Melanie Margalis’ Double Gold, Kelsi Worrell’s 49 100 Fly Headline Friday Night of AT&T Nationals

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The third night of competition from the 2017 AT&T Winter Nationals from Columbus, Ohio featured a plethora of fast swims on Friday night. Melanie Margalis was the star on the night winning two events. Kelsi Worrell and Nic Fink swam pretty fast times tonight as well as Worrell swam the third fastest 100 fly ever and Fink moved to fourth all-time in the 100 breast with their wins tonight.

Mallory Comerford, Chase Kalisz and Ryan Murphy also had routine wins on the third night of Nationals in Columbus.

Tonight’s events:

400 IM
100 Fly
200 Free
100 Breast
100 Back
200 Free Relay

Women’s 400 IM

25-year-old Georgia post-grad swimmer Melanie Margalis won her second event of the weekend with a 4:00.59 to just miss the four-minute barrier in the event. Margalis remains as the ninth fastest performer all-time in the event as her 3:59.85 from 2014 SEC’s remains in that spot as her best time. Margalis picked up a personal best in the 200 IM last night.

Margalis has been a fixture for the national team in the 200 IM the last couple years but has disappeared from the 400 IM since her collegiate days at Georgia finished in 2014. With the impending retirement of Elizabeth Beisel and the lack of a true star like Maya DiRado, the United States is desperately looking for a 400 IMer to make some noise internationally in the event. Margalis may not be the long time answer, but she can provide experience and leadership for the time being in the event if she decides to stick to it as we move into the gap year and the 2018 Pan Pacs.

Margalis again was even with the field at the halfway point, but used her breaststroke to pull again from the field just like she did last night. She won handily in the end ahead of Emma Muzzy (4:06.72) and Ohio State’s Meg Bailey (4:07.07) swimming in her home pool.

Rachael Bradford-Feldman (4:09.24), Kathrin Demler (4:11.17), Bailey Bonnett (4:12.48), Maggie Jahns (4:15.56) and Molly Kowal (4:17.53) also swam in the championship final.

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Men’s 400 IM

Chase Kalisz said after the race that he didn’t like short course. But he won his second title of the weekend regardless of that fact with a win on Friday night in the 400 IM at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Kalisz has been one of the most dominating swimmers in this event since he won the NCAA title as a freshman in 2013. Kalisz won comfortably tonight with a 3:39.45 for the win, well off his 3:33.42 American Record.

Etay Gurevich of Louisville finished in second from lane eight with a 3:45.56 ahead of Machine Aquatics’ Casey Storch (3:46.31) and Long Island’s Jason Louser (3:47.70).

Christopher Jhong (3:49.07), Jarrett Jones (3:50.06), Phillip Meffert (3:51.48) and Sean Conway (3:52.01) also swam in the championship final.

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Women’s 100 Fly

Chase Kalisz has been the king of consistency in the 400 IM in the previous event. Louisville postgrad Kelsi Worrell won the 100 fly final on Friday night at the AT&T Winter Nationals with a 49.87 for the third fastest performance ever in the event, behind only herself. Worrell is also the only woman ever under 50 seconds in the 100 fly.

Worrell won with a meet record, breaking Rachel Komisarz‘s 50.10 from the 2007 Winter Nationals. Worrell won ahead of Louisville teammate Mallory Comerford (50.92) who swam the second fastest time in the NCAA this season, moving ahead of Stanford’s Janet Hu (51.27). Comerford is now tied for 19th all-time in the event with Kendyl Stewart.

Amanda Kendall (51.14), Aliena Schmidtke (51.30), Grace Oglesby (51.69), Joyce Kwok (52.98), Nastja Govejsek (53.58) and Alexa Cuomo 53.66) also competed in the A-final.

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Men’s 100 Fly

Josh Prenot is normally known as a 200 breaststroker, not a 100 butterflyer. Prenot silenced everybody when he went out with a 45.81 for the national title in the 100 fly on Friday night in Columbus. Prenot used his underwater kicks to his advantage a la Tom Shields to win the 100 fly title in an event he doesn’t normally swim.

Ohio State’s Michael Salazar (45.98) and Noah Lense (46.17) finished second and third in their home pool at the AT&T Winter Nationals. For the time being, Salazar is second in the NCAA this season with that swim. Michael Andrew (46.17), Bryce Bohman (46.40), Nicolas Albiero (47.19), Zach Harting (47.28) and Khalil Fonder (47.63) swam in the A-final as well.

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Women’s 200 Free

USA Swimming’s breakout swimmer of the year Mallory Comerford showed no signs of slowing down on Friday night at the AT&T Winter Nationals, despite swimming the 100 fly final before this. Comerford broke the meet record with a 1:41.17 to take down Missy Franklin’s 1:41.40 meet record from 2013. Comerford is on a role this year after making her first World Championship team this past summer. Comerford’s time is now the fastest in the nation so far surpassing Katie Ledecky of Stanford (1:41.60).

Isabel Ivey (1:43.89), Melanie Margalis (1:44.64), Arina Openysheva (1:45.59), Sophie Cattermole (1:45.85), Ali Galyer (1:45.98), Ashley Neidigh (1:46.22) and Miranda Heckman (1:46.79) also competed in the championship final.

Comerford could seriously challenge Ledecky in the event if the latter decides to swim it. It is hard to believe Comerford would drop the 200 in favor of the 100 fly, but only time will tell what will happen. But a lot of people are eager to see the reigning co-champions go at it in the 200 free final in this same pool at the NCAA Championships.

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Men’s 200 Free

Matias Koski took control of the 200 free final early and hung on to win at 1:32.95 on Friday night at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Columbus. New American Record holder Zane Grothe finished in second with a 23.20 on his final 50 at 1:33.28 overall. New American citizen Mitch D’Arrigo finished in third at 1:33.51.

Koski picked up another win for the Georgia postgrad group as it was a minor upset over D’Arrigo and Grothe.

Josh Fleagle (1:33.94), Andrej Barna (1:35.72), Corey Main (1:35.75), Samuel Steele (1:35.93) and Philip Manoff (1:37.46) also swam in the A-final.

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Women’s 100 Breast

In her third race of the evening at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Columbus, Melanie Margalis won the 100 breast with an impressive 58.51 after swimming the 400 IM and 200 free already tonight. Margalis beat a pretty strong field that included 2012 Olympian Breeja Larson (58.61) and World University Games medalist Andrea Cottrell (58.82).

Mariia Astashkina (59.71), Danielle Herrmann (59.76), Rachel Bernhardt (1:00.17), Bailey Bonnett (1:00.31) and Hanna Gresser (1:01.38) also swam in the A-final.

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Men’s 100 Breast

It was a stacked field in the 100 breast as Nic Fink moved to fourth all-time and became the eighth swimmer under 51 seconds in the event with a 50.80 for a best time. Fink’s best time was a 51.08 and he moves ahead of Cody Miller, not only in the race, but in the all-time rankings. Miller was second at 50.98 and moved to fifth all-time with his 50.82 from 2015.

Reece Whitley finished third at 51.81. His time would rank him first in the NCAA this season as Ian Finnerty was a 51.99 at the Purdue Invite. Whitley will be swimming at Cal next year.

Michael Andrew (51.95), Nick Zito (51.96), Josh Prenot (52.57), Carlos Claverie (52.83) and Nicholas Leshok (53.86) also swam in the A-final.

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Women’s 100 Back

Olympian and World Championship team member Olivia Smoliga won the 100 back final at 51.23 to win her second national title of the weekend at the AT&T Winter Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. Smoliga touched ahead of young high schoolers Isabel Ivey and Phoebe Bacon, as well as Kentucky senior Bridgette Alexander.

Alexander finished second at 52.28 ahead of Ivey (52.29) and Bacon (52.36). Smoliga, now 23, was once the young doe chasing the veterans and now she has found herself in the position of being chased. She did her job here winning the final for a national title.

Ashlyn Schoof (52.71), Rebekah Bradley (53.41), Emma Muzzy (53.78) and Alina Kendzior (54.66) also swam in the A-final.

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Men’s 100 Back

Ryan Murphy put on a strong showing on Friday night at the 2017 AT&T Winter Nationals in Columbus with a 45.03 for a win. Murphy swam fast, but he was a little off his American record of 43.49 from the 2016 NCAA’s. Murphy is in his first year as a post grad and is clearly not shaved at this meet, but he still swam well enough for the win.

Murphy finished first ahead of his longtime training partner Jacob Pebley (46.06) and Louisville postgrad Grigory Tarasevich (46.53).

Bryce Bohman (46.56), Brendan Burns (47.00), Corey Main (47.07), Nicolas Albiero (47.36) and Nikolaos Sofianidis (47.47) also competed in the championship final.

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Women’s 200 Free Relay

Louisville won the women’s 200 free relay thanks to three sub-22 splits. Mallory Comerford (21.87), Lainey Visscher (21.87), Avery Braunecker (22.10) and Casey Fanz (21.66) swam a very fast 1:27.50, that is the fastest time in the nation barring what else happens this weekend.

Ohio State was second at 1:29.25 and Louisville B was third at 1:30.61.

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Men’s 200 Free Relay

Louisville doubled up with another win in the 200 free relay thanks to Andrej Barna (19.82), Zach Harting (19.57), Mate Kovacs (19.86) and Nicolas Albiero (19.42). The Cardinals went 1-2 with the A team (1:18.67) winning ahead of their B (1:20.75). Ohio State was third at 1:20.91 after their A team was DQ’d.

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