The fourth morning of the 2019 Phillips 66 USA Swimming Nationals will have three events with the 400 free, 100 breast and 100 back set to happen on Saturday morning in Palo Alto, California. The heats will begin at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Haley Anderson is the top seed in the 400 free as she is coming off a successful World Championships two weeks ago where she qualified to swim the 10K at the Olympic Games next summer. She won the silver medal at Worlds in the 10K which automatically secured a spot for Tokyo. Anderson will be the top seed ahead of Michigan’s Sierra Schmidt after original top seed Kaersten Meitz pulled out of the meet due to appendicitis.
Elijah Winnington is the top seed in the men’s 400 free as he will be looking to exorcise some demons after a disappointing showing at Australia’s World Trials in June where he didn’t make the World Championships team. Winnington was a 3:44 earlier in the year but couldn’t replicate that swim in June. He won the 200 free on Thursday night in Palo Alto.
2012 Olympian Breeja Larson is the top seed in the 100 breast as she will be looking to get back to her prime in this event. The second seed is Emily Weiss, who was the Swimming World High School Swimmer of the Year in 2018 and will be a freshman at Indiana this fall.
Devon Nowicki and Ian Finnerty are the top seeds in the 100 breast as Nowicki is looking to put together a good swim heading into the Olympic year. Finnerty is also coming off the World University Games where he won the gold medal in this event.
Scotland’s Kathleen Dawson and France’s Yohann N’Doye Brouard are the top seeds in the 100 back that will close the preliminaries session.
If it is USA Nationals; why are people from other countries competing? Wouldn’t they need to be competing in Asian or European Championship?
Since there are no teams being selected for senior events, international athletes are allowed to compete.