Editorial content for the USA Swimming Summer Nationals coverage is sponsored by TritonWear. Visit TritonWear.com for more information on our sponsor. For full Swimming World coverage, check event coverage page.
Leah Smith of Tucson Ford Dealers cruised to the number one time in the 400 IM heats on Friday morning at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, California. Smith is seeded first ahead of Georgia’s Melanie Margalis as Smith came in with a 4:38.11 to Margalis’ 4:38.37.
There were a couple big names that dropped out of the race with Katie Ledecky not entering it, Madisyn Cox getting suspended and Ella Eastin scratching this morning, so it is giving a lot of swimmers valuable experience moving forward.
Penn State’s Ally McHugh is the third seed coming into tonight with a 4:39.67 as her and Stanford’s Brooke Forde (4:39.85) were the only other girls under 4:40 in the heats.
Evie Pfeifer (4:40.28), Allie Szekely (4:41.23), Kay Sargent (4:41.33) and Emma Weyant (4:42.19) also placed in the top eight tonight.
There were some big A-Final misses with Texas A&M’s Bethany Galat placing 15th (4:47.81). Hali Flickinger also declared a false start in the heats.
Photo Courtesy:
“…were the only other girls under 4:40 in the heats.” Girls? Really? What is this, the 1950’s?