2019 U.S. National Championship: Day 5 Finals Preview

2019 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 31 – August 4, 2019
• Prelims 9:00 AM/Finals 5:00 PM (U.S. Pacific Standard Time)
• Avery Aquatics Center (Stanford, CA)
• LCM (50 Meter Pool)
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• Pre-scratch timeline
• TV & Livestream Schedule
• Omega Results

Day 5 finals heat sheets.

Tonight’s session will feature finals of the women’s 1500 freestyle, men’s and women’s 200 IM, men’s 800 freestyle, and men’s and women’s 50 freestyle.

Placement on the 2019-2020 U.S. National Team and 2019 World Junior Championships roster is still on the line for swimmers tonight.

Day 5 Finals:

• Women’s 1500 Freestyle – Top 8
• Women’s 200 IM – Finals
• Men’s 200 IM – Finals
• Men’s 800 Freestyle – Top 8
• Women’s 50 Freestyle – Finals
• Men’s 50 Freestyle – Finals

‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ finals will swim in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle, accompanied by an 18-under ‘D’ final. The women’s 1500 and men’s 800 freestyles will feature only those swimmers with the 8-fastest seed times in an ‘A’ final, though swimmers with a fast enough time from the afternoon heats can rise to place top-8.

Day 5 Finals Storylines to Watch:

• Tonight is the final opportunity for most swimmers competing at the 2019 U.S. National Championships to make the 2019-2020 U.S. National Team. In order to make the team, swimmers must be ranked top-6 among all U.S. swimmers in their respective events between January 1st, 2019, and August 25th, 2019. There have been some shakeups to the roster in Stanford, with potentially more to come tonight.
• Ryan Held is on a tear in the men’s sprint freestyle. First, on day 1, Held broke the Championship and U.S. Open Records in the 100 freestyle with a 47.43 in prelims and then a 47.39 in finals, a time that would have placed 3rd at the World Championships. Held also dropped time in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly, but neither race was quite as impressive as the 21.88 he posted this morning in the prelims of the 50 freestyle to become the 14th-fastest American all-time in the race. Of the 13 men who rank higher than Held currently, 7 are from the suited era of 2008-2009. Caeleb Dressel‘s 21.04 from Worlds seems rather untouchable at this point for Held, but Michael Andrew won the 50 freestyle at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships in 21.49. Dropping another 4/10th would be huge, which is also to say it’s somewhat unlikely, but keeping Andrew’s time in mind still provides a good metric for understanding where Held is right now.
• Madisyn Cox took the top seed in the prelims of the women’s 200 IM, registering the only sub-2:13 time with a 2:11.37. It took 2:08.70 to win the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships, in 2017, Cox won the bronze medal at Worlds in the 200 IM in a 2:09.70. Keep an eye out for a time tonight that would have been podium-worthy in South Korea last week.
• Justina Kozan punched her ticket to the 2019 World Junior Championships in Budapest with her swim this morning to qualify 7th in the 200 IM in 2:14.90. Now that the pressure to make the Junior Worlds team is off, Kozan can just focus on producing some outside smoke in the ‘A’ final.
• Similarly, Carson Foster, who already has 3 events to swim at the 2019 World Junior Championships, has now added the 200 IM. Foster, however, only qualified 9th, so barring a scratch in the ‘A’ final, he will not get to swim in the top-8 tonight.
• Jake Foster put up a huge lifetime best in the 200 IM to take the 3rd seed going into tonight’s final, improving by nearly 2 seconds, posting a 2:00.30.
• Ryan Lochte made his first final of the competition with a 1:58.77 in the 200 IM this morning, making him and John Shebat (1:59.97) the only men under 2:00 in the morning. Because Lochte’s time trial Wednesday didn’t officially count towards National Team qualification, this swim today officially put Lochte back on the 2019-2020 U.S. National Team. If Lochte can win the title tonight it will be his first long course U.S. National Championship gold medal since 2014.
• Three juniors qualified top-8 in the women’s 50 freestyle: Gretchen Walsh (25.17), Grace Cooper (25.33), and Maxine Parker (25.39). Though two of them will likely get to swim the race in Budapest, only one can punch the ticket for certain tonight–whoever gets their hand on the wall first. Walsh is already qualified in the 100 freestyle, so as long as she doesn’t get beaten by both Cooper and Parker she should be adding the 50 to her lineup in Hungary.
• Ally McHugh will vie for another National Championship tonight in the women’s 1500 freestyle, but she’ll be alongside NC State’s Hannah Moore who has been having a great season. Though not swimming the 1500 tonight, 400 IM champion Emma Weyant will swim in the heats and, like all swimmers in the heats, if her time is fast enough, her final ranking could end up top-8.
• The men’s 800 will feature 200 and 400 freestyle champion, as well as 4 x 200 freestyle relay champion Elijah Winnington from Australia. Considering his performance so far at this competition he could be a tentative favorite for the title in the 800, though he will have to contend with Bobby Finke who has also won two individual races this week–the 1500 free and the 400 IM–as well as Zane Grothe, who placed 2nd in the 1500.