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 Coughlin, who 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 Murphy, who 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 Manuel, the 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.