Grevers Gets on the Team; But Plummer Pulls Upset in Men’s 100 Back

The Friday finals session in Indianapolis, Indiana at the 2013 USA Swimming National Championships and World Championship Trials don’t leap off the page as the biggest events of the meet,  but upon closer inspection the story lines are thick.

Matt Grevers trying to fight off David Plummer and Ryan Murphy to earn a spot at the World Championships; Missy versus Pelton in the women’s 100 back; Jaeger’s continued emergence as the future of American men’s freestyling; the same of Katie Ledecky in the women’s race; Kevin Cordes gunning to break the minute for the first time in the 100 breaststroke; and a huge rematch of Hardy vs. Larson in the 100 breaststroke after Larson kept Hardy out of the Olympics in the event last year.

As a reminder, all of the links you need to follow this weekend’s meet are available here.

Women’s 400 Free – FINALS

Katie Ledecky swam her way to a personal best and a new 15-16 National Age Group Record in 4:04.05. That swim was better than her old personal best time that was actually set as a halfway split en route to an 800 free Olympic title in London last year. (Read more about her record here).

Ledecky already ranked 3rd in the world in this event coming into tonight’s finals session, but this swim improved that standing. Though she’s very much in the mix, her chances in this 400 free in Barcelona are much more contested than they will be in the 800 (though neither race is a given at this point).

Chloe Sutton finished 2nd in 4:06.64, making this the same 1-2 finish as we saw in the 800 freestyle earlier in the meet. Adding two more doubles to the list greatly improves the chances of Natalie Coughlin (5th in the 100 free) and Chelsea Chenault (6th in the 200 free) for making the World Championship teams in those events.

USC’s Haley Anderson, who’s already qualified for Worlds in open water, was 3rd in 4:09.60. She looked for a moment like she might make a move on Sutton for 2nd, but ultimately couldn’t get close to her Southern California foe.

Those were the only three under 4:10 in a race that looked like it had 10 or more swimmers with the potential to get under that barrier. That opens up a lot of opportunities for swimmers who have saved their taper for the U.S. Open in August to score spots on the National Team.

NBAC’s Gillian Ryan was 4th in 4:10.19 and Chelsea Chenault was 5th in 4:10.79.

Lindsay Vrooman (4:11.16), Leah Smith (4:11.96), and Becca Mann (4:14.02) rounded out the top 8.

Tristin Baxter, an open water star, won the B-Final in 4:11.15 in a closing 100 of 1:01.74, which is faster than anybody other than Ryan.

Quinn Carrozza, who tied with Mann in prelims but by coaches’ decision declined a swim-off and went down to the B-Final, was 11th overall in 4:11.59. That’s two-and-a-half seconds faster than Mann was in the A-Final.

Men’s 400 Free – FINALS

Michigan’s Connor Jaeger is the real deal, and has now added a second qualification to his World Championships schedule after winning the men’s 400 free in 3:45.89. That’s a lifetime best for him by a full second ahead of his swim in Santa Clara, and he now seems a veritable lock to win the 800 free on the meet’s final day.

The battle for this race got very interesting; Virginia’s Matt McLean swam with a huge closing 50 meters of 26.94 as he and Conor Dwyer battled with Jaeger in the last 15 meters (Dwyer and Jaeger were locked up for the full 400 meters). McLean couldn’t quite make up the gap on Dwyer, but everyone in the Natatorium at IUPUI saw the true outcome.

A gasp erupted at the start of the 400, as Dwyer had a huge twitch on the block and a rolling start. He touched in 4:46.05, but he was disqualified for a false start, giving the second spot at Worlds to McLean in 4:46.14.

Sometimes, false starts, especially in these longer races, are largely impact-less on the outcome. Dwyer, however, was clearly out in front of everyone, and with him beating McLean by less than a tenth of a second, the final two for Worlds was a just outcome.

Jaeger and McLean move to 5th and 6th in the world this year, respectively.

Charlie Houchin took 3rd in 3:47.15, which is a best time of his own. Texas’ Michael McBroom, already on the team in the 1500, was 5th in 3:49.28, and his fellow Texas alum Michael Klueh was 5th in 3:51.54.

Another Longhorn swimmer, Jacob Ritter, won the B-Final in 3:52.49. He’s swimming this event at the World University Games next month.

Women’s 100 Breaststroke – FINALS

Breeja Larson worked out her kinks in the 200 breaststroke earlier in this meet, but she has no such problem in the 100 breaststroke. For the 2nd-straight year, Larson is the USA Swimming National Champion in the 100 meter breaststroke, this time with a 1:06.16. That’s just a couple-of-tenths slower than she was at last year’s Trials, but overall is in the same neighborhood.

Larson, when talking about racing next to the fast-starting Hardy, talked about the need to control her speed against one of the world’s best 50 breaststrokers. The splits, however, didn’t show that Larson gave up much on the front-half of this race.

Comparative splits between the two:

Larson: 30.94/35.22 – 1:06.16
Hardy: 30.91/35.58 – 1:06.49

That should give Larson an option to enter the 50 breaststroke at the World Championships as her fourth event (medley, 100, 200 breaststroke), while it gives Hardy just a 2nd and 3rd swim (50 breast, 100 breast, 400 medley relay). Things are breaking as they needed to, and after this race, the women almost became guaranteed of being able to take all qualifiers to Worlds.

Micah Lawrence took 3rd in 1:07.27, which is a lifetime best for her. She’s looking sharp after a short time back with David Marsh at SwimMAC this summer.

Molly Hannis from Tennessee took 4th in 1:07.48, establishing herself as a true national-level contender at this meet as we head toward Rio. She’s only 21 and will be just a junior next year.

Texas’ Laura Sogar was 5th in 1:07.88, with Katy Freeman from Santa Barbara taking 6th in 1:08.00.

Out of the B-Final, Megan Jendrick, the 2000 Olympic Champion in this race, won in 1:08.80, followed closely by a nice swim from Columbia’s Katie Meili in 1:08.82.

Men’s 100 Breast – FINALS

Kevin Cordes wanted one thing to be known after winning the 2013 national title in the 100 breaststroke and qualifying for a second (and by extension 3rd and 4th in the 50 breaststroke and 400 medley relay) event: He is both a yards swimmer, and a meters swimmer.

Cordes swam a 59.99 to win the Men’s 100 breaststroke, breaking a minute for the first time in his career. This gives some promise to the future of American breaststroking, as he’s the youngest American to ever break a minute in this race (none have ever done it as a teenager in the past).

In 2nd place was a swimmer having a fantastic meet: Nic Fink from the University of Georgia. He’s also only 19, and went a 1:00.24. That’s a full second better than he was coming into this meet. He has become a well-known quantity in the NCAA ranks, but was still on the fringe of the National ranks before taking 3rd in the 200 and 2nd in the 100 here.

That meant that Mike Alexandrov, who has just had a phenomenal season, missed out on the team with a 3rd-place finish in 1:00.39. He looked great all season long, and finished it off with a  better time than he was at last year’s Olympic Trials. He was caught by the moving pieces around him, however.

Stanford’s BJ Johnson, who’s already on the team, took 4th in 1:00.68, and was followed by Clark Burckle (1:01.14) and Scott Weltz (1:01.34).

In 7th place was 50 breast champion Kevin Steel in 1:01.80, another lifetime best. Josh Prenot was 1:01.81 for 8th.

Tennessee’s Brad Craig won the B Final in 1:02.18.

Women’s 100 Back – FINALS

The Cal women’s dominance in the 100 backstroke has been well-discussed and will continue to be well-discussed for at least the next two years. For tonight, though, we’ll push that story line aside in favor of the more National perspective, and how good American women’s backstroking could be for the next decade.

Missy Franklin won this race and took the U.S. Open Record (fastest on American soil) in 58.67. She was joined in the top four by Liz Pelton (59.27) who exactly matched her own prelims time; Sarah Denninghoff, who is having an explosive meet and was 59.75, or under a minute for the first time; and Rachel Bootsma, who was 59.90.

That’s four swimmers under one minute, and among them Denninghoff is the oldest at 21. The other three are all teenagers, and with swimmers competing into the end of their 20’s, all three could remain under that minute mark for the next decade if they wanted to.

The same could be said for Olivia Smoliga, who though she hasn’t been having her greatest meet finished Friday with 1:00.38. She could be under a minute for a decade longer as well.

Kathleen Baker from SwimMAC was 6th in 1:00.62 at only 16, and Kendyl Stewart was 7th at only 18 years old.

Point made.

Winning the B-Final was Stanford’s Felicia Lee in 1:00.81. As she was leaving the water, her and her former NBAC coach Bob Bowman exchanged a nice moment, as Bowman came over to greet her with a warm-looking hug.

Men’s 100 Back – FINALS

This men’s 100 backstroke final was perhaps the most exciting race of the meet so far. It had the star Matt Grevers, the seemingly-perpetual underdog David Plummer, the young star Ryan Murphy, and the hot hand Eugene Godsoe.

They weren’t just changing leads at walls and turns. They were changing leads over-and-over mid-pool, with Grevers’ massive reach distorting the margins at every entry.

Ultimately, though, it was the two favorites coming into the meet who won, with Plummer taking the win in 53.10 with a big back-half. Grevers was just behind in 53.25.

Ryan Murphy re-broke his own 17-18 National Age Group Record with a 53.38, and a surprise finish from Shane Ryan took 4th in 53.84. Ryan could be the future of the Penn State men’s program.

Godsoe couldn’t add a fourth event to his schedule, finishing 5th in 53.86. Jacob Pebley was 6th in 53.98.