Final Session in Charlotte Highlighted by Lochte Victory, Hosszu Heroics

2015 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES – CHARLOTTE

• Thursday, May 14 – Sunday, May 17, 2015
• Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Charlotte, NC
• Friday-Sunday: Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern)
• Live Stream
• Live results
  • Also available via Meet Mobile – “2015 Arena Pro Swim Series at Charlotte”
• Psych Sheet
• Sunday Finals heat sheet

The final session of the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series at Charlotte is due to have some very good races, both those with a focus on individual performers and good races.

In the former Cateogry, Katinka Hosszu was impressive in prelims of the 200 backstroke, swimming 2:08.32, which was a new lifetime best.

On the other end of the spectrum is the men’s 100 free, where Nathan Adrian leads a heavily-international field that includes second qualifier Marco Orsi of Italy and third qualifier Joao de Lucca of Brazil, all of whom were within a tenth of each other in prelims. Look for that race to get under 49 seconds in final.

Then there’s a race that straddles the two spans. On paper, Ryan Lochte should be a heavy favorite in the 200 IM, but in prelims, he was a casual 2:01.89, which is not far ahead of most of the A-Final. If Lochte swims well in finals, this is his race to lose, but watch for the 5th qualifier Dwyer who has been doing just enough to make A-finals and then unleashing in the evening sessions.

Sunday’s events: Women’s 800 free, M/W 200 IM, M/W 200 back, M/W 50 breast, M/W 100 free, Men’s 1500 free, M/W 400 medley relay

Women’s 800 Free – Timed Final

Denmark’s Lotte Friis swam a strong front-half (4:10) en route to an 8:25.07 win to open Sunday’s finals session. Friis was swimming well out in front of the final heat for most of the race, and held a steady margin over runner-up Becca Mann (8:28.82).

3rd place in this race came out of the early heats, and an 8:29.28 from NCAA mile champion Leah Smith. That’s only about a second short of Smith’s best time, and is her best time since Junior Pan Pacs in 2012.

More significantly, its seven seconds faster than she was at this same meet last year, spring-boarding off of a breakout summer in 2014 and ensuing college season.

There was a big gap between Smith and the next-closest finisher, which was Ashley Twichell in 4th place (8:34.06).

Women’s 200 IM – Finals

With a thunderous punctuation to what has been a solid meet for the Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, she put an exclamation mark on the women’s 200 IM by swimming the new fastest time in the world in 2015 and a new U.S. Open Record as the fastest swim ever done on American soil. The old record was a 2:09.34 done by Julia Smit in 2009 at U.S. Nationals.

Hosszu’s backstroke, which has been her most improved stroke over the last two years, broke this race open for her ahead of American Melanie Margalis, who took 2nd in 2:10.57. That swim from Margalis was overshadowed by Hosszu, but moves her to 4th-place in the world this year.

Margalis is also the top-ranked American in the event in 2015, and holds two of the fastest three times by citizens of her country since the beginning of 2014.

Caitlin Leverenz was 3rd in 2:11.84, followed by Kathleen Baker in 4th in 2:12.09. For May swims, those are both impressive results as well, but again will be overshadowed by the two swims in front of them.

Canadian 17-year old Emily Overholt won the B-Final in 2:15.68, followed by SwimMAC Spaniard Patricia Castro (2:16.30) and Becca Mann (2:16.32). Mann finished her 800 free and went straight back to the blocks to swim this 200 IM.

Men’s 200 IM – Finals

After voicing some frustration of being stuck in outside lanes for most of the meet, Michael Phelps got his inside lane in the B-Final of the men’s 200 IM as the 9th qualifier. He took advantage of the fortuitous placing to drop a big chunk of time from prelims and win the heat in 2:00.25.

While that swim was encouraging from Phelps with Rio on the horizon, Ryan Lochte one-upped it a heat later by swimming 1:57.20 to win the A-Final and take his first event title of the meet. That moves Lochte to 3rd in the world rankings in 2015.

Lochte went hard on the first 100 meters of this race, splitting 54.3 at the midway mark. What was more impressive, though, was his 33.77 breaststroke split, which was easily able to fend off Josh Prenot, whose best stroke is breaststroke, and who wound up as the runner-up in the race.

Lochte paid a little on his freestyle leg, but that’s typically how he swims the 200 IM anyway, and he had more-than-enough room for victory.

Prenot, who has one season of eligibility left at Cal touched in 1:58.98 for the silver, which is a tenth faster than he’s been in his career.

Brazilian Thiago Pereira faded at the end of his race to Prenot and eventually took 3rd in 1:59.51. Conor Dwyer, who’s been making big drops in finals sessions all weekend, did so again in 1:59.80 – more than two seconds faster than he was in prelims.

Andrew Seliskar rounded out the group under two minutes with a 5th-place time of 1:59.93.

Women’s 200 Backstroke – Finals

Just 20 minutes after breaking the U.S. Open Record in the 200 IM, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu returned to the blocks and took a big win in the 200 meter backstroke with a 2:07.79, moving her to third place in the world and out-pacing Canadian runner-up Dominique Bouchard easily (2:10.25).

That’s a new personal best for Hosszu (she was also a best time in prelims), and creeps her ever closer to the Hungarian National Record of 2:06.62 done in 1991 Krisztina Egerszegi, Hungary’s greatest ever female swimmer.

With the way Hosszu has broken records (she holds 9 of 17 in Hungary in long course and 16 out of 18 in short course) and won titles, besides an elusive Olympic medal, that record must be high on Hosszu’s career bucket-list.

A largely uncompetitive final, behind Hosszu and Bouchard, Michigan undergrad Clara Smiddy took 3rd in 2:12.27, while Kennedy Goss won the B-Final in 2:12.17.

Men’s 200 backstroke – Finals

Ryan Lochte was seeking back-to-back wins on Sunday night after his victory in the 200 IM, but was foiled by his former Gator Swim Club teammate Arkady Vyatchanin, who won in 1:56.31.

The race was a close one between Lochte, Tyler Clary, and Vyatchanin halfway, but a 29.5 final 50 from the Serbian as Clary and Lochte faded made the margin appear bigger at the final touch than it had been for most of the race.

Clary was 2nd in 1:58.43 and Lochte took 3rd in 1:58.96.

That time ranks Vyatchanin 4th in the world this year, poetically bumping top Russian Evgeny Rylov from that spot. Until this year, Vyatchanin had competed his entire career for Russia, but has spent the last few seasons searching for a new home after disagreements with the Russian federation.

Now swimming for Serbia, Vyatchanin is already rewriting the country’s record books. That’s a new National Record for him, breaking the 1:56.95 that he did at the Pro Swim Series at Mesa.

Women’s 50 Breast – Finals

Jamaican Alia Atkinson won the women’s 50 breaststroke in 30.54 as she and Jessica Hardy, two of the most athletic female breaststrokers in the world, went down to the touch. Hardy placed 2nd in 30.61.

Breeja Larson took 3rd place in 31.01, followed by Katie Meili in 31.37. That swim for Meili wasn’t as good as her 100 breaststroke, where she actually was a tenth faster on her opening 50 than she was in this flat-50 swim.

The top junior finisher was Lilly King of the Newburgh Sea Creatures, who took 5th in 31.55.

Men’s 50 Breast – Finals

Brazil’s Felipe Lima won the men’s 50 breaststroke in 27.72, beating out two of the United States’ best over this distance. Cody Miller of the Badger Swim Club placed 2nd in 27.95 and the defending U.S. National Champion Brendan McHugh was 3rd in 28.01.

Canada’s top breaststroker Richard Funk was 4th in 28.05, followed by Ukrainian Rostyslav Fedyna, who placed 5th in 28.07.

Women’s 100 Free – Finals

A rejuvinated Natalie Coughlin is in the midst of the best run of swimming she’s had since 2011, and won the women’s 100 free with a 54.24. That’s .06 from where she was in Mesa a month ago, but this time she beat out Arianna Vanderpool in the final (54.31), as compared to Mesa where Coughlin scratched the final and Vanderpool-Wallace got the victory.

Coughlin said that this 100 free would be her focus race for the next 10 months.

After those two, a pair of Canadians occupied the 3rd and 4th place spots, with Chantal Van Landeghem marking 54.65, and Sandrine Mainville finishing in 54.93.

Allison Schmitt won the B-Final in 55.37.

Men’s 100 Free – Finals

Fighting a field primarily of internationals, California Aquatics’ Nathan Adrian was able to hold on for an American victory in the men’s 100 free in 48.85.

Adrian, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the event, took charge of the race off of his start, and held on as the field pushed him hard coming back toward the finish.

Italy’s Marco Orsi took 2nd 49.06, followed by Brazilian Joao de Lucca (49.21), Italian Luca Dotto (49.32), and Brazilian Josh Schneider (49.81). The next-best American was Josh Schneider, who placed 6th in 49.81.

Tom Shields won the B-Final in 49.88 ahead of Michael Phelps who took 4th place in that heat in 49.96 (12th place overall).

Men’s 1500 Free – Timed Finals

Connor Jaeger has already established himself as America’s best distance freestyler, but is now starting to elbow his way into a more global conversation in the 1500 free, especially so after a 14:58.13 to win the final individual event of the day on Sunday.

Jaeger often swims well in this April/May time frame, but even for him this is a new level, as it’s his first time to go faster than 15 minutes outside of a national or international championship meet in long course.

The Club Wolverine 24-year old had little competition in this race in what was a very wide-spread final heat, but Egyptian Ahmed Akram’s swim was still significant. He touched in 15:07.84, which crushes his own National Record set in 2013 by three seconds.

Ryan Feeley took 3rd in 15:38.09.

Women’s 400 Medley Relay – FINALS

The SwimMAC Carolina team of Kathleen Baker, Katie Meili, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, and Madison Kennedy combined to win in 4:07.07. All four have swum better this weekend, but they gave a good target for the Canadian team to chase and ended the meet on a high note for the home team.

Men’s 400 Medley Relay – FINALS

The men’s 400 medley relay saw a little more vigor in their splits. Brazil won the race in 3:38.62, with the combination of Guilherme Guido, Felipe Lima, Arthur Mendes, and Cesar Cielo taking victory. Cielo swam 48.53 on the anchor leg as Brazil continued to make the relays a focus of theirs in Charlotte.

SwimMAC Carolina placed 2nd in 3:42.44, highlighted by a 53.52 split from Matthew Josa.