Regan Smith’s World Junior Record Highlights Penultimate Prelim Session In Irvine

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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The penultimate prelims session of the 2018 Phillips 66 USA Swimming Nationals featured six total events. The Pan Pac team will start to take shape by the end of finals tonight as we are winding down to the end of the meet in Irvine.

Regan Smith and Phoebe Bacon challenged the World Junior Record in the 100 back with Smith ultimately taking it. Katie Ledecky did what she always does and qualified first for the 400 free, and Molly Hannis busted up to third in the world rankings in the 100 breast.

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Women’s 400 Free

In what has become almost routine, Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith are on top of the 400 free heats at the USA Swimming National Championships. Ledecky and Smith have finished 1-2 at the last two Nationals and are showing signs of a three peat in 2018. Ledecky has the top seed with a 4:02.69 to Smith’s 4:05.14 as both are safely into tonight’s final.

Ledecky and Smith have already qualified for the team after their top four finishes in the 200 free on Thursday night.

The battle for third will be an extremely tight race as five other ladies swam a 4:08 in the heats in Irvine on Saturday morning. Sierra Schmidt of Michigan is the third seed at 4:08.12. Hali Flickinger (4:08.40), Haley Anderson (4:08.46), Kaersten Meitz (4:08.55) and Geena Freriks (4:08.91) all swam 4:08’s. Kirsten Jacobsen of Arizona is the eighth seed at 4:09.36.

Flickinger and Anderson are already on the Pan Pac team after Flickinger won the 200 fly and Anderson qualified in Open Water.

Claire Tuggle of Clovis Swim Club is number four all-time in the 13-14 NAG rankings with her 4:10.17 this morning. Tuggle sits behind Sippy Woodhead (4:07.15), Becca Mann (4:08.65) and Ledecky (4:09.30).

There were a lot of notable A-Final misses as the B-Final is almost just as stacked as the A. Allison Schmitt (4:10.80) finished 11th, Katie Drabot (4:11.01) finished 12th, Ally McHugh finished 14th (4:11.32) and Cierra Runge (4:14.00) finished 26th.

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Men’s 400 Free

The men’s 400 free field will be a tight one on Saturday night in Irvine as veteran Zane Grothe qualified with the fastest time at 3:48.30. Grothe is just ahead of three other swimmers who went 3:48’s in the heats as it will be a dog fight to the wall tonight in the A-Final.

Grothe is ahead of Grant Shoults (3:48.51), Andrew Abruzzo (3:48.58) and Chris Wieser (3:48.69).

The swimmers are going to need to swim much faster tonight if they want to compete with the rest of the world as the top time in the world this year is a 3:43.76 by Australia’s Mack Horton. Horton will be one of the favorites at the Pan Pacs in Japan in a couple weeks.

Trey Freeman (3:49.02), True Sweetser (3:50.08), Ben Lawless (3:50.13) and Zach Yeadon (3:51.01) will also swim in the A-Final as every swimmer besides Grothe is younger than 22. Grothe is the oldest in the final at 26 years of age.

Some notable A-Final misses came from Townley Haas in 24th (3:53.58) and Clark Smith in 41st (3:56.20).

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Women’s 100 Breast

Tennessee’s Molly Hannis had the fastest 100 breast of the heats on Friday morning in Irvine with a 1:05.78. Hannis is over a second ahead of the rest of the field as she swam the third fastest 100 breast of 2018. Hannis sits behind Yulia Efimova (1:04.98) and Lilly King (1:05.61) in the world rankings thus far this year.

Hannis is ahead of some pretty good competition in King (1:06.98) and Micah Sumrall (1:06.92), as well as Olympians Katie Meili (1:07.71) and Breeja Larson (1:08.01).

King is not on the Pan Pac team yet as the 100 is her last chance to snag a spot on the plane to Tokyo.

Bethany Galat (1:08.13) is already on the team by virtue of her second place 200 breaststroke. She is the sixth seed tonight.

Riley Scott (1:08.15) and Jorie Caneta (1:08.16) are the last two swimmers in the A-Final.

2018 World Rankings:

  1. Yulia Efimova, RUS, 1:04.98
  2. Lilly King, USA, 1:05.61
  3. Molly Hannis, USA, 1:05.78
  4. Reona Aoki, JPN, 1:05.90
  5. Tatjana Schoenmaker, RSA, 1:06.41
  6. Katie Meili, USA, 1:06.49
  7. Satomi Suzuki, JPN, 1:06.52
  8. Kanako Watanabe, JPN, 1:06.60

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Men’s 100 Breast

The men’s 100 breast is a very stacked final as any of the eight guys in the championship final could come out on top on Saturday night in Irvine. Andrew Wilson is on top with a 59.48 as only three total guys broke sixty seconds in the prelims.

Wilson is ahead of Michael Andrew (59.81) and Nic Fink (59.86). Wilson and Andrew are already in the mix for the Pan Pac team after Wilson was second in the 200 breast and Andrew was third in the 100 fly. Andrew will have other opportunities in the 100 breast and the 50 free tomorrow. This is Fink’s last chance to book his plane ticket to Japan.

The rest of the field is stacked with Olympians Cody Miller (1:00.00), Josh Prenot (1:00.07) and Kevin Cordes (1:00.14) in the field.

Devon Nowicki (1:00.02) and Will Licon (1:00.43) are also in line to make their first major international trip with the National A team. Licon swam last summer at the World University Games.

With all the big names in the A-Final, there were bound to be some big A-Final misses. In the men’s 100 breast, those misses came from Reece Whitley in ninth (1:00.63) and Ian Finnerty in tenth (1:00.64).

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Women’s 100 Back

Just after the United States showed off its depth in the men’s 100 breast, it showed off its depth again in the 100 back on Saturday morning at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming Nationals in Irvine. Regan Smith, just 16, broke her own World Junior Record with a 59.09 on Saturday morning in Irvine. Smith finished just ahead of her old record of 59.11. She has been faster at 58.95 but that record has not been ratified.

Smith is just ahead of 15-year-old Phoebe Bacon from Nation’s Capital Swim Club with her 59.12 this morning. Smith and Bacon now sit first and second in the 15-16 NAG rankings all-time.

Both swimmers moved up to fifth and sixth in the world rankings for 2018.

Those two are ahead of a pretty stacked field with 2017 World Championship team members Kathleen Baker (59.27) and Olivia Smoliga (59.36) sitting in third and fourth. NC State’s Elise Haan (59.73) and Texas A&M’s Lisa Bratton (59.76) also broke a minute in the heats in Irvine.

Lisa Bratton (1:00.05) and Katharine Berkoff (1:00.10) also placed in the top eight and have a chance to sneak a spot on the Pan Pac team.

2018 World Rankings:

  1. Kylie Masse, CAN, 58.54
  2. Emily Seebohm, AUS, 58.66
  3. Kathleen Baker, USA, 58.77
  4. Taylor Ruck, CAN, 58.97
  5. Regan Smith, USA, 59.09
  6. Phoebe Bacon, USA, 59.12
  7. Olivia Smoliga, USA, 59.14
  8. Fu Yuanhui, CHN, 59.27

15-16 All-Time NAG Rankings:

  1. Regan Smith, 58.95 (2017)
  2. Phoebe Bacon, 59.12 (2018)
  3. Missy Franklin, 59.18 (2011)
  4. Rachel Bootsma, 59.77 (2009)
  5. Elizabeth Pelton, 59.99 (2010)
  6. Isabelle Stadden, 1:00.06 (2018)
  7. Lucie Nordmann, 1:00.16 (2016)
  8. Grace Ariola, 1:00.49 (2016)

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Men’s 100 Back

The men’s 100 back will be another tight field. Last night, four guys rocketed into the top 8 world rankings in the 50 back, and it could be a similar story here on Saturday at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships. Matt Grevers is looking to qualify for his third Pan Pac team with his 53.30 this morning in Irvine.

Grevers is ahead of Ryan Murphy (53.63) and Justin Ress (53.82) who joined him under 54 seconds in the event. Murphy is already on the Pan Pac team after he won the 200 back on Thursday night. Grevers and Ress are in good position to qualify for the meet if the United States can go three deep.

Cal had two other A-Finalists with Daniel Carr (54.01) and Jacob Pebley (54.03) getting into the championship final in fourth and fifth.

Dean Farris (54.21), Bryce Mefford (54.21) and Austin Katz (54.41) also qualified for the A-Final.

Grevers moved up in the 2018 World Rankings as he now sits tied for seventh with fellow American Ress.

2018 World Rankings:

  1. Evgeny Rylov, RUS, 52.67
  2. Xu Jiayu, CHN, 52.72
  3. Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS, 52.97
  4. Ryosuke Irie, JPN, 53.08
  5. Mitch Larkin, AUS, 53.14
  6. Ryan Murphy, USA, 53.24
  7. Matt Grevers, USA, 53.30
  8. Justin Ress, USA, 53.30

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