2017 U.S. World Trials: Day 2 Shows 4×200 Free Relays Ready to Go

2017 U.S. NATIONALS/WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS TRIALS

Night two of the 2017 US World Championship Trials is in the books, and with US swimmers tonight putting up the top time in the world in the women’s 200 free, and the 2nd-fastest time in the world in the men’s race, it’s now worth taking a look at how the USA’s 4×200 relays look heading into Budapest.

Women

USA
Katie Ledecky 1:54.84
Leah Smith 1:56.68
Melanie Marglis 1:56.90
Mallory Comerford 1:56.95
Total: 7:45.57

China
Duo Shen 1:56.71
Yanhan Al 1:56.72
Bingjie Li 1:56.74
Zixuan Liu 1:57.06
Total: 7:47.23

Australia
Emma McKeon 1:55.68
Madison Wilson 1:57.68
Mikkayla Sheridan 1:57.84
Ariame Titmus 1:57.90
Total: 7:49.10

While the US is going to miss Allison Schmitt and Maya DiRado, Ledecky and Smith are as solid of a 1-2 punch as you’re going to see currently, and the “supporting cast” is strong as well.  Margalis swam in prelims on this relay in Rio (as did tonight’s 6th place finisher, Cierra Runge), and Comerford has been showing steady improvement all year.  Throw in Simone Manuel, and the US relay has both top-end talent and depth and looks to be the favorites heading into next month.

Men

USA 
Townley Haas 1:45.03
Blaker Pieroni 1:46.30
Zane Grothe 1:46.39
Clark Smith 1:47.10
Total: 7:04.82

Great Britain
James Guy – 1:45.55
Duncan Scott – 1:45.80
Calum Jarvis – 1:47.02
Nicholas Grainger – 1:47.28
Total: 7:05.65

China’s Sun Yung is the only man under 1:45 this season, but they only have one other guy under 1:48.  Mack Horton‘s best time this year is 1:46.83, which is slower than the the US’s 3rd-best time.

So, it looks to come down to Great Britain and the US.  James Guy and Duncan Scott give the Brits a 1-2 punch on paper like the US women, but then there’s over a one second gap between those two and the next fastest.  The US, meanwhile, has Blake Pieroni and Zane Grothe at 1:46-low, but also has two other men — Conor Dwyer and Jack Conger — who have been 1:45s before.  Conger was way off this morning and didn’t make the relay at all, but it’s conceivable that he could time trial before Worlds and end up being put on the relay somehow if the coaches deem it necessary.  Dwyer, meanwhile, hasn’t competed much, and we’ll see what more he can do in a couple more weeks, but it certainly wouldn’t be shocking to see him go under 1:46 on a rolling start.

Even without those two, though, the US top four times come in about eight-tenths of a second faster than Great Britain’s combined times.  While Dwyer placed 4th in the final in 1:47.25, that time was actually slower than Clark Smith‘s prelim time, so we’ve included Smith in our calculations instead of Dwyer.  And we haven’t even mentioned Caeleb Dressel yet, who swam a pair of 1:47s to qualify for the relay, today while also swimming the 50 fly.

The bottom line is that while Great Britain is dangerous (remember Kazan?), already the US men look to be the favorites on paper, and still have some good room for improvement between now and next month.

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Marian Thiesing
7 years ago

Go Zane Grothe!! Home town boy! Doing great things!

Coach John
7 years ago

being Canadian I feel it prudent to mention the womens 4X200m as a medal hopeful

Katerine Savard – 157.13 (LTB at canadian trials + Rio 4X200 experience)
Mary-Sophie Harvey – 1:57.81 (LTB of 2 seconds at canadian trials and only 17yrs old)
Taylor Ruck – 1:58.24 (went .4 seconds slower than LTB + rio experience so hope for a drop… 17 yrs as well)
Kayla Sanchez – 1:58.28 (LTB by almost 3 seconds since summer 2016 and only 16 years old)

7:51.46 Total

Zanna
Reply to  Coach John
7 years ago

Taylor Ruck did not qualify for Worlds

commonwombat
Reply to  Coach John
7 years ago

I certainly thought about them but this year’s time bears scarce resemblance to last year’s. McLean is gone, Oleksiak has not registered anything on the 200free front this year and Ruck did not make the Budapest team. That leaves you with a top seed swimming 1.57low when other bronze contenders have 1.55s this year. They’d really be needing to swim out of their skins and all of the other bronze contenders to fall in a collective heap to podium going on their times going in. Not impossible but some hefty odds against them

IMs for days
7 years ago

Haas’ splits
24.26/50.85(26.59)/1:17.84(26.99)/1:45.03(27.19)
For comparison in rio Le Clos split
23.39/50.36(26.97)/1:17.71(27.35)/1:45.20(27.49)
At chinese nationals this year Sun split
24.66/50.99(26.33)/1:17.67(26.68)/1:44.91(27.24)
At 2013 worlds Agnel went
24.07/50.64(26.57)/1:17.00(26.36)/1:44.20(27.20)
At at 2007 worlds phelps went
24.47/51.00(26.53)/1:17.73(26.73)/1:43.86(26.13)
It appears to me that Haas has to bolster his second half more, exspecially that 3rd 50 to gst on the medal stand. But a couple of fixs that Eddie Reese can make in the next month, Better start to drop around .2 of a second, and better dolphin kicks and walls can drop around 1 second. We know eddie reese can teach underwaters from examples Like schooling. Seriously, Imagine the Haas with his speed over the water… Read more »

commonwombat
7 years ago

W4X200 realistically looks comfortable for USA. CHN the only other team remotely competitive but their lack of a likely “monster leg” will most likely see them at a comfortable distance. Bronze looks anybody’s guess; the likes of ITA, AUS & HUN all possess a “big hitter” (Pellegrini, McKeon & Hosszu) but all fall away to 1.57highs/1.58s

M4X200, along with W4X100, look the only potentially vulnerable relays for US. Whilst I probably weigh it as slight Adv USA, its not overwhelmingly so. Both USA & GBR strongest legs will most likely cancel each other out unless someone really produces that something special, I suspect the result will most likely revolve around whose “lower seeds” stand up the best and/or who may… Read more »

Liujingjing
7 years ago

If added Qiu Yuhan (1:56:04), Chinese 4*200m reley team can increase 1 second

commonwombat
7 years ago

Realistically, only two could really be classified as “in dispute”; namely M4X200 & W4X100.

At this point, given the IOC announcement re MMR came down after most teams had been selected, we cannot know just how seriously the 2 mixed relays will be taken by major nations unlike 2 years time where you will see almost all the big nations be serious.

Just sayin
7 years ago

Not bold at all in my opinion

Prickle
7 years ago

The scenery on the stage has been changing but something remarkably consistent remains that deserves special recognition and is most likely the record.
It will be the fifth 4×200 golden relay at major meets of the year by Katie Ledecky.
And what is even more impressive is that it would be forth golden tandem of Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith. Do we have any other similar examples in the history of competitive swimming: men or women?
I think that relay medals of these two swimmers can be fairly treated as individual ones.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Robert Gibbs
7 years ago

thats the best Combo ever on Team Usa – those 2 delivered since 2004 until 2016 !!! Impressive

beachmouse
Reply to  Prickle
7 years ago

Brendan Hansen and Aaron Piersol in the medley relay (iirc, Phelps and Ian Crocker swapped who got the finals swim a few times in that era)

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