The first round of the psych sheets for the 2016 U.S. Open Championships have been posted a week ahead of the meet’s start date on August 4th.
- View the psych sheets here (updated 7/29)
The meet, open to swimmers from any nationality who have met the qualifying standards, will be held at the University of Minnesota pool from August 4th-August 7th.
With the meet overlapping with the Olympic Games, it will be a much smaller affair than the 1900-or-so swimmers present at the Olympic Trials (the ‘closed’ national championships for this summer) held at the end of June. The quality, overall, will also be a little softer than that meet, or even than your average Pro Swim Series stop.
There are, however, still a handful of big names competing, not the least of which is 17-year old Michael Andrew, who finished 4th at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100 meter breaststroke and en route destroyed the National Age Group Record in the event.
At the Olympic Trials, Andrew focused on his best chances to make the Olympic Team, but in Minneapolis he’s entered in 7 events with a chance to really open up his schedule to some different events.
The 100 breaststroke is one of his entries (he’s seeded 2nd behind Andrew Wilson, who will join Michael Andrew on the 2016-2017 National Team when it’s released.
The more intriguing, swims, though will be the events that he didn’t race at the Olympic Trials. Those events include the 200 breaststroke, the 200 backstroke, and the 100 backstroke. That 100 back is one of his best events, but the field was stacked at the Olympic Trials, so he opted out to focus on other races.
In the 200 breaststroke, he’s actually the last seed (29th out of 29) and doesn’t officially have the U.S. Open cut in the event during the qualifying period – he had to enter with a “B” time of 2:19.68.
He’s been three seconds faster than that though (2:16.76) before the qualifying period, and based on how well he did in the 100 in Omaha, that career best is in danger.
One of the best battles of the meet will come in the women’s 100 fly. In that race, Olympic Trials finalists Sarah Gibson, Claire Donahue, and Hellen Moffitt will go head-to-head-to-head as the top three seeds among six sub-59s in the race. Germany’s Aliena Schmidtke, whose swum very well this summer if not well enough for an Olympic berth, will also race.
Other highlight names on the psych sheets:
- Louisville rising star Mallory Comerford
- National Age Group Record breaker Eva Merrell (also in the 100 fly)
- National High School Record holder and #1 high school swimmer in the class of 2016 Maxime Rooney
- Former U.S. National Team swimmer Michael Weiss
- William Stockwell of Australia, who was 6th at the Australian Olympic Trials but didn’t make the cut for the team. He’s the son of Olympians Mark Stockwell (Australia) and the legendary Tracy Caulkins (USA)
- #1 and #2 recruits in the high school girls’ class of 2017 Courtney Harnish and Sierra Schmidt
- Former U.S. National Champion in the 1500 free Katy Campbell
A full preview of the meet will come next week.
Looking forward to seeing what Arkady Vyatchanin will do. If this is basically his substitute for the Olympics, he could put up some world-class times.
Arkady really choose a good time to leave Russia too bad he’s not completing in Rio
Let’s go Michael Andrew I can see him breaking the wjr which should be his
I see no reason for FINA to ratify that as a World Junior Record.
He set the WJR 6 months after testing positive for clenbuterol – the same chemical that cost Jessica Hardy a one year suspension.
No Chadwick, Margo Geer, Amanda Kendall, Megan Romano? The guys from Texas? These are just a couple swimmers who I thought didn’t have great Trials that would swim again at the US Open.
lots of people not there. hope it doesn’t affect their 16-17 season. but why worry about Romano…her career is over.
I’m not worried at all about Romano and Kendall, they gave their shot at Trials and that was it and now they will enjoy their post-swimming lives.
The times from this meet,trials, and the Olympics will be used to decide the National Team.
It’s too bad the way we are governing meets at the national level at this point. We have swung from very open to extremely restrictive in a short amount of time with Grand Prix’s and up. It’s really hard to keep people in the sport and complete step 1and 2 of USA Swimming’s mission statement if we continue this trend. As a coach I have a hard time taking swimmers to any National level meet at this point because it simply doesn’t make fiscal sense for the family. Why go to Minnesota when I can stay local, sleep in my own bed, and get 7 swims on a championship weekend at the LSC meet or the Speedo Meet. However, in… Read more »
One would think they would loosen up qualifying times for this meet in light of the fact that it’s an Olympic year and currently, you are mainly pulling from the crowd that just competed at Trials. Slow down the cuts so some swimmers at the next level down can have some national level experience. Also, maybe make the relay cuts slower? In 2006, my team took a handful of swimmers to Nationals, then a larger group to Juniors, and had them overlap a few days to swim relays at Nationals. It was a great way to give those Juniors swimmers who were on the cusp a glimpse at Nationals. If I recall correctly, there were plenty of heats of relays… Read more »
Will they still run A, B, and C finals? Some events won’t fill those heats.
A, B, C finals will beswum
Honestly, what’s the point of this meet besides a money-grab for USA Swimming? I get having Juniors still….but this meet a month out of trials seems pointless for the most part.
USA Swimming pays money to the host to host the meet. They do not make money.
So weird to see such a small meet! Looks like the majority of people attending will get second swims! Very excited to watch Eva Merrell after some great swims at OTs. Also very excited to watch 15yo Erica Sullivan; she just seems to keep improving! Looking forward to a great meet!