Caroline Arakelian Breaks 200 Back NCAA Division II Record – USA Swimming Day Four Prelim Full Recap

Photo Courtesy: Tony Romanini

GREENSBORO – The final day of competition at the USA Swimming nationals will give athletes another opportunity to post lifetime bests, with today’s prelims featuring many of the meet’s champions setting up to win more hardware.

Women’s 200 backstroke

Clara Smiddy has been performing well at the USA Swimming nationals, earning a couple of relay wins and top-three events in individual events. Now, the Michigan freshman is the top qualifier for her specialty event, the 200 backstroke, with a 1:52.94. She was four tenths short of the NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:52.52, which she should get as she chases her lifetime best of 1:50.59 in the final. She will need that speed, with reigning NCAA champion Brooklynn Snodgrass of Indiana qualifying third with a 1:54.55. Snodgrass won the NCAA title with a 1:50.52. In between them in second spot was Greater Holyoke’s Erin Voss with a 1:53.44.

Also making it into the A final will be Michigan’s Hannah Moore (1:54.57), Indiana’s Kennedy Goss (1:54.90), Claire Adams of Carmel Swim Club (1:54.92) and Indiana’s Cynthia Pammett (1:55.61).

Grace Ariola of Waves of Bloomington and Caroline Arakelian of Queens University of Charlotte tied for eighth with times of 1:55.78 to set up a swimoff. In that swimoff, both ladies swam faster, with Ariola getting into the A final with a 1:54.93, while Arakelian posted a 1:55.23. That breaks her NCAA Division II record of 1:55.57, which she swam last March in winning the Division II title. Look for her to lower that time again in the B final.

Madison White (1:56.00), Justine Ress (1:56.07), Asia Seidt (1:56.07), Claudia Lau (1:56.09), Nadine Laemmler (1:56.17), Gabby Deloof (1:56.83) and Emily Meilus (1:56.88) will be in the B final as well.

Zulal Zeren (1:57.21), Ally Loper (1:57.28), Syndey Sell (1:57.35), Marie Chamberlain (1:57.50), Emma Seiberlich (1:57.62), Hannah Magnuson (1:57.65), Allie Day (1:57.83) and Kyra Sarazen (1:57.85) will swim in the C final.

Men’s 200 backstroke

Grigory Tarasevich and Aaron Greene will be looking to give Louisville its first individual event win on the men’s side — and possibly its first 1-2 finish of the meet, with the sophomores qualifying 1-2 in the event. Tarasevich posted a 1:41.52 for the top seed, while Greene followed with a 1:42.18. Tarasevich nearly beat his lifetime best of 1:41.33 from the NCAA championships, while Greene beat his best time of 1:42.21.

Three other swimmers cracked the 1:43 barrier this morning to get into the championship final. Michigan’s Tristan Sanders is third with a 1:42.85, while Ohio State’s Rowan Williams placed fourth with a 1:42.88. Eric Ress, last season’s NCAA runner-up in the 200 back for Indiana now representing Santa Clara Swim Club, qualified fifth with a 1:42.97. Louisville got a third swimmer in the final, as Nolan Tesone took sixth with a 1:43.41. Badger’s James Wells (1:43.45) was seventh, while a fourth swimmer with ties to Louisville, Pedro Oliveira, is eighth with a 1:43.80.

Steven Zimmerman leads the way in qualifying for the B final with a 1:43.80. He will be joined by Jorden Merrilees (1:44.08), Austin Katz (1:44.62), Maxime Rooney (1:44.79), Thomas Nguyen (1:45.15), Hennessey Stuart (1:45.26), Nathan Murray (1:45.83) and Joey Reilman (1:45.93).

Into the C final will be: Nick Hasemann (1:45.98), Zachary Lierley (1:45.99), Jack Mangan (1:46.13), Griffin Schaetzle (1:46.17), Stephen Clendenin (1:46.31), Nick Carter (1:46.47), Bob Glover (1:47.00) and Will Raynor (1:47.01).

Women’s 100 freestyle

Kelsi Worrell finds herself as the top seed in the women’s 100 freestyle. She was the top seed in the 50 freestyle on Thursday, but faded to third in the final. The Louisville senior will look to revenge that finish, boosted by a big win in the 100 butterfly last night that featured a lifetime best. She nearly got another lifetime best this morning, posting a 48.36. Linnea Mack of UCLA, who has swum in multiple finals but has yet to secure a victory, qualified second with a 48.46. Katie Ledecky of Nation’s Capital could be the spoiler, qualifying third with a 48.61. She will swim the 1650 freestyle before the 100 free final, but since it’s Katie Ledecky, never count her out of anything.

Faith Johnson of Tennessee, the 50 free winner, qualified fifth with a 49.03 and Ali Deloof of Michigan was sixth with a 49.28. A three-way tie for seventh prompted a swimoff later in the session, featuring Veronica Burchill of Carmel Swim Club, Rhi Jeffrey of Phoenix Swimming and Megan Moroney of St. Andrew’s. All three posted times of 49.44.

Jeffrey won the swimoff with a 48.83 to get lane one in the A final, while Burchill got lane eight in the big heat with a 49.05. Moroney couldn’t improve on her prelim swim, posting a 49.70 to get the top seed of the B final.

Getting 10th through 16th in prelims were: Kennedy Goss (49.76), Patricia Castro Oretega (49.88), Grace Vertigans (49.90), Kaitlyn Johnson (49.94), Monica Dornick (50.01), Jessica Merritt (50.13) and Annie Jongekrijg (50.23).

Into the C final will be: Melissa Gates (50.25), Paige Madden (50.27), Becca Postoll (50.32), Zoe Mattingly (50.34), Erika Brown (50.45), Delaney Barnard (50.50), Alexia Zevnik (50.50) and Lauren Case (50.51).

Men’s 100 freestyle

Though Nathan Adrian is expected to take the win tonight in the men’s 100 free, the Olympic champion from California Aquatics won’t line up in lane four. That will be used by Counsilman Center Swim Team’s Daniel Kanorr with his blazing 42.60 in prelims. The former Indiana University swimmer dropped six tenths off his lifetime best to get the top seed in what should be a barnburner of a heat.

Club Wolverine’s Junya Koga, who won the 100 backstroke last night, took the second seed with a 43.18, while SwimMAC Carolina’s Mark Weber qualified third with a 43.26. Adrian’s time of 43.30 got him in the fourth spot, just ahead of the 43.31 by Ohio State’s Josh Fleagle and the 43.32 by Sidni Hoxa of Monarch Aquatics. YMCA of the Triangle Area’s Joe Bonk (43.38) and Anze Tavcar of Indiana (43.39) also qualified for the final.

Michael Disalle posted a 43.48 to place ninth in prelims and get the top spot for the B final. Bruno Ortiz (43.65), Trevor Carroll (43.69), Derek Toomey (43.70), Sean Fletcher (43.71), Robbie Renwick (43.84), Matthias Lindenbauer (43.86) and Max Grodecki (43.98) will join Disalle in the heat.

Hassaan Abdel Khalik’s 44.00 was 17th and gets him lane four for the C final. Also swimming in that heat will be: Blake Pieroni (44.01), Zach Hayden (44.05), Marcus Schlesinger (44.11), Drew Modrov (44.12), Paul Powers (44.15), Illya Glazunov (44.18) and Viacheslav Shchukin (44.22).

Women’s 200 breaststroke

World championship bronze medalist Micah Lawrence of SwimMAC Carolina did what was needed to get into lane four for tonight’s final, posting a 2:09.02. She should be able to improve on her lifetime best of 2:08.23 from November 2012, given her rate of improvement since she swam that time.

Lawrence remains the class of the field in American breaststroke, but might get a push from a strong field. Miranda Tucker of Livonia Community Swim Club dropped more than a second off her lifetime best to qualify second with a 2:09.11, with four swimmers behind her also breaking 2:10.

SwimMAC’s Katie Meili, the 200 IM champion, is third with a 2:09.18. Tennessee’s Molly Hannis qualified fourth with a 2:09.27 after winning the 100 breast last night. Amanda Rutqvist, a former standout at South Carolina, took fifth with a 2:09.89 ahead of the 2:09.98 by Badger’s Bronwyn Pasloski. Lilly King of Newburgh Sea Creatures (2:10.47) and Danielle Herrmann of Clovis (2:10.95) also made it into the top eight.

Andee Cottrell takes the top spot for the B final with a 2:11.11, followed closely by Kathryn Johnstone (2:11.36) and Emily Kopas (2:11.72). Kinga Cichowska (2:13.14), Corrie Scott (2:13.64), Ashley Vance (2:13.85), Claire Conlon (2:14.12) and Leah Stevens (2:14.13) also will swim in the consolation heat.

Cam Dixon (2:14.37), Jessica Khojasteh (2:14.56), Devon Bibault (2:14.58), Amy Bopp (2:14.68), Sophie Cattermole (2:15.10), Marni Oldershaw (2:15.16), Jaclyn Hill (2:15.42) and Manuela Sampaio (2:15.48) took 17th through 24th to get into the C final.

Men’s 200 breaststroke

The Louisville men had another strong showing in the 200 breast, putting up the top two times in the heats, with four others getting into the top 24. Senior Thomas Dahlia takes the top spot with a 1:55.40 followed by 2012 NCAA champion Carlos Almeida. Almeida is now a postrgad at Louisville and posted a 1:56.39 in prelims. Two other Louisville Cardinals got into the championship heat, with Addison Bray fourth in 1:56.95 and Carlos Claverie sixth with a 1:57.24.

Purdue’s Marat Amaltdinov took the third seed with a 1:56.84, while Mike Alexandrov of Trojan takes fifth seed with a 1:57.09. Rounding out the championship final field were 100 breast champion Richard Funk of Michigan (1:57.48) and Yucaipa’s Trevor Hoyt (1:57.96).

Fabian Schwingenschlogl takes the top seed in the B final with a 1:58.07, followed by Roka Cepulis (1:58.21), Todd Owen (1:58.40), Tanner Kurz (1:58.41), Luke Nosbisch (1:58.41), Chris Klein (1:58.55), DJ Macdonald (1:58.70) and Peter Kropp (1:59.06).

Into the C final were: Josh Zimmt (1:59.18), Jared Pike (1:59.21), Connor O’Prey (1:59.30), Ethan Browne (1:59.37), Lachezar Shumkov (1:59.37), Rostyslav Fedyna (1:59.47), Nic Eriksson (1:59.55) and Dexter Thomas (2:00.27).

Women’s 200 butterfly

Kelsi Worrell will be going for an interesting double tonight, taking the top time in the women’s 200 fly with a 1:54.75. Once again, she falls just short of automatically qualifying for the NCAAs in the event but will go after it in tonight’s finals. Her time is more than a second faster than the rest of the field, with Hannah Saiz of Schroeder YMCA taking second with a 1:56.09, just a tenth off her personal best.

Two Baileys will also swim in the final, with Fort Collins’ Bailey Nero qualifying third with a 1:57.08 and Indiana’s Bailey Pressey fourth with a 1:57.13. For Nero, that’s a drop of 1.5 seconds from her lifetime best, while Pressey chopped 1.2 seconds off her best time.

Also into the championship final will be: UCLA’s Noelle Tarazona (1:57.35), Lauren Case of Chattahoochee Gold (1:57.40), Katie Grover of UCLA (1:57.40) and Anna Quinn of UCLA (1:57.51). That’s three swimmers in the A final for the Bruins, a big presence for a growing team.

Caitlin Casazza takes the top seed in the B final with a 1:58.10, joined in the heat by Ellen Stello (1:58.28), Devon Bibault (1:58.46), Isabella Paez (1:58.59), Katie Kinnear (1:58.65), Gia Dalesandro (1:58.78), Haley Lips (1:59.38) and Amy Bopp (1:59.51).

Into the C final will be: Gracie DiMeo (1:59.56), Hannah Kastigar (1:59.57), Yurie Nakano (1:59.71), Heather Lundstrom (1:59.78), Arlyn Upshaw (1:59.88), Delaney Walz (1:59.96), Molly Sheffield (2:00.20) and Amanda Lucia (2:00.53).

Men’s 200 butterfly

Michigan’s Dylan Bosch might be waiting until next March’s NCAA championships to give his U.S. Open record of 1:39.33 a chase, but a 1:43.31 in today’s prelims set him up for a dominating final. Club Wolverine’s Kyle Whitaker is nearly two seconds back, qualifying second with a 1:45.14 as one of four swimmers in the 1:45 range in prelims. Navy’s Jonathan Debaugh nearly clipped his lifetime best to get into the third spot with a 1:45.38, while Josh Quallen of Louisville also challenged his lifetime best in qualifying fourth with a 1:45.89. Also under 1:46 was Ohio State’s Tamas Gercsak with a 1:45.92.

Indiana’s Max Irwin (1:46.58), Michigan’s Evan White (1:46.85) and NOVA of Virginia’s Ted Schubert (1:46.87) also will swim in the A final.

Missing out on the championship heat by .01 was Martin Vogel, who will be the top seed in the B final with a 1:46.88. Joining him in that heat will be: Christian McCurdy (1:47.57), Bowen Anderson (1:47.59), Kyle Lukens (1:47.78), Jack Smith (1:47.80), Maxime Rooney (1:48.02), Bryan Hughes (1:48.04) and Mack Rice (1:48.14).

Nico Van Duijn (1:48.18), Joe Brown (1:48.31), Matthew Beach (1:48.52), Carter Kale (1:48.74), Sam Pomajevich (1:48.86), Jacob Moyar (1:49.13), Brandon Colonis (1:49.17) and Joe Powell (1:49.70) will race in the C final.

Note: The 400 freestyle relay will be swum as a timed-final event in tonight’s finals session. The early heats of the 1650 freestyle will begin at 2:13 p.m. Eastern time for the women and 2:20 p.m. for the men.

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