The Arkansas women continued to impress, and Natalie Hinds dropped a solid prelims swim in the women’s 100 free in the final morning of the Georgia Tech Invitational.
Anna Mayfield of Arkansas opened the morning with a 3+ second drop to take the top spot in the women’s 200 back in 1:55.07 in front of three Florida Gators. Georgia Hohmann (1:55.67) is the closest to Mayfield heading into tonight, while teammate Sinead Russell, the 100 back champion and consensus favorite, cruised through her morning swim to finish fourth. The Gators cleaned up in the men’s version of the event, finishing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, led by 2014 NCAA individual qualifiers Corey Main (1:44.81) and Jack Blyzinskyj (1:45.28).
The swim of the morning came in the women’s 100 free where All-American Natalie Hinds popped off a 48.13 thanks to a great second 50 to post the #1 time in the country (note: Simone Manuel now sits #1, but her swim was slightly later due to the 1 hour time difference). Given her 22.0 50 free on day one, it seemed clear Hinds was going to put up a good 100 today. The interesting thing, though, is how she swam it, flipping at 23.50 at the 50 mark before coming back in 24.63. Most 100 freestylers–particularly ones with Hinds’ natural speed–have 1.5-2.0 second differentials between their first and second 50’s. Stay tuned for how she swims it tonight.
There weren’t any swims in the men’s 100 that deserve a second look, but Andrew Kosic and Caeleb Dressel are set up for a fun showdown tonight. Kosic, who finally looks to be coming into his own in his senior season after entering the college ranks as one of the fastest prep 100 freestylers ever, put a little more behind his morning swim to win in 43.55 than Dressel, who cruised a 44.46.
Arkansas jumped back into the mix in the next event with a 1-2 finish from Nikki Daniels (2:14.36) and Julia Banach (2:15.02) in the women’s 200 breaststroke. Daniels has quietly developed into one of the country’s top breaststrokers over the her four year career with the Razorbacks, finishing in the top 20 in both breaststrokes at last year’s NCAA’s.
Three men snuck under the 2:00 barrier in the men’s 200 breast, led by Florida State sophomore Jason Coombs clocking in at 1:58.84. He’ll have a good race on his hands tonight with Florida senior Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (1:59.42), winner of the 100 breaststroke, on his heels. Georgia Tech freshman Alex Kimpel had a nice 4.5 second drop from his seed time to finish third in 1:59.75. Notably, Dan Wallace strolled through the first 150 before closing in 29.9 (the fastest final 50 by over a second) to finish fourth in 2:02.01. Watch out for him tonight.
In the final women’s event of the morning, Florida State’s Chelsea Britt looked strong in the 200 fly. Fresh off a near-lifetime best in her 100 fly win last night, Britt showed some early speed (out in 54.7) before winding it down over the back half (31.58-31.85) to claim the top seed in 1:58.17. She’ll have some competition tonight from a pair of Gators next to her tonight in Taylor Katz (1:58.91) and Jessica Thielmann (1:59.40).
Georgia Tech got another good swim to finish off the men’s session from Ben Southern, who narrowly clipped Florida State’s Connor Knight in 1:45.57.
Finals start at 6 p.m. ET with live results available here.
Excellent prelim time for Hinds, but I’m reconfirming my AR alert from last night for Simone Manuel, who just went 47.30 in College Station. I’m calling it for tonight–she’s tired, but she’ll have Lia Neal, who went 47.8, to help push her under the 46.7. (Maddie Schaeffer 48.2 to give the Cardinal the 1-2-3 seeds) If you’re in the crowd at the meet tonight, make some noise to help her get under the record!!