Kelsi Worrell and Cullen Jones Highlight the Second Morning at Phillips 66 Nationals

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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The second morning of action from the 2017 Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships featured eight prelim events with some fast swimming across the board. Katie Ledecky, Townley Haas and Kelsi Worrell will be looking to add more events to the World Championship lineup while Kathleen Baker, Ryan Murphy and others will be looking to make return trips to the national team. Andrew Wilson, Sean Lehane and Regan Smith will be looking for their first teams tonight.

Live Results

Heat Sheets

Today’s events:

Women’s 200 Freestyle
Men’s 200 Freestyle
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
Men’s 200 Breaststroke
Women’s 200 Backstroke
Men’s 200 Backstroke
Women’s 50 Butterfly
Men’s 50 Butterfly

Women’s 200 Free

Katie Ledecky continued to make fast swimming look easy on Wednesday morning as she picked up the number one seed for tonight’s final in the 200 free with a 1:55.87. Ledecky leads Melanie Margalis (1:57.27) and Leah Smith (1:57.61) into tonight’s A-final.

Ledecky already had the number one time in the world this year with a 1:55.34 from Santa Clara. She is the heavy favorite for tonight as she is looking to defend her 2015 world title in the event.

Simone Manuel (1:58.00), Mallory Comerford (1:58.39), Claire Rasmus (1:58.64), Cierra Runge (1:58.91) and Katie Drabot (1:59.09) will swim in the A-final with World Championship relay spots up for grabs. Ledecky, Comerford, Smith and Manuel picked up Budapest spots last night and will be feeling less pressure in tonight’s A-final. Margalis and Runge will be looking for their second straight World Championship team while the other swimmers will be searching for their first.

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Men’s 200 Free

Townley Haas showed off his sprint speed last night when he picked up a third place spot in the 100. He returned Wednesday morning with a strong 1:46.85 to lead the 200 free heats going into tonight. Haas has been a rising star since winning almost all the freestyle events at the 2014 Junior Nationals. He has showed that potential and then some with some strong swims at the NCAA’s and a very quick relay split last summer in Rio.

Haas leads a strong 200 free field that is bunched up with a number of 1:47’s. He is joined by Texas teammate Clark Smith (1:47.10) in the A-final. Those two will be looking for their first World Championship team after swimming in Rio last summer.

Caeleb Dressel (1:47.45), Blake Pieroni (1:47.49), Mitch D’Arrigo (1:47.52), Zane Grothe (1:47.58), Jay Litherland (1:47.76) and Conor Dwyer (1:48.10) placed in the top eight. Dressel and Pieroni picked up spots last night in the 4×100 free relay and Pieroni is better at the 200, so he could factor into the top four. Dressel is showing off his stretch 200 speed that he showed in high school.

D’Arrigo has Italian citizenship so it is unlikely he will be competing in the A-final, but we are not totally sure yet. Texas’ Jonathan Roberts (1:48.22) was ninth and would take his place in the A-final if he was not allowed to compete.

Major missed in the A-final included Gunnar Bentz (10th, 1:48.36), Maxime Rooney (10th), Michael Weiss (14th, 1:48.59) and Jack Conger (16th, 1:48.71).

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Women’s 200 Breast

Lilly King qualified for the 200 breast at last summer’s Olympics but failed to get out of the semi-finals. She is better at the 100, but if she wanted to be a major player on the world scene, she was going to have to get her 200 up to speed with the rest of the world. The women’s 200 breast has been one of the weaker events for the Americans since the retirement of Rebecca Soni after the 2012 Olympics.

King swam a strong morning swim in the 200 with a 2:24.68 to lead Bethany Galat (2:25.10) and Katie Meili (2:26.09) into the A-final. King and Galat had some strong battles in this pool at Indiana high school state not too long ago.

Andrea Cottrell (2:26.11), Miranda Tucker (2:26.49), Breeja Larson (2:27.21), Kayla Brumbaum (2:27.69) and Vanessa Pearl (2:27.70) will also swim in the A-final.

Larson is the only swimmer in the field who has swum in a World Championships before as she will be looking for her third straight team. King and Meili swam in Rio last summer but have never swum in a World Championships.

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Men’s 200 Breast

Andrew Wilson was right on world record pace for 150 meters before he fell off over the last 50 in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke at the 2017 Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships. Wilson swam a 2:08.64 to snag the top seed in front of four 2:09’s that are all within a tenth of each other. Wilson’s time is now seventh in the world for 2017.

Nic Fink (2:09.25), Josh Prenot (2:09.27), Will Licon (2:09.29) and Kevin Cordes (2:09.35) are all within striking distance of the lead here as all five of those swimmers looked strong and have a lot left. Cordes and Fink will be looking for their third straight World Championship teams as the other three are searching for their first.

Jonathan Tybur (2:11.55), Jacob Montague (2:11.70) and Daniel Roy (2:11.92) will also swim in the A-final, but it is expected to be a huge race between the top five.

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Women’s 200 Back

Kathleen Baker put together a solid 200 back morning swim with a 2:08.56 to lead the qualifiers into tonight’s A-final. Baker will be looking to qualify for her second straight World Championships after making her debut in 2015. Baker now sits in sixth in the world rankings for the year behind Australia’s Emily Seebohm (2:06.66), Canada’s Kylie Masse (2:07.23), Russia’s Daria Ustinova (2:07.23), Canada’s Hilary Caldwell (2:07.29) and Hungary’s Katalin Burns (2:08.38).

Baker leads 15-year-old Regan Smith from Minnesota’s Riptide Aquatics (2:08.95) who is in line for a potential first major senior international trip. Kentucky’s Bridgette Alexander (2:09.44), Texas A&M’s Lisa Bratton (2:09.85), Lakeside’s Asia Seidt (2:09.95), Georgia’s Hali Flickinger (2:10.21), Georgia’s Kylie Stewart (2:10.34) and Alex Sumner (2:10.36) will swim in the A-final.

Flickinger already has a spot on the team for Budapest after she won the 200 fly last night. Baker is looking for her second straight Worlds appearance as the rest of the field is looking for their first.

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Men’s 200 Back

Tennessee postgrad swimmer Sean Lehane posted the top time of the morning in the men’s 200 back heats with an easy 1:57.07. Lehane is swimming with his club team in the Academy Bullets and he leads Virginia Tech’s Robert Owen (1:57.34) and the Cal duo of Ryan Murphy (1:57.35) and Jacob Pebley (1:57.49).

Murphy and Pebley swam this event in Rio last summer as Murphy took home the gold medal and Pebley finished fifth. Both of those guys train at Cal and looked pretty easy this morning, but so did Lehane. The ladder finished fourth at Trials last summer and could play spoiler Wednesday night to the Cal swimmers.

Sarasota’s Austin Katz (1:58.71), NC State’s Hennessey Stuart (1:59.44), Stanford’s Abrahm DeVine (1:59.85) and Tennessee’s Joey Reilman (1:59.91) will swim in the A-final tonight.

Murphy will be looking for his second straight World Championship berth as the rest of the field is searching for their first.

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Women’s 50 Fly

Louisville has been off to a hot start at the 2017 Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships thanks to Mallory Comerford. Kelsi Worrell continued that momentum for the Cardinals Wednesday morning with a 25.78 in the 50 butterfly heats. Her time was slightly off Dara Torres’ American Record from 2009 at 25.50. Worrell is the top seed by a large margin over Amanda Kendall (26.33) and Annie Ochitwa (26.49).

Kendyl Stewart (26.50), Hellen Moffitt (26.57), Maddie Murphy (26.60), Alyssa Marsh (26.69) and Aly Tetzloff (26.74) will also swim in the A-final.

There are no guaranteed World Championships spots up for grabs in the 50 stroke events. You can read the qualification terms here. Worrell now sits tied for fourth in the world with Belgium’s Kimberly Buys. Worrell is behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (24.76), Japan’s Rikako Ikee (25.74) and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak (25.76). Worrell is already on the team for the 4×100 free relay so if she wins the 50 fly tonight, she could elect to swim it in Budapest.

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Men’s 50 Fly

33-year-old veteran Cullen Jones broke Eugene Godsoe’s Nationals meet record in the 50 fly on Wednesday morning at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships. Jones paced the heats with a 23.26 to break Godsoe’s record of 23.29. Jones’ time puts him third in the world for 2017 behind Great Britain’s Ben Proud (22.80) and Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov (23.05).

Jones is also not far off of Bryan Lundquist’s American Record of 22.91 from 2009.

Jones leads a stacked A-final with Caeleb Dressel (23.33), Michael Andrew (23.51), Tim Phillips (23.62), Giles Smith (23.71), Justin Lynch (23.87), Tom Shields (23.90) and Ryan Held (23.93).

The winner does not automatically qualify for Budapest in the 50 stroke events. If the winning swimmer qualifies in another event, then they can elect to swim the 50 in Budapest. You can read the official qualification rules here. Jones would have to do well in the 50 free on Saturday, something he looks like he is in much better shape for than some thought before the meet.

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