Ledecky goes 4:27.88 in DC Metro Champs finals for 2nd-fastest 500 in history

Just an hour or so after breaking the national high school record in the 200 free, Katie Ledecky was back to put up the second-fastest 500 free time in history, just off her American record set last night.

Ledecky went 4:27.88, just over a second off her previous record set in prelims. Ledecky has traditionally gone after the 500 more in prelims at this meet, given that the longer event is given its own session Friday night. Last year, Ledecky was 4:28.71 in prelims (at that time the American record) and just 4:34.01 at finals.

That she was this much closer to her lifetime-best in tonight’s final suggests she perhaps went after the record again, but the cumulative fatigue of Friday’s 500 and a pair of 200s on Saturday added up to the second between her and the American record.

Ledecky’s splits are below:

• 25.00
• 26.43 (51.43)
• 26.92 (1:18.35)
• 27.15 (1:45.50)
• 27.10 (2:12.60)
• 27.07 (2:39.67)
• 27.22 (3:06.89)
• 27.37 (3:34.26)
• 27.24 (4:01.50)
• 26.38 (4:27.88)

Ledecky was a bit off her record pace most of the way (not hitting 26s as often as in prelims), but the biggest difference came in the final 100, where she was earth-shattering splits of 26.8 and 25.9 last night.

You can find live results of the meet here (though they’re not updating in real time as of this article’s publication).