5 Races To Watch At The 2016 Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara

2016 Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara

  • Friday, June 3 – Sunday, June 5, 2016
  • George F. Haines International Aquatic Center / Santa Clara, CA
  • Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
  • Meet website
  • Psych Sheet

PRIZE MONEY/SCORING SYSTEM

Every individual, Olympic-distance event gives out prize money and series points to the top three finishers:

  • 1st place: $1000, 5 points
  • 2nd place: $600, 3 points
  • 3rd place: $200, 1 points

At the end of the series, the male and female points leaders will win $10,000 each, plus a 1-year lease of a BMW (though the BMW is only available to U.S. citizens).

CURRENT POINT STANDINGS

Swimmers in bold are competing in Santa Clara. Swimmers in italics are competing at the concurrent Pro Swim Series event in Indianapolis and can also earn series points. Swimmers with an asterisk (*) are competing at the Longhorn Elite Invite in Austin and will not earn PSS points.

Men:

  1. Conor Dwyer – 45
  2. Nathan Adrian – 40
  3. Michael Phelps* – 35
  4. Ryan Lochte – 33
  5. Chase Kalisz* – 26

Women:

  1. Katie Ledecky – 55
  2. Maya DiRado 40
  3. Missy Franklin* – 31
  4. Cammile Adams – 28
  5. Katinka Hosszu – 24

5 Races To Watch

Men’s 200 Free

Reigning world champs silver medalist Sun Yang is making a rare stateside appearance in Santa Clara, and the Chinese distance star is the top 200 free seed. He’ll take on versatile series points leader Conor Dwyer of the United States, plus a field of internationals that includes Australia’s David McKeon, Russia’s Nikita Lobintsev and Venezuelan Cristian Quintero. An intriguing subplot pits junior world record holders Kyle Chalmers (Australia) and Maxime Rooney (USA) against each other. Chalmers holds the 100 free junior world record and Rooney the 200 free.

Women’s 100 Back

The Australians have been nearly unstoppable in this event lately, and world champs gold and silver medalists Emily Seebohm and Madison Wilson are entered. But they’ll face veteran Olympian Natalie Coughlinwho was the fastest American last year despite not swimming the event at Worlds. To top it off, Coughlin is competing in front of a home crowd in California. Also keep an eye on Australia’s junior world record holder Minna Atherton (age 16), Canada’s Hilary Caldwell and American Olympian Rachel Bootsma.

Men’s 100 and 200 Back

The story is pretty much the same in both of these events. The U.S. has ruled the backstrokes internationally for years, but Australia’s Mitch Larkin looks like the strongest threat to end Team USA’s two-decade-long streak of Olympic golds. Larkin won’t face defending Olympic champ Matt Grevers (who is competing in Austin instead) or the fastest American of 2015 David Plummer (who is competing in Indianapolis instead), but will take on breakout NCAA star Ryan Murphywho rattled the world record last year in the 100 back leading off a mixed relay. (Mixed relay leadoffs don’t count in FINA’s official rankings, leaving Murphy third officially behind Plummer and Grevers in 2015).

Women’s 100 Free

With depth aplenty in the sprint freestyles, the U.S. women need a superstar to rise for their 4×100 free relay to improve its Rio medal chances. A huge number of the potential candidates are competing in Santa Clara, including 19-year-old sensation Simone Manuelthe aforementioned Coughlin, 2012 Olympian Lia Neal, rising Cal sophomore Amy Bilquist and butterfly veteran Dana Vollmer. They’ll be pushed in Santa Clara by a few of Australia’s tough contenders: Brittany Elmslie and Madeline Groves carry in top-10 seeds, and Emma McKeon currently ranks #4 worldwide.

Men’s 100 Free

The men’s race should be equally entertaining. Here, reigning Olympic champ Nathan Adrian gets to flash his speed in the leadup to the U.S. Olympic Trials. Adrian has swept the 50 and 100 freestyles at 4 of the past 5 Arena Pro Swim Series stops (Minneapolis, Austin, Orlando and Mesa) and has an outside shot at the series points title with another sweep in Santa Clara. Former world champ James Magnussen is competing for Australia, looking to regain his 2013 form, and we get a rematch of the Chalmers/Rooney matchup, this time in an event more tailored towards Chalmers.

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Swamfan
8 years ago

Why are there two stops of the arena pro swim series in the same weekend?

Lazy Observer
8 years ago

Is it unusual that Lochte isn’t competing in any of these competitions? Or is his club as a whole not competing? Also, I haven’t paid attention in a few months: is Tyler Clary competitive in any races this year?

Aiden
8 years ago

Its a possibility that Seebohm takes down Missy’s U.S. open record in the 100 back

Gee
8 years ago

Strange Emma Mckeon seed time in 100 free in Psych Sheet is this: 11 McKeon, Emma 22 St Peters Wester-US 55.27. I thought she swam 52.80 during Australian Olympic trials.

Rafael
Reply to  Gee
8 years ago

Imaging someone talking about the race who has no knowledge of world ranking not understaind how a 11th seed is crushing almost all the field easily..

commonwombat
Reply to  Rafael
8 years ago

Fair enough points, McKeon has a season best exponentially faster than this field. However, she is not racing this event in Rio outside the 4×100 and her preparation will be more centred on her individual races (200free & 100fly) therefore she may not necessarily blow this field out of the water.

Smoothswimmer
Reply to  commonwombat
8 years ago

I think Gee and Rafael were talking about a Jared Anderson’s article, which completely ignores Emma mckeon.

And then mckeon destroy everyone, which would be really funny.

commonwombat
Reply to  Smoothswimmer
8 years ago

Oh, very valid points. Some of the writing on this site is prime entertainment value if nothing else !!

swimmergal
8 years ago

Are the Santa Clara and Indianapolis Pro meets normally held on the same weekend?

commonwombat
8 years ago

Adrian should win the M100free. Chalmers could provide reasonable competition. Magnussen 2016 vintage (post op) is a shadow of the 2012 model

W100free looks anyone’s race. Elmslie currently has a faster season’s best than any of the Americans but her current condition may not be conducive to a fast time.

AUS trio of Seebohm, Wilson & Atherton could clean up the W100back unless a local is in better than 59mid shape.

Larkin v Murphy will be interesting. Larkin has shown a capacity over the past year of being fast in season so his times should be at least 53mid-low in the 100 & 1.55s in the 200. Much will depend on where Murphy’s condition is at this point.

M200free looks… Read more »

Swimmer A
8 years ago

Has SunYang swum in the States before?

Hswimmer
Reply to  Swimmer A
8 years ago

Yes.

Uberfan
8 years ago

Adrian will win the 50/100 free no doubt in my mind, he’s been so consistent. People see cam and florent winning the gold but I have faith in Adrian he’s storing up for something big

Irish Ringer
Reply to  Uberfan
8 years ago

Adrian will get that BMW for a year too after this meet 🙂

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Uberfan
8 years ago

I am with u also on that one – Adrian will be bad ass strong this summer in both races .

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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