz. The rising Texas senior, who is wearing an NCAP cap at this meet, finished 11th overall in the heats to qualify third for the consolation final in 2:12.03.
Former RMSC swimmer Elizabeth Pepper finished 25th overall in 2:13.53. NCAP’s Kylie Jordan finished in 2:15.58, Janet Hu in 2:15.96, Isabella Rongione in 2:17.17 and Laura Branton in 2:19.61.
NCAP's Andrew Seliskar swims 1:56.95 in a 200-meter butterfly heat to advance to the 'A' final. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports)
In the men’s event, Andrew Seliskar finished fourth overall to position himself well for tonight’s final. Swimming in the first of the circle seeded heats, Seliskar used a sizzling sub-30 second split in his third 50 to distance himself from the field. He cruised into the wall over three seconds ahead of second place with a 1:56.95, which stood as the fastest time of the day with two heats to go.
A stacked penultimate heat, however, pushed Seliskar back to fourth position. Tyler Clary, 25, surged in the backhalf of the race to claim the heat in 1:56.11 – a time that indicates his recent move to Charlotte to train with SwimMAC may pay off in tonight’s final. North Baltimore’s Chase Kalisz, 20, touched second in 1:56.76, followed by Kyle Whitaker, 22, of Michigan in 1:56.80.
Seliskar beat Kalisz in May head-to-head in the championship final at the Charlotte Grand Prix, 1:57.40 to 1:59.27. In Charlotte, Seliskar dropped three seconds from prelims to finals to win the event; Kalisz finished fourth. Seliskar was considered a likely favorite to finish first or second in this event to earn his first senior national team selection. He is in very good position to make that happen with Clary his biggest challenger for the gold in Irvine.
Also in the ‘A’ final is Cal’s Tom Shields, Stanford’s Bobby Bollier and NBAC’s Tom Luchsinger, which makes this a who’s-who of swimmers-perviously-chasing-Phelps in this event. In case anyone forget, this is the event Phelps made his first Olympic team in when he was just 15 years old in 2000. He went on to win the event in three straight Olympics (2004, 2008 and 2012).
NCAP’s Ben Southern, a rising Georgia Tech sophomore, finished 28th overall and advanced to the ‘C’ final, which is reserved for 18-and-under swimmers.
100-meter freestyle
Can anyone catch Simone Manuel? The Stanford-bound swimmer out of the Houston suburbs has been unstoppable in the sprint events since breaking the American record in the 100-yard freestyle in December. She grabbed the top seed with a time of 53.60 during Wednesday’s prelims, just ahead of Cal’s Missy Franklin (53.76). They were the only two to go sub-54 during the morning session and are the favorites to represent the U.S. at Pan Pacs later this month.
Missy Franklin advanced to the women's 100-meter freestyle 'A' final with a sub-54 second swim in prelims. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports)
In third was Margro Greer, 22, of Tuscon Ford, followed by Shannon Vreeland, 22, of Georgia and Stanford’s Lia Neal, 19. Natalie Coughlin, 31, slipped into the ‘A’ final in eighth position, as well.
Katie Ledecky finished 13th overall with a time of 54.96 – her first time under 55 seconds – but scratched from finals to concentrate on the 800 freestyle, which would come after the sprint event tonight. Machine Aquatics’ Morgan Hill (57.00) and All Star Aquatics’ Caroline McTaggart (57.71) swam but did not qualify.
The men’s race has to be the event of the day in Irvine. Just take a look at the championship final: The top seed is the reigning Olympic champion Nathan Adrian with a lightning 48.24 prelims swim, followed by sprint legend and 33-year-old journeyman Anthony Ervin at 48.71 and Michael Phelps, who returns to nationals with a more muscular physique and a new focus on the 100-meter distance races, at 48.77.
Rounding out the heat will be Matt Grevers, Jimmy Feigen, Seth Stubblefield, Conor Dwyer and Ryan Lochte – that’s a lot of star-power for a single race with only six relay spots up for grabs. Phelps had a horrible first length during prelims where he touched tied for last at the turn. He roared back, in typical Phelpsian fashion, to touch second in the heat behind Adrian with a blistering 24.79-second length. That split was over half a second ahead of the next fastest in the field – Matt McLean’s 25.36. McLean finished 17th overall with a 49.49.
If Phelps can put together a better front-half in finals, he might close the gap with Adrian and earn the second roster spot in the individual event. However, Phelps did mention in yesterday’s press conference that his freestyle has been inconsistent in the last few weeks. Bowman added that the shift down from the 200-distance tempo he’s trained over the last decade is the likely culprit as Phelps makes the transition to the sprint events.
Machine’s Jack Conger finished 12th overall with a time of 49.40 and will swim the ‘B’ final. 16-year-old James Jones of NCAP swam a time of 51.15 and was selected for the ‘C’ final.
Women’s 800-meter freestyle
There are really only two words to type ahead of tonight’s finals: Katie. Ledecky. She’s the top seed in tonight’s timed final with her world record time of 8:11.00. That’s 12.24 seconds ahead of the second seed, Chloe Sutton.
After Ledecky broke the world record in the event by over two seconds at a tune-up meet in June, all bets are off as to what the 17-year-old rising high school senior might do tonight. Can she break 8:10? 8:05?
Or will she take it easy considering she’s got the 200 freestyle tomorrow against Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt? Not likely, knowing the way Ledecky likes to attack her races, but with Pan Pacs so close to nationals (Aug. 21-25) it may be part of Ledecky and Coach Bruce Gemmell’s grander strategy to pull her back a bit this week.
The race for second will be between Sutton, Gillian Ryan, Sarah Henry, Becca Mann and Cierra Runge, who all have the ability to finish in the 8:25 range.