USA Swimming Long Course Nationals: Day One Prelims

For full Swimming World coverage of the entire 2011 USA Swimming Long Course Nationals, including all videos and recaps, visit our Event Landing Page.

PALO ALTO, California, August 2. JUST days after the FINA World Long Course Championships came to a close, the USA Swimming Long Course Nationals kicked off in Palo Alto, Calif. With more than 1,800 swimmers in attendance, and a two-pool setup, the event looks to be massive in scope.

Women's 100 fly
California's Dana Vollmer, fresh off winning the world title in the 100 fly last week, cruised in for the top seed with a 57.68. Western Kentucky's Claire Donahue touched second in 58.91, while Stanford's Elaine Breeden took third in 59.04.

Tucson Ford's Christine Magnuson (59.13), North Coast's Kendyl Stewart (59.17), Longhorn's Kathleen Hersey (59.19), Auburn's Olivia Scott (59.52), Trojan's Lyndsay De Paul (59.60), SwimMAC's Katherine Mills (59.67) and Stanford's Felicia Lee (59.70) earned the rest of the championship final spots as the meet is qualifying finals up to 10 lanes.

Tennessee's Jennifer Connolly (59.75), Tennessee's Kelsey Floyd (59.81), Club Wolverine's Caitlin Dauw (59.83), Trojan's Jessica Hardy (59.95), New York's Kim Vandenberg (1:00.03), Colorado Stars' Kelly Naze (1:00.08), Patriot's Sarah Bateman (1:00.15), California's Amanda Sims (1:00.21) and Tucson Ford's Lauren Smart (1:00.25) earned the B final spots with Aggie's Caroline McElhany and Stanford's Samantha Woodward setting up a swimoff for the final B final spot with matching 1:00.32s.

Men's 400 free
Charlie Houchin raced to the top seed in the middle distance affair with a 3:48.03, while Snow's Matt McLean took second in 3:49.53. Club Wolverine's Matt Patton (3:49.91) and FAST's Michael Klueh (3:51.36) placed third and fourth.

Longhorn's Jackson Wilcox (3:51.75), The Woodlands' Michael McBroom (3:51.88), Scenic City's Sean Ryan (3:52.65), Pilot's Evan Pinion (3:52.89), Mission Viejo's Jan Daniec (3:52.91) and Delaware's Andrew Gemmell (3:51.91) all made the finale.

Club Wolverine's Connor Jaeger (3:53.45), Carolina's Michael Flach (3:53.52), Badger's Ryan Feeley (3:53.88), California's Sam Metz (3:54.14), FAST's Chip Peterson (3:54.84), New Trier's Reed Malone (3:55.05), Wisconsin's Michael Weiss (3:55.81), Santa Clara's Ryan Hinshaw (3:55.86), Germantown's Arthur Frayler (3:55.90) and Gator's Alejandro Gomez (3:56.19) garnered the B final spots.

Women's 200 IM
FAST's Katie Hoff nearly posted a season best in the women's 200 IM with a 2:11.68, just back from her stint at the World Championships in Shanghai. Bluefish's Elizabeth Beisel, another world teamer, took second in 2:11.85.

Athens Bulldog Morgan Scroggy (2:13.71), Stanford's Julia Smit (2:13.33), Stanford's Madeline Dirado (2:13.91), Germantown's Teresa Crippen (2:14.69), FAST's Whitney Myers (2:14.74), Colorado Stars' Missy Franklin (2:14.80), SwimAtlanta's Jana Mangimelli (2:15.28) and Pleasanton's Allison Brown (2:15.69) set themselves up to vie for the title in the A final.

Palo Alto's Jasmine Tosky (2:15.74), Indiana's Allysa Vavra (2:16.06), Saint Petersburg's Melanie Margalis (2:16.07), Rachel Ripley (2:16.24), Justine Mueller (2:16.53), Pleasanton's Celina Li (2:16.62), Lancaster's Emily Cameron (2:16.64), Rattler's Meghan Hawthorne (2:16.73), South Florida's Julie Stupp (2:16.82) and Carolina's Rachael Schaffer (2:16.88) rounded out the B final field.

Men's 100 breast
Longhorn's Brendan Hansen announced he is truly back in the saddle, and potentially America's premier breaststroker again, with a scorching time of 1:00.17 in prelims. That swim put him into ninth in the world this year, and ahead of all other U.S. breaststrokers. Mark Gangloff (1:00.19) was the only other U.S. breaststroker in the world's top 25 with his time from the World Championships.

Trojan's Mike Alexandrov qualified second in 1:00.70, while Tucson Ford's Marcus Titus earned third in 1:00.80. SwimMAC's Kevin Swander checked in fourth with a 1:01.15, while Trojan's John Criste (1:01.50), Longhorn's Eric Friedland (1:01.57), Trojan's Eric Shanteau (1:01.99), Fox Valley's Kevin Cordes (1:02.08), Stanford's Bernard Johnson (1:02.13), and Stanford's Robert Lovelace (1:02.14) picked up the big finale lanes.

Tucson Ford's Kevin Munsch (1:02.16), Tucson Ford's Clark Burckle (1:02.16), Peoria Area's Matt Elliott (1:02.23), Tucson Ford's Adam Ritter (1:02.25), Longhorn's Nick Di'Innocenzo (1:02.25), California's Sean Mahoney (1:02.43), California's Nolan Koon (1:02.44), Trojan's Ed Moses (1:02.54), Longhorn's Christian Schurr (1:02.57) and SwimMAC's Nelson Westby (1:02.67) also made the finale, with a spot in the consolation heat.

Notably, Ryan Lochte, just coming back from an epic meet at Worlds, finished 24th with a 1:02.96.

Women's 400 free
Minnesota's Ashley Steenvoorden put up the top time in the women's middle distance event with a 4:09.16. Mission Viejo's Chloe Sutton, just back from Shanghai, with a second-seeded time of 4:09.36. Parkland's Gillian Ryan (4:09.87) took third, while NBAC's Allison Schmitt, also returned from Worlds, took fourth in 4:09.92.

Pleasanton's Catherine Breed (4:09.95), Bluefish's Elizabeth Beisel (4:10.04), Trojan's Haley Anderson (4:10.54), NOVA's Rachel Naurath (4:10.64), Tucson Ford's Alyssa Anderson (4:10.79) and Gator's Dagny Knutson (4:11.06) earned a shot at the national title in the A final. Beisel is set up for a double tonight, after making the 200 IM finale as well.

Germantown's Rachel Zilinskas (4:11.08), Terrapins' Chelsea Chenault (4:11.19), Stanford's Andrea Taylor (4:11.37), Jewish Community's Leah Smith (4:11.79), Athens Bulldog Chelsea Nauta (4:12.39), NBAC's Camryne Morris (4:13.13), SwimAtlanta's Amber McDermott (4:13.14), Indiana's Brittany Strumbel (4:13.83), Tennessee's Lindsay Gendron (4:14.04) and Auburn's Katie Gardocky (4:14.05) snagged the consolation heat spots.

Men's 400 IM
Delaware's Andrew Gemmell added the 400 IM (4:18.33) to his evening, after also qualifying in the 400 free earlier in the morning. Lake Forest's Conor Dwyer (4:18.75), FAST's Robert Margalis (4:19.01) and Jack Brown (4:19.39) qualified second through fourth.

Trojan's William Harris (4:19.59), Tucson Ford's Austen Thompson (4:20.45), Wisconsin's Michael Weiss (4:21.35), Santa Maria's Josh Prenot (4:21.42), Athens Bulldog William Cregar (4:22.04) and Palo Alto's Ben Hinshaw (4:22.12) completed the championship heat.

NBAC's Chase Kalisz (4:22.16), Peddie's Connor Signorin (4:22.58), NBAC's Todd Patrick (4:22.77) and Stanford's Matt Thompson (4:23.00) qualified 11th-14th, while NASA Wildcat's Sean Mathews (4:23.05), GPAC's Michael Joyce (4:23.19), Northern Kentucky Clipper Max Williamson (4:23.45), Tucson Ford's Samuel Rowan (4:23.62), Club Wolverine's Kyle Whitaker (4:24.00) and Three Village's Tom Luchsinger (4:24.23) picked up the consolation heat seeds.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use