After making his 2017-2018 racing debut at the Florida Area 1 & 4 Championships last weekend in Jacksonville, Ryan Lochte is entered in seven events at the Florida Southern Zone South Sectional Championships (LCM), which will begin Thursday in Plantation.
Lochte is entered with a 1:46.62 in the 200 free, 52.66 in the 100 fly, 54.83 in the 100 back, 1:56.22 in the 200 IM, 49.13 in the 100 free, and 2:01.04 in the 200 back. He’s also entered in the 400 free with his 4:21.79 SCY 500 time. His 200 free, 100 fly, 200 IM, and 100 free entry times were done at 2016 Olympic Trials, and his backstroke times are from the 2016 Mesa Pro Swim Series stop.
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He isn’t only post-grad participating in the meet. Scheduled to join Lochte is Corey Main, who trains with him at the University of Florida, as well as Florida State grads Jared Pike and Marc Rojas, and a handful of others. Bruno Fratus is also entered in the 50 free.
Last week, Lochte went 4:21.8 in his 500, which while well off his 2007 best of 4:13.23, was right around his next-best time. This week marks his return to his more traditional events, though notably he and all the other male post-grads are forgoing the 200 fly and 400 IM (24-year-old Boglarka Kapas is the top seed in the women’s 400 IM).
Can’t believe no one is excited to see him COME BACK. Here I thought he was only gonna swim like 3 or 4 events but he come backs with 7! He’s not gonna compete in all those of course but he’s really tryning to signify to everyone that he means business. Anyway as mentioned above yes lochte’s 400 free has always been trash. At the 2008 Olympic trials he went a 3:49 in the 400 free while in the 400 IM he was like 4:06. So there’s a good chance he might just be swimming it as a bench mark. On the other hand he might actually be going competitive in the 400 free cuz he not doing no 400… Read more »
It will indeed be very interesting to see what he does, especially in light of being back with Troy now.
I like Ryan alot but realistically do not think he can compete INTERNATIONALLY in 6 events. the thing is to do that you must be one of the top Americans. I think the 200 IM for sure he can be competitive as well as 100 Fly and 200 Free. Backstroke he hasnt done internationally in some time so not sure yet were he can be. 100 Back seem better shot than 200. 200 back just seems locked up Pebley, Murphy.
I don’t think that’s the purpose of swimming so many events at this meet. It’s moreso about getting baselines for how training is and where there are realistic opportunities for improvement. The 200 IM and 200 Free are very likely focus points as those events internationally are the team’s bread and butter and he’ll have an outstanding training group to keep him honest from day-to-day.
I know Lochte works really hard under the right circumstances, but he has a bit too carefree of an attitude to really excel under some coaches (Marsh, while a great coach, was fairly lenient about them missing practices for most of the quad. He mentioned cracking down on it in the stretch leading up to Rio in one video). Troy and his system seem like a really good counterbalance to that. I’ll call it right now that Lochte takes a spot in the 200 IM for Tokyo, and probably a spot on the 4×200 free relay.
If the 200 back and 200 IM have the same placement as usual, I hope he doesn’t even try for the 200 back. Pebley… Read more »
I’ll call it and say he doesn’t make the team. His Rio performance shows he’s on the downhill slide. If he had done better in Rio my opinion would have been different.
I have nothing to go on, but I predict Lochte swims two events (maybe 100 bk / 100 fly) and scratches the rest.
The last paragraph is a bit confusing. Does this mean that Boglarka Kapas is training with the Florida post-grad group now?
There are members of the Hungarian team currently on a training camp in Fort Lauderdale.
Given his age, he broke the Masters record for the 500 by about 8 seconds; guess a few more masters records will fall
And that was the oldest record for 30-34; standing since 1996
I believe there are some restrictions on how one can set Masters records (i.e., whether it needs to be at a Masters meet. For example, MP’s swims from Rio 2016 are NOT Masters National Records for 30-34 age group. But apparently Lochte’s 1:59 IM from US Open last summer IS a Masters National Record. Anyone know the distinction?
Excellent question. Anyone with additional info to this which I found online? http://www.usms.org/articles/articledisplay.php?aid=281
He’s going to die so badly in that 400, but I’m excited that He’s actually swimming a meet
What makes you say he will die in a 400 LCM free? How many of us can do a 4:21 after not doing much if any racing for many months? IMHO it will be both interesting & intriguing to see what he can do at this stage of his career.
Both interesting and intriguing, huh?
yup
His splitting was very good and consistent in the 500 he swam last week (23.3 out and then 26.mids the rest of the way), so imo the only way he dies is if his strategy is wrong. The fitness is there, especially considering that he probably had very little rest leading into that 500.
Would’ve been cool if he entered in some breastroke. I love it when him and Phelps toyed with real off events. (Although him swimming the 400 is pretty cool)
In my opinion, the last thing Lochte needs to be doing is breastroke. He’s had so many injuries involving his groin (several of which he’s attributed to breaststroke) that I think he needs to stay away from it all together.
… Last time I checked IM has breast included
Don’t forget about the MCL tear right as he got to Charlotte. He’ll be fine training for the IMs, but I agree that he doesn’t need to be racing the 200 breast or doing a ton of it in practice.
He is entered in the 400 as well with a yards time