2016 U.S. Olympic Trials: Day Two Prelims Preview

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS

Day one is already down, and tomorrow morning, the second prelims session will take place starting at 10am CT.

Slated for the morning are the women’s 100 backstroke, the men’s 200 free, the women’s 100 breast, the men’s 100 back, and the women’s 400 free. Many of the USA’s top stars have yet to swim at this meet, but more will race in Omaha tomorrow morning.

Missy Franklin and Natalie Coughlin are the household names in the women’s 100 back, though Olivia Smoliga has been the fastest this spring leading up to the meet with a lifetime best 59.41 from the Indianapolis Pro Swim Series. This is a pretty loaded event for the U.S., with more than a couple girls seeded under a minute and a slew of 18 and unders zeroing in on the minute barrier. Claire Adams will compete tomorrow despite fracturing her hand less than a week ago.

We’ll also get to see Katie Ledecky in action, as she will take on the 400 free. She’s the world record holder in this event, but probably won’t have to go anywhere near that time to qualify for the final.

Ryan Lochte, who just missed the Olympic team in the 400 IM tonight, is the top seed in the 200 free. He pulled his groin today, which hindered him significantly on the back end of his 400 IM, so he’ll try to bounce back and put up a strong time in the 200. A lot of the 400 free finalists tonight will race again tomorrow, including 400 free top two finishers Conor Dwyer and Connor Jaeger.

Another race with huge implications tomorrow will be the 100 back, where a deadly trifecta will go to battle for the first of probably three times. 2012 Olympic gold medalist Matt Grevers, short course American record holder Ryan Murphy, and fastest American of 2016 David Plummer will butt heads in the prelims tomorrow as a preview for one of the most highly anticipated races at this whole meet.

Finally, the female 100 breaststrokers will contest prelims, led by Katie Meili and Lilly King who’re both seeded under 1:06 seconds. This is another race with a lot of talent pushed up top, with a strong group of 1:07-lows and faster right behind Meili and King.

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Dawgpaddle
7 years ago

what happened to Dressel? Picked him to be 1:47 this morning?

aquajosh
7 years ago

Rooney took that out WAAAAY too fast. He got lucky to make it back to semis.

Canadian Swimmer
7 years ago

Is there a prelims livestream that Canadians can watch? The NBC one doesn’t work…

HulkSwim
7 years ago

This 200m Free is going to be interesting. How will the older dudes (Lochte, Dwyer, Jaeger, Clary, Weiss) do after racing 400’s yesterday? Will the youngsters (Shoults, Sweetser) keep rolling? Will the specialists (Malone, Youngquist, Rooney, Pieroni) step up and take control? What about the off event studs (Dressel, Conger)- can they steal a spot?

A lot of this field swam twice yesterday (a lot of the above plus Smith, Haas, Litherland). I’m not ruling anything out…

Should be interesting!

Caleb
Reply to  HulkSwim
7 years ago

Assuming Lochte’s groin isn’t too serious, I’d say 3 of the spots are almost locked up, with Dwyer and Haas as favorites. I won’t be shocked if it takes under 1:47 to make the final. There are 8 or 9 reasonable candidates for the last relay spots, but if you’re gonna bet, go with the guys who have 1:45 potential… Dressel, Rooney, Conger.

Irish Ringer
Reply to  Caleb
7 years ago

Other than Dwyer I think it’s wide open. Lochte is injured and maybe tired, Smith has looked good along with Haas and you have some fresh swimmers coming in. They should give it 100% in the morning. It’s too close to give anything less.

Caleb
Reply to  Irish Ringer
7 years ago

I’d look at Haas a little different. If he can hit 3:45.0 in the 400 he’ll be under 1:45, maybe even push 1:44. Of course you never know til you swim! Like when his goggles came off last month and he popped a 1:53. Smith has a shot at the relay (and the 1500) but he doesn’t have the speed to challenge for an individual spot in this one, IMO.

tm71
7 years ago

Predictions for team in today’s finals
W 100 BUT Vollmer 56.25 Worrell 56.66
M 100 BR Cordes 58.72 Prenot 59.22
somehow I don’t think Miller will make the team
W 400 FR Ledecky 3.58.52 Smith 4.01.60

KTHW
Reply to  tm71
7 years ago

I agree with those picks, I don’t see Smith going any faster than 4:02mid though. I agree that Miller could possibly end up off the team. I remember he went faster last year at Santa Clara than at World Champs. But I think if he’s on his game he has enough to beat Prenot/Wilson.

Swammer
Reply to  tm71
7 years ago

Whoa, buddy. Getting a little ahead of yourself. This is prelims. Enjoy it while it’s here.

Irish Ringer
Reply to  tm71
7 years ago

Looks solid to me.

Vollmer didn’t seem to confident in her interview last night, so I would think 56.25 – 56.5 tonight.

The 100 Breaststroke, is up for grabs. Miller cranked out a 59.09 last night so he could be there as well.

itsnotbreaststrokeanymore
Reply to  tm71
7 years ago

I was getting ready to question whether Cordes might fail due to nerves or mental game. but then, one word popped to mind: SERGIO!!!

KTHW
7 years ago

Is there any reason for the top dogs (Grevers, Plummer Murphy) in the 100back to go sub 53 this morning? I know swimmers are conditioned to be able to swim fast multiple times in a meet, but I feel like its going to be such a close and emotional final, that even the mental edge of having saved your best for last could push one of them past the others. On the other hand maybe one of them wants to pop a quick time this morn just to see where they are since non of them have swam yet. I have a feeling that all 3 of them feel like they have something too prove, so it could be an… Read more »

Klorn8d
Reply to  KTHW
7 years ago

But I also see a mental advantage of having swim fast times earlier and knowing you can do it before the finals. Especially when the finals is 24 hours from the semi, you have plenty of recovery time

xenon
7 years ago

Does anyone know if the nbc stream is archived? I want to go back and watch some of the prelims and the finals from last night but I can’t find it on the nbcsports website.

Swimmer
Reply to  xenon
7 years ago

It’s on the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

xenon
Reply to  Swimmer
7 years ago

I found it, thanks

ct swim fan
7 years ago

Once again swimming gets shafted on TV. At least here in CT, they cut away at 9 P.M. on the nose to go to gymnastics with the 100 breast semi- finals still to be swum. Not sure if the other event was live or not, but it did not start right away. They could have waited around for 5 minutes for the 2 heats of breast to finish up. Bad job by NBC. Their web cast was OK after the sound glitches in the beginning. Their picture is way better than the ones we get on USA swimming web casts. I enjoyed the guests Kukors and Hansen. They should keep doing that.

Swimfan
Reply to  ct swim fan
7 years ago

NBC’s cutting over to gymnastics at 9:00 pm sharp, thereby missing not one, but two record (i.e., Cordes’ American and Andrews Jr. World Record) performances in the Men’s 100 Breaststroke is unacceptable. There was/is no reason NBC couldn’t move the gymnastics over to their NBCSN station until the conclusion of the swimming, like they do with golf.

Introducing the other 6 swimmers in any race should be the standard operating procedure so the viewing community knows who is swimming as well as provide swimmers some hard earned recognition for their efforts and dedication to the sport, which NBC profits.

NBC, it’s not all about the $’s all the time.People want intelligent and comprehensive reporting. Please step your game.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Swimfan
7 years ago

on top of that , its hard for Us europeans to watch anything this year ….real bummer .

Eouai
Reply to  ct swim fan
7 years ago

Ah that’s what happened. I was watching the stream then it cut right before breaststroke and asked me to authenticate. I’m a cord cutter and have no TV service, so couldn’t “log in” to watch the rest.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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