The night-before scratches are in for Friday morning’s heats at the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix, and while there are several noteworthy scratches, perhaps the ‘buzziest’ came in the 50 free.
There, a few scratches in the circle-seeded heats will break up the Michael Phelps versus Michael Andrew prelims matchup in the men’s 50 free. On the pre-meet psych sheets, they were the 25th (Andrew) and 26th (Phelps) seeds in that race, which would have put them in lane 4 and 5, respectively, in the 4th-to-last prelims heat.
Friday morning heat sheets available here.
However, scratches have now moved Andrew up into the last heat, heat 13, and Phelps up to the second-to-last heat, heat 12. While the fact that Phelps has already said that he’ll swim that 50 freestyle using butterfly instead of freestyle took some luster off of the potential showdown, the chance to see them side-by-side still could have been interesting even from just physical comparisons.
But the meet will go on.
Other notable scratches include former National Teamer Amanda Kendall dropping the 50 free to focus on the 200 free, and current National Teamer Simone Manuel doing just the opposite: dropping the 200 free to focus on the 50 free where she’ll be the top seed.
Both Ous Mellouli and Yannick Agnel are totally absent from Friday’s session, and we wouldn’t expect to see either this weekend. One swimmer who scratched Thursday but will be in action on Friday is the defending CSCAA-elected NCAA Swimmer of the Year Kevin Cordes. He left an empty lane in prelims of the 200 breaststroke, so he may not ultimately show up for his 50 free prelim, but those teammates we’ve spoken to indicated that it was school conflicts, not a total scratch, that kept him from racing Thursday.
Two of the top three seeds in the men’s 200 free, Charlie Houchin and Matt McLean, are both out of that race. That race and the men’s 400 IM are both riddled with scratches.
Quinn Carrozza, who missed day one, won’t be around this weekend either it appears. She’s scratched as the 4th seed in the women’s 200 free.
One swimmer who hasn’t scratched is SwimMAC’s Ryan Lochte, who already has a 100 fly title under his belt at this meet. He’s stuck with his very-tough 200 free/200 back, back-to-back, double for Friday. He’s the top seed in the 200 free and the second seed in the 200 back.
Those are the big bullet points from Friday’s heat sheets. For those hoping to catch Michael Phelps’ 2nd swim (and there’s a very good chance that he won’t final in that 50 ‘freestyle,’ the heats of the men’s 50 free are expected to begin at 12:20 local time.
The scractches on 200 free men doesn’t sound so good for the great line up we could have had . I am waiting to see what Ryan will do on that 200 free / 200 back today . With his different training regiment he has now , love to see what he does .
Simone will probably show way better speed on 50 free …. LC season only begins . It’s incredible how good Usa performs on big meets considering they start LC season so late .
I was disapponted by the performances of Simone Manuel, Ryan Hoffer and Michael Andrew on day 1.
But it looks different for each one.
Simone was probably fully rested when she broke the 100 free American record 3 weeks ago in Florida in yards. So I knew she wouldn’t swim crazy fast times in Mesa. She must be in a very heavy training period. But she looked good in prelims and swam a very slow 55.42 in final. No reason to worry but I’m disappointed. I still keep my prediction of 53 low for her in the 100 free next summer. She’s a sprint prodigy.
Ryan Hoffer still has everything to prove in long course. He was amazing in… Read more »
What is it with SwimSwam’s love for Michael Andrew?
He’s a very fast teenager and he makes people react because most of them don’t know at all if he will have a successful international career.
When a young 14 year old performs so well and break records after records ( using a unique training method at home ) , the swimming community feels something special with M Andrew . I love the way they challenge expectations or negative comments by putting actions and good times . We are just excited to see how well he will perform on LC this year .
There is a lot of money being spent (and web sites being clicked) by age groupers and their parents. And while they read a few stories about the legitimate adult stars, they get nutsy over someone their own age or their kids’ own age. It’s classic Beyonce v. Bieber, lol.
And to finish the logic — that is one reason why SwimSwam is “obsessed” with MA. They know their customers.
I don’t mean to offend anybody by saying this, but Michael Andrew has done absolutely nothing significant enough to draw comparisons to a phenomenon like Michael Phelps.
I’m at this meet and caught a glimpse of M. Andrew in the vicinity of Lochte, and the kid already easily has a couple inches on him. Even beside Grevers tonight, I didn’t really realize how big Michael Andrew really is until seeing him here. Even talking muscular development he probably had 40-50 lbs. on the other 15-year-old in his final tonight. With that kind of size it detracts from any forecast of him being “the next Phelps” or having a real chance for Rio given his current times.
Compare him… Read more »
I don’t think they were drawing comparisons in the article, nor do I think that MA’s supporters on this site draw that comparison- they usually end up arguing against it. The only comparison that makes any sense is their first name and ability to drive internet traffic at the mention of their name.
This article is simply acknowledging the fact that what would have been a hugely exciting match up of a young stud on the way up and the greatest swimmer of all time making his comeback won’t in fact happen…
No different than if there were a site like this back in the old days of 1998-1999 we’d have been anticipating a match up of a younger Michael… Read more »
Michael Andrew’s times were a little off today. I wouldn’t put too much thought into it though. I’m not worried. This is the first meet of the long course season so there is time for MA to make some progress between now and early August.