Ryan Murphy Posts Strong 200 Back To Lead Prelims At Phillips 66 Nationals

Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

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.

Cal backstroke came to play in Irvine with four total A-finalists in the men’s 200 back at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships on Thursday morning. The usual suspects of Ryan Murphy (1:56.39) and Jacob Pebley (1:56.88) posted the top two times as expected.

The Golden Bears put two other guys in the top eight with undergrads Bryce Mefford (1:57.66) and Daniel Carr (1:57.69) sneaking into the final, showing that Cal backstroke is here to play.

NCAA champion Austin Katz (1:56.97) also came to play in Irvine putting up the third seed this morning as he could play spoiler to get on the Pan Pac team.

Clark Beach (1:57.06), Nick Alexander (1:57.18) and Carson Foster (1:57.70) also placed in the top eight this morning. Foster is not far off of the NAG record for the 15-16 age group as he sits behind Aaron Peirsol (1:57.03) and Murphy (1:57.39) in the all-time rankings.

There were no notable A-final misses.

Photo Courtesy:

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use