Gator Swim Club Invite: Lochte Doubles on Day 1

As the international portion of the Gator Swim Club was racing out in Santa Clara this weekend, the main American group was taking a much more low-key meet in at their home-team hosted GSC Summer Invite that began Sunday and will run through Tuesday.

This meet is flying; much like we saw in Austin, this is showing a bit of a rebellion by pro swimmers against the gigantic super-meets that have hours-upon-hours of preliminary sessions. Reports from on deck are that each prelims and final are lasting about an hour.

On the first day of finals, Ryan Lochte eschewed the two events most likely to be on his Olympic schedule (the 200 free and the 400 IM) in favor of a simple 100 breaststroke and 100 fly double. This is a sign that he’s comfortable with his training at this point of the season, and is just trying to work out very-specific kinks in his swimming.

He won that 100 breast in 1:03.87, beating fellow Gators Richard Munch (1:04.10) and Matthew Elliott (1:04.68). That’s actually an outstanding time at this meet; consider that it’s more than a second better than he was three weeks out of last year’s World Championships.

He also took the win in the 100 fly in 54.48, which is right about where he’s been when he’s swum this event this season. Bolles’ Joe Schooling, who is an outstanding young 16-year old butterflier that represents Singapore internationally, was 2nd in 54.91. Marcin Cieslak was 3rd in 55.25, though without swimming Polish Nationals, and coming out of a college season, he should be about as beat-up as we would see from someone like Lochte in February or March. Not a very good time, but similarly not a cause for concern either.

In the women’s 200 free, Elizabeth Beisel looked like she might still be flirting with the idea of going after a relay spot, after winning in 2:01.13, which is three seconds faster than we saw her in Charlotte in May.

In the men’s 200 free, absent Lochte, IX3’s Charlie Houchin took a big win in 1:48.93. His times have been extremely consistent this season around 1:48-high or 1:49-low; even more consistent than when he was training regularly with Sean Hutchison in Fullerton. That could be a good sign for him.

Gator Swim Club’s Conor Dwyer took 2nd in 1:49.12, and Peter Vanderkaay didn’t look great with a 3rd-place time of 1:51.98.

Ariana Kukors won the women’s 100 fly in 1:01.35, ahead of Icelandic Florida Gator Sarah Bateman (1:02.59) – who just locked up her Olympic qualification at the European Championships. That’s not a great time for Kukors, but it’s not terrible either.

Auburn commit Alex Merritt was 4th in 1:03.01, which is as fast as she’s been this far before her big championship meet. In the B-Final of this race, Ellese Zalewski, who had to miss NCAA’s to head back home for Australian Trials, had a very good 1:01.92. Beisel was 2nd in the B-Final in 1:03.54.

Other Day 1 Winners

  • Sebastien Rousseau took the men’s 400 IM in 4:25.62, followed by Dan Wallace in 4:28.16.
  • Florida Gator Jordan Smith won the women’s 400 IM in 4:55.41 – a best time by two-and-a-half seconds. Nova’s Rebecca Ranier was 2nd in 4:57.97.
  • Bolles’ Meghan Haila won the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:12.20, which is a top-12 time in the 15-16 age group this season.

Full Meet Results not available online, but are on the MeetMobile app.

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aswimfan
11 years ago

BK,
For Lochte, a 54.48, is NOT “right about where he’s been when he’s swum this event this season.”

He’s been much faster with 52.32 in Indianapolis.

It seems to me he is still in the middle of heavy training and will only partially taper for Omaha, which is not a news actually.

Lisa
Reply to  aswimfan
11 years ago

Don’t most of the elite swimmers only partially taper for Omaha? So as you say its not news really… Why don’t they change the date of the trials? Its ridiculous that they have them so close to the games??

aswimfan
Reply to  Lisa
11 years ago

Not sure how many elite swimmers only partially taper for trials. I venture to guess that only those who are really confident they’ll secure the individual spots without being fully tapered, and there are not that many of those.

Andy Dixon
11 years ago

Houchin has been consistent all year, I think he has a definite shot at the 800 free relay if he hits a really good taper before trials. As for Lochte’s 100 breast, good time especially for in season untapered, plus I realize that Ryan always swims slow in season, but didn’t Michael swim a 1:02 earlier this year? I always thought Ryan had a small advantage over Michael in the breaststroke. I’d think he would have wanted a faster time than 1:03. He’s not going to swim away from Michael in the freestyle leg of an IM, so he’s going to need to go into trials with the confidence that he can put distance on him in the breast leg.

Lisa
Reply to  Andy Dixon
11 years ago

Pretty sure I recall Rowdy commenting that Michael actually out split Lochte on the breaststroke legs in both IMs at the last Olympics. He gets it to where he needs to be in an Olympic year but otherwise it is his weakest stroke.

cupofjoe
11 years ago

The UF pool is a very slow long course pool. Very shallow on one end. The deep end is fast for short course meets.

joeb
11 years ago

maybe kukors didn’t wear a tech suit? what was her time in the 2free yesterday?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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