Liz Pelton Scratches 200 IM in Saturday Finals

As if the disqualification to Maya Dirado, who would’ve been the 2nd seed in the women’s 200 IM final on Saturday night at the 2013 World Championship Trials in Indianapolis, wasn’t enough of a shakeup, add to it that Liz Pelton from Cal has now scratched the final as well.

Pelton is already on the team in the 100 and 200 backstroke, as an alternate in the 400 free relay, and on the 400 medley relay as a backstroker, but this 200 IM could’ve been another potential event for her. With how well she’s swum at this meet, it really could’ve been considered an event that she had a shot to medal in at Worlds.

Instead, however, after a 2:14.47 in prelims for the 5th seed, she’s opted to drop out of the race and turn her eyes toward Barcelona.

That moves Jasmine Tosky from USC/Palo Alto into the A-Final; she was a 2:15.55 in the prelims. That also made a tie for 17th into a tie for 16th between Katherine Drabot and Katie Meili. Drabot dropped two seconds in that swim-off to go a 2:16.14 and take that swim in the B Final. Drabot is 15, so that opens up a spot in the 18 & under C-Final for Ellie Grimes from the Lakeside Swim Team.

Tyler Clary didn’t swim his best in the 200 IM prelims, which landed him in the B-Final. He opted to scratch that race, which moved Florida’s Connor Signorin up into the B-Final with a 2:03.84 from prelims. Signorin is over 18, so the scratch didn’t affect the C-Final.

In the women’s 50 free, Megan Romano and Cheyenne Coffman both scratched out of the B Final as the 9th and 12th seeds, respectively. That bumped Asphalt Green Olympian Lia Neal and her 25.76, plus Cal’s Kaylin Bing into the B-Final.

Dax Hill scratched the C-Final of the men’s race. There were only 23 swimmers to begin with (not enough to complete three finals), so there was no domino effect on anybody else’s evening qualifications.

To read about scratches in the non-Olympic distance races, see Kelsey Zimcosky’s post from Friday night.