2017 Arena Pro Swim Series – Mesa
- Mesa, Arizona
- April 13 – 15, 2017
- Series Points/Money after Indy
- Live stream
- Psych sheets
- Live results
The third stop of the 2017 Arena Pro Swim series kicked off this morning in Mesa, Arizona. Final heats for the 100 freestyles, 200 breaststrokes, 100 butterflys and 400 freestyles will be stacked with Olympians and international stars.
Women’s 100 Free – Finals
Coming off of a fast morning swim of 54.02 in the 100 freestyle, Simone Manuel didn’t disappoint in finals. She led the field finishing in a 53.66. She swam extremely fast at this meet last year as well where she went a 53.80. The 53.66 she swam tonight was her fastest time at a non-national or international championship. Following right behind her was Louisville’s Mallory Comerford with a 54.22 and Lia Neal rounded out the top 3 with a 54.38 just edging out Katie Ledecky who swam a 54.78.
The B final was stacked with world class backstrokers – Etiene Medeiros (56.13), Mie Nielsen (56.26), and Gabrielle Fa’Amausili (56.53).
Top 8:
- Manuel, 53.66
- Comerford, 54.22
- Neal, 54.38
- Ledecky, 54.78
- Worrell, 54.84
- Hansson, 54.92
- Weir, 55.13
- Kendall, 56.00
Simone Manuel‘s 53.66 put her top 10 in the world rankings:
2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 100 FREE
SJOSTROM
51.71*WR
| 2 | Simone MANUEL | USA | 52.27 | 07/28 |
| 3 | Mallory COMERFORD | USA | 52.59 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Pernille BLUME | DEN | 52.69 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 52.78 | 07/28 |
| 5 | Cate CAMPBELL | AUS | 52.78 | 04/09 |
| 7 | Bronte CAMPBELL | AUS | 52.85 | 04/09 |
| 8 | Penny OLEKSIAK | CAN | 52.94 | 07/28 |
| 9 | Emma McKEON | AUS | 53.12 | 04/09 |
| 10 | Michelle COLEMAN | SWE | 53.36 | 06/18 |
Men’s 100 Free – Finals
Entering tonight as the third seed, 2012 Olympic champ Nathan Adrian took the victory over Joao De Lucca by a second and a half. Adrian finished in a 48.18 taking off 2.02 seconds from this morning and putting up the second fastest time in the world this year. Even more impressive than the time was how he split the race. He took out the first 50 in 23.24 and came home in 24.94. Both De Lucca (49.67) and Christian Quintero (49.89) stayed consistent with their prelims swims dropping 0.02 from this morning.
The pair of New Zealanders – Daniel Hunter and Matthew Stanley finished sixth and seventh with times of 50.06 and 50.39. The only collegiate swimmer from A Final was aMarius Kush who finished eighth with a 50.54.
Top 8:
- Adrian, 48.18
- De Lucca, 49.67
- Quintero, 49.89
- Shields, 49.97
- Pebley, 50.04
- Hunter, 50.06
- Stanley, 50.39
- Kusch, 50.54
Women’s 200 Breast – Finals
Texas Longhorn’s Madisyn Cox swam a lifetime best this morning in the 200 breaststroke putting up the fastest time heading into finals with a 2:27.02. She dropped another 1.13 seconds tonight in finals, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Katie Meili (bronze medalist in Rio) and Melanie Margalis, who is the current series leader heading into the Arena Pro Series in Mesa. Meili finished first in a 2:25.67 while Margalis swam a 2:25.71.
Meili was on the Olympic Team in the 100 breaststroke, but didn’t swim the 200 at trials. After the race she said the 200 is “a little long” but she “likes the challenge”.
USC’s Riley Scott (2:30.51) finished sixth while Louisville’s Andrea Cottrell (2:31.84) finished seventh. They were the collegiate swimmers in the field and sixteen year-old Zoe Bartel rounded out A-Final with a 2:32.89.
Top 8:
- Meili, 2:25.67
- Margalis, 2:25:71
- Cox, 2:25.89
- Hannis, 2:28.20
- Larson, 2:28.71
- Scott, 2:30.51
- Cottrell, 2:31.84
- Bartel, 2:32.89
Men’s 200 Breast – Finals
Josh Prenot, who was a Rio Olympian in this event, cruised to a fourth place finish in prelims with a 2:14.72. Tonight, he dropped 4.25 seconds in finals as he swam to a first place finish with a 2:10.47 – nearly a second faster than anyone else. Chase Kalisz who was top seed after this morning finished second with a 2:11.29 and Olympic breaststroker Kevin Cordes was just .4 behind Kalisz with a 2:11.50.
Daniel Roy held his own in finals as a high school junior going a 2:12.84. He swam just over two seconds faster than this morning and was part of the U.S Junior Pan Pacs last summer.
Top 8:
- Pernot, 2:10.47
- Kalisz, 2:11.29
- Cordes, 2:11.50
- Claverie, 2:11.92
- Roy, 2:12.84
- Schroder, 2:14.28
- Yang, 2:17.48
- Bornstein, 2:17.68
Women’s 100 Fly – Finals
Coming off of a fifth place finish in the 100 freestyle just an hour or so earlier, Kelsi Worrell swam to her first individual win at Mesa in the 100 Fly. Worrell won finals with a 58.60 adding just 0.18 from this morning, but it was enough to fend off Louise Hansson who finished in a 58.80. Hansson also pulled off double events as she finished sixth in the 100 freestyle.
The top five swimmers were all under a minute with Kendyl Stewart in third (59.52), Amanda Kendall in fourth (59.60) and Lauren Case in fifth (59.80).
Mallory Comerford was another who swam doubles with the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly. While she finished second in the 100 freestyle, she tied for sixth in the 100 butterfly with Aliena Schmidtke in a time of 1:00.18.
Top 8:
- Worrell, 58.60
- Hansson, 58.80
- Stewart, 59.52
- Kendall, 59.60
- Case, 59.80
- T-6 Schmidtke, 1:00.18
- T-6 Comerford, 1:00.18
- De Paula, 1:00.75
Men’s 100 Fly – Finals
The whole field in the men’s 100 fly seemed to get faster at night with the top 7 all under 54 seconds – in prelims it was only the top 5. It was Tom Shields‘ underwater coming off of the 50m mark that separated him from the field. He won the event for Team USA with a 52.42. He was 1.12 faster than this morning. Fellow American Tim Phillips was right behind him with a 52.87 followed by Germany’s Marius Kusch with a 53.43.
Russia’s Daniil Antipov was another swimmer under 54:00 in the B Final with a time of 53.79.
Top 8:
- Shields, 52.42
- Phillips, 52.87
- Kusch, 53.43
- Grassi, 53.45
- Gutierrez, 53.55
- Carter, 53.61
- Harting, 53.87
- Stubblefield, 54.49
Women’s 400 Free – Finals
In her first long course swim of the season, Katie Ledecky moved to #1 in the world ranks in the 400 freestyle this morning. She led prelims with a 4:01.96 and she only got faster in finals where she swam to a 4:01.01 – nearly eight seconds faster than the rest of the field. It was Ledecky and her Olympic teammate Leah Smith leading the pool with clean water. Smith finished with a 4:07.70, which was four seconds faster than anyone else.
Ledecky’s 50 splits were consistently in the mid-30’s getting down to 29.59 on the last 50. Smith swam a similar race plan splitting 31’s consistently.
In the B Final, it was another Katie from Stanford who took the lead – Katie Drabot. She won the B Final with a 4:15.23.
Top 8:
- Ledecky, 4:01.01
- Smith, 4:07.70
- Harvey, 4:11.48
- Schmidt, 4:11.57
- Nguyen, 4:13.34
- Cox, 4:14.00
- Anderson, 4:14.20
- Ault, 4:14.46
Men’s 400 Free – Finals
The men’s 400 freestyle shaped up to be a close race between Louisville’s Marcelo Acosta and high school senior Sean Grieshop. Acosta finished in a 3:53.38 edging out Grieshop by just under a second where Grieshop finished with a 3:54.29. The two were nearly even at the 200 mark with Acosta splitting a 1:56.43 and Grieshop a 1:56.47. The difference in the race came down to the last 50 where Acosta closed it out stronger with a 27.85 while Grieshop split a 28.46.
America’s Taylor Abbott was a close third with a 3:55.11 just edging out Israeli national Marc Hinawi who swam a 3:55.99.
Top 8:
- Acosta, 3:53.38
- Grieshop, 3:54.29
- Abbott, 3:55.11
- Hinawi, 3:55.99
- Yeager, 3:59.87
- Stump, 4:00.47
- Bresette, 4:00.96
- Bayo, 4:01.45
Quick thoughts
That meet is for most of US high school and college swimmers the first long course meet of the season so the transition from the bathtub to the adults’ pool can be brutal for some of them. And most of them are in a heavy training period.
WOMEN’S 100 FREE. Simone Manuel looks really really really good right now. She’s faster than at last year’s same meet. And it looked really smooth. By far the best American sprinter of the moment. But we already knew that. Mallory Comerford with a very good race too in 54.20. She was in 56.76 at last year’s same meet! She confirms she can transfer her talent to long course too. I continue… Read more »
Most of the strong college and high school programs have access to LCM pools and regularly incorporate LCM days, weekends, or longer periods into their training during the SCY season. It’s not as big as a shock as it used to be when one would literally swim only SCY until the summer and then do only LCM. And although their in heavy training, they don’t have the total fatigue debt of an extended (several months) heavy training period, because they just had a full taper a month ago.
Chase Kalisz made the right choice swimming the 200 fly at NCAAs
Meaning?
Yeah, a DQ is always better than placing in a final of an event you know how to do legally.
Simone did not go a 53.3 at this meet last year as the article states. She did go a 53.8 however.
“She swam extremely fast at this meet last year as well where she went a 53.30. The 53.66 she swam tonight was her fastest time at a non-national or international championship.”
Am I missing something here or…
No u aren’t. Swim swam made a typo error in that sentence. She was 53.80 last year (I looked it because I couldn’t have possibly remembered that at my age lol) not 53.30 as stated. So it is indeed two tenths faster than last year and her fastest in a non championship meet. I see Simone breaking the AR again this year, but I won’t make predictions about gold in Budapest.
Yo Swimswam. Why is Shields wearing a TYR suit this meet?
I think several of the contracts were up after Rio….I noticed new sponsors for several of the pros last night.
Is anyone as consistently as fast as Adrian?
Magnussen like 4 years ago
Maggie was consistently fast, until he wasn’t.
Adrian has gone 48-low untapered about every year since 09.
Adrian wins the contest LOL
More kick than I usually see on Ledecky’s 400
What a beauty it was to see, too. Everything about her swimming just looks effortless.
There were no difference between morning and evening swims. Neither at 100 nor at 400.
Like that is what she is capable of being at hard training. The good thing is that at this point last year she was even a little bit slower.
Jesus Christ, I never realised just how big Ledecky is, camera angles in Mesa give great perspective. What a specimen. Her shoulders & back look incredibly strong. You can see why she is so close to men’s A finals, her upper body is almost more like a male swimmers than a females.
She was faster than anybody at B final of M400free at this meet. But if you compare body shape and muscles development of any participants of this final with Katie you will clearly see the difference between male and female body. If you have eye, of course. Please don’t initiate one more time such absurdities. Yes she is a big girl and during her 2016 season she focused a great deal on power increase and spent much more time on dry land exercises. Look for some other more realistic and scientific explanations of her dominance.
I think you’ve taken a flippant observation as my scientific reasoning behind a given result. I didn’t compare “body shape”, I commented that her upper body (more accurately upper torso – Shoulders & back) could “almost” be mistaken as a male swimmers in the water (In a shot from above). That’s not an absurdity, nor is it a criticism, it’s merely an observation. If you watch KL in the water and focus on her upper torso, it stands out markedly amongst every other woman in the field. She is racing the best athletes in the world, yet still her physical specimen stands out so remarkably.
The scientific explanation is something we’ll probably never know. Much like thoroughbred horses, you… Read more »
I believe in your decent intentions in sharing your observations from above. But the way you’ve chosen to reveal your observations may easily drive someone to indecent conclusion. Therefore your post got so many negative votes, that is unusual for you.
I honestly didn’t get what motivated you to make this post. As you said, let’s just enjoy the sport without making observations that can easily have negative connotation.
Your disbelief in the progress and importance of modern sport science is surprising. If scientific theories were stupid and useless as you think there would be no so well developed doping industry. Basically everything what coaches and medical people do is an attempt to achieve same physical conditions as… Read more »
U can’t explain eveything by Science – i now that for a fact in many domains of life ( sport included ) .
KL was the 8th fastest 400 freestyler in Mesa and that includes all the men !
‘Jesus Christ’ *****. !!!!!??? . Its Good Friday . Before they wipe us out , we probably should try & keep some of the better traditions .
Hahaha – As I hit send on that comment, I felt the glare my mother would give me!
It just reminded me of the kids at school who used to scream it out in school Christmas plays ( when we were allowed to have them ) because that was the only way they heard it .
If we still had the commandment about covetting your neighbour’s wife – there would be no Daily Mail .
I also find it weird that ledecky looked more tired in her distance races at the ncaa,s now that she,s bigger than before. she looked big at the ncaa,s. Maybe more bulk requires more energy to carry in the water. Bulk helps in sprinting though. Maybe she wants to be a sprinter.
And also she was kicking more than she did in the past but didn’t go under 4 minutes in the 400?
Maybe she was cruising but ledecky kicking more and not going under 4 minutes is strange even if she,s cruising.