Zane Grothe and Grant Shoults On Top of Tight 400 Free Prelims

Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

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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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