Morning Splash: Lilly King Faces Her Equal But Opposite in Kierra Smith

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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By David Rieder.

Never shy about her own abilities, Lilly King pointed out before the 100 breast that she expected to have no close competition and would be racing the clock. Not that it was a terribly bold prediction—she arrived in Indianapolis seeded more than two seconds ahead of anyone else in the field.

“Get ahead, stay ahead,” King said beforehand. “And hopefully go under 30 on the last 50 because it’d be kind of sad to go 55 with a 30 on the last 50.”

Of course, the race did not quite go as planned.

“The individual race, uhh, sucked,” she said. Even if she finished in 56.71, which happened to be the second-fastest time in history, but she

“It’s always kind of hard for me to get up when I don’t really have a race,” King said.

But in the upcoming 200 breast, that one won’t be so easy. King won the NCAA championship last season by more than two seconds, but returning to the fray is Kierra Smith, who skipped what would have been her senior year at Minnesota in 2015-16 to train for the Olympics.

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Representing Canada, Smith made the final of the 200 breast in Rio and finished seventh, and while King made the semifinals, she faded to 12th. But in short course, King doesn’t have as much time to fade, and she showed her mastery of the 200-yard distance at the NCAA championships last season, smashing the American record (2:03.59) on her way to a dominant victory.

But the two separate occasions King has raced Smith head-to-head this season have anything but dominant. At the College Challenge in the same Indianapolis pool in November, King edged out Smith, 2:05.64 to 2:05.83 but only after Smith almost erased the 28.01 to 29.11 advantage King established on the first 50.

When they met again at the B1G championships in West Lafayette, Ind., in February, King built a lead of 1.6 seconds at the halfway point and then again had to hold tough down the stretch, touching the wall in 2:04.03, while Smith came in at 2:04.37.

King’s time is the second-fastest in history, behind her own American record, while Smith comes in ranked third all-time behind King and Breeja Larson. There’s plenty of reason to think the redshirt senior will give King everything she can handle when they meet in the 200-yard final—even if Smith looks out of the race at the halfway point.

During her stunning rise to international prominence over the past year, King has shown she not only will not back down from challenges, but she embraces rivalries. Yulia Efimova can attest to that—whatever the intentions of King’s finger wagging, her tough talk on performance-enhancing drugs and even her race strategy, they paid off in Olympic gold.

“I love head-to-heads, obviously,” King said, drawing some laughter in the media room. “Yeah, I’m super excited to race Kierra. It’s like the front half vs. the back half, a perfect head-to-head race.”

*Katie Ledecky for Swimmer of the Meet? Not so fast…

Katie Ledecky anchored a meet-opening record-crushing relay for Stanford before re-stamping her dominance on the 500 free, finishing in 4:24.06 to lower the American record in that event for the fifth time. She tied for first in the 200 free with Mallory Comerford, touching in 1:40.38 to move to No. 2 all-time in the event

And in the 1650, it’s hard to imagine Ledecky not becoming the first woman to ever crack the 15-minute barrier.

Her performance this week had been exactly what we’ve come to expect from Ledecky these past few years. It’s been awhile since anything she does in the water has been considered surprising.

But how about Kathleen Baker? The Cal sophomore won the NCAA title in the 200 IM in a time just four one-hundredths off the American record, and then added a win in the 100 back, twice posting sub-50 times in the event. Now, Baker enters the 200 back as the heavy favorite and has a best time just a half-second off the American record.

Last season, no one won three individual events at NCAAs, and King got the Swimmer of the Meet nod over Ella Eastin by virtue of her American records in both breaststroke events. This meet figures to finish with two deserving candidates, but still, it’s hard to imagine that Ledecky’s records and the stunning nature of her victories don’t garner her a majority of the vote.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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Michael Maloney

7 years ago

when Katie goes under 15 in the 1650 on Sat…she is the swimmer of the meet..hands down…and hopefully they let her swim the 400 free relay to another ncaa/am record….HOPEFULLY