Day 5 Prelims: Live Results, Recaps, and Analysis from Omaha

We’re moving into day 5 of the meet, which is past the halfway point of the competition. Prelims today will see the first women’s sprint event of the meet – the 100 free – as well as the men’s 200 backstroke, women’s 200 breaststroke, and men’s 200 IM. Refresh this page frequently to see updates!

10:01 AM – Anne-Marie Botek in 57.87 last in the first heat of the 100 free. She’s been attempting to revive her career at T2 under Paul Yetter.

10:06 AM – Megan Waters from Princeton was DQ’ed in the women’s 100 free for a false start. Florida State sophomore Kaitlyn Dressell still leads the way after 5 heats in 56.36.

10:10 AM – Tiffany Oliver wins heat 6 in 56.71. Seminole Sprinters are looking pretty good.

10:13 AM – Speaking of looking pretty good, Maddie Locus from Georgia (their top freshman sprinter last year) goes a 56.13. Big drop from her (7-tenths). Bulldogs fast this week.

10:17 AM – Lindsay Gendron juts wore a regular-cut suit for her 200 free. She adds a kneeskin for the 100, drops a second to 55.57, is the top seed through 10 heats.

Women’s 100 Free

As we’ve seen throughout this meet (and in a very American sense as compared to much of the world) the story of the day seems to be starting hard. Many heat-leaders were out ahead of American Record pace, but none hung on to that pace. Despite, many rolled on to very good times and heat wins, and most all of the important swimmers safely navigated through to the finals.

The top seed is Cal swimmer Dana Vollmer, who set the tone early in the circle-seeded heats with a 54.35. Allison Schmitt continued to show her big speed with a 54.49 for 2nd (though, for maybe the first time of this meet, she was well behind at the halfway mark. Not a position she’s all-that familiar with.

Jessica Hardy, still looking for her first qualification, took the third seed overall in 54.52, and Arizona’s Margo Geer busted out a rock-solid 54.62 with a fantastic first 50 meters. That’s a best time by three-tenths of a second; not a big surprise given the kind of outstanding college season she had. She could get down to a 54-low in the final.

But It’s going to take something scary-good to beat Vollmer or Schmitt, with how fast they’ve been swimming – both have broken American Records already this week, and both have done so with outstanding front-end speed. 53-mid’s are coming, at least.

Other notable finishes are 17-year old Lia Neal having a much-better swim than her 200 with a 54.77 for 6th, Missy Franklin coming back off of a taxing two days with an easy 54.78, and Megan Romano looking to redeem her 7th-place finish in the 200 free touching 8th here in 54.99.

Natalie Coughlin looked decent in 54.99; it will be a confidence boost to see that 54 at the beginning of her time.

T2 Aquatics swimmers Liz Pelton and Erika Erndl tied for 11th in 55.11.

There were a few misses in the prelims; that includes Kara Lynn Joyce finishing 18th in 55.49. She’s a four-time relay silver medalist, and was on the finals relays at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Christine Magnuson was 22nd in 55.73, though I still think her best hope is the 50 free. And Lauren Perdue, who was 4th in the 200 free, finished 27th in 55.97.

10:51 AM – Very hot-and-cold times in heat 7 of the men’s 200 back. Nate Savoy with a 2:00.15 for the top seed so far; 16-year old Alex Katz from Sarasota dropped three seconds to go a 2:00.66. Jack Wagner, on the other hand, was a 2:10, 7-seconds off of seed.

11:05 AM – Austin Surhoff, Eugene Godsoe both scratch in the last heat of the men’s 200 backstroke.

11:06 AM – Nothing fires up the crowd in Omaha like a great last turn. Lochte puts a rush into the field in 1:57.34 for the top seed overall.

Men’s 200 Backstroke

Ryan Lochte has been finishing hard all week. But none of those times were as good as the fun he’s had in this race. He closed in a 27.96 (in textile, most swimmers finish in 29’s) to take the top seed overall in 1:57.24.

There are many swimmers who could probably crack 28-seconds in this race if they really put effort into it, and though I wouldn’t expect him to be as good at the final touch in the semi’s or the finals, he’ll probably be much faster overall.

Tyler Clary took the 2nd seed in 1:57.93, and probably becomes the favorite to grab the second spot in this race behind Lochte thanks to a scratch from Matt Grevers (1:58.90 – 3rd seed). Grevers scratched the semi’s, saying he was a bit disappointed with his result even though it appeared as though he wasn’t necessarily trying to swim a fast time. It almost appeared to the observer as though he had his mind made up that he wasn’t going to be happy with the 200 regardless of what happened.

Regardless, that greatly improves the chances in this race of the big-time junior swimmer in this race – 16-year old Ryan Murphy. He becomes the 3rd seed (was 4th) with a 1:59.03. He’s got a long way to go to break Aaron Peirsol’s NAG Record in this race, which he has crushed in the 100 already at this meet. Peirsol, at this age, was a far-better 200 backstroker than 100.

The two other young stars of American backstroke, Jack Conger and Jacob Pebley, also made these semi’s.

Nick Thoman and Rex Tullius also broke the two-minute barrier.

Penn State’s Nathaniel Savoy had a great early-heat swim of 2:00.15 for the 7th-overall seed. Alexander Katz from the Sarasota YMCA was 11th in 2:00.66.

Matt Thompson, an All-American from Stanford who was 3rd at NCAA’s was the beneficiary of the Grevers scratch. He moved from 17th to 16th and into the semi-final. David Nolan didn’t swim this race, but other than that, all of the usual parties made the semi’s.

11:19 AM – Kelsey Holmgaard DQ’ed for dolphin kicking before initiating the pull.

11:26 AM – Katherine Rechsteiner DQ’ed in heat 5 for pushing off the wall on her back.

11:27 AM – I am becoming more-and-more obsessed with what’s going on in South Bend every day. Emma Reaney wins heat 5 in 2:30.93. Up until this month, her best time was a 2:39. Can you say TAPER?

11:32 AM – Grace Kittle, the former DU Hilltopper superstar, scratched the 200 breaststroke. That’s a bit disappointing.

11:40 AM – Angela Chokran from Michigan DQ’ed for a one-handed touch.

11:46 AM – USC’s Kasey Carlson scratches the 200 breast after swimming the 100 free. Hasn’t been great in this race historically, but looked pretty good in December in yards. Ariana Kukors also scratches out of heat 11, the first circle-seeded heat.

Women’s 200 Breaststroke Prelims & Swim-Off

I know that we said nobody would beat Rebecca Soni in the women’s 100 breaststroke at this meet; but nobody is going to touch her in this 200. We mean it this time. She went out in a 1:08.95, which would have put her through to the semi-finals of the heats in the shorter race. She touched in 2:23.11 – which seems to be faster than anybody else in this field can go even full-speed, and she clearly has more to give.

Behind her, Micah Lawrence took 2nd in 2:24.95. She had a solid race throughout, and paced it probably about how she’ll expect to do so throughout the three rounds of this race.

Andrea Kropp, who will begin competing for USC in the fall, is 3rd in a 2:25.77. She’s got some international-level experience for the US already. That’s a best time for her, and shows how much work she’s been doing on her overall swimming “athleticism” in the last year while sitting out the college season.

Texas’ Laura Sogar has looked outstanding in the 200 breaststroke since finishing the college season; but she really took off in this 200 prelim with a 2:26.23 for 4th. After a four-year slump, she swam a best time in this event for the first time since 2008.

Amanda Beard got the loudest roar from the crowd in this race as she won her heat in 2:27.07, which puts her 5th overall. 2011 NCAA Champion Haley Spencer took 6th in 2:27.90, followed by last year’s NCAA champion in 2:28.26.

Other notable finishes in this race include 100 breaststroke champion Breeja Larson in 2:29.23 for 10th; Arizona commit Emma Schoettmer swimming a 2:29.24 for 11th, and Ohio State commit Annie Lazor maybe the biggest surprise semifinalist of them all with a 2:30.19 for 16th. The Buckeyes brought in a great class, and with this swim it proably elevated even further.

Maybe the most exciting race of the entire morning was between Louisville’s breakout star Gisselle Kohoyda and 14-year phenom Allie Szekely. There was no spot on the line (barring a late scratch), but this swim-off would decide a tie for 17th. The lead changed hands about 6 different times in this race, and ultimately it was Szekely from Central Bucks, wearing an ancient Fast Skin II, who took the victory in 2:30.03, faster even than she was in the first swim. Szekely and Kohoyda swim two vastly-different styles of breaststrokes, with Szekely using a GIANT hip undulation (we’re told she was DQ’ed for it at a meet in Michigan earlier this year) to power to the victory.

Afterward, she was swarmed by media, ironically even while Dara Torres was warming up with two casual 50’s in the competition pool.

12:08 PM – Rex Tullius scratched after the 200 back. We’re probably going to see a lot of that from 200 backstrokers who were entered in both – and not named Ryan Lochte. USC’s Jack Wagner with a best time in 2:05.86, which probably explains the result of the 200 back earlier.

12:12 PM – No suit malfunctions from Indiana’s Cody Miller in this one! Wins heat 5 in 2:02.29 for a three-and-a-half second time drop, top time of the morning so far. 13 heats altogether.

12:32 PM – Arizona is looking outstanding in this meet so far. Woody Joye 2:02.65 sits second headed into circle-seeds.

12:33 PM – Love to see the kids in the front row behind the blocks congratulation everyone who walks by with high-fives after the races.

Men’s 200 IM Prelims

Conor Dwyer, who’s been having an outstanding meet and has two swims locked up (400 free individually, 200 free on the relay) looked great again in this 200 IM – likely his final event – with a 1:59.11 took the top seed in the men’s 200 IM.

The big names, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte were 2nd (1:59.27) and 4th (1:59.92). That means we’ll get to see them a bit in a preview of the final, with the pair squaring off in the first semi-final. That is unlikely to In between them was Texas’ Austin Surhoff in 1:59.65 – he scratched the 200 back to focus on this race, and that decision seemed to pay off with the first sub-two minute swim of his career.

Lochte’s teammate Peter Vanderkaay, who has been putting up good IM’s the last few weeks, surprisingly stuck with this 200 IM even with the 1500 coming up. Still, he swam exceedingly well with a 2:00.01 for the best time of his career by a second-and-a-half.

Other breakout swims include Indiana’s Cody Miller, who made his 2nd semi-final with a 2:02.29 for 10th-place. Arizona’s Woody Joye seems to be thriving in Tucson after transferring there from Texas, and was 15th in 2:02.95.

12:36 PM – We’re going to see a 17th-place swimoff between Gisselle Kohoyda of Louisville and 14-year old Allie Sezekely from Central Bucks. Sort of odd without any scratch apparent, but should be a fun race.

12:36 PM – We’re going to see a 17th-place swimoff between Gisselle Kohoyda of Louisville and 14-year old Allie Sezekely from Central Bucks. Sort of odd without any scratch apparent, but should be a fun race.

Full Meet Results available here.