Dean Farris to Race First Long Course Meet of 2019 at Atlanta Classic

2019 Atlanta Classic

• May 17th-19th, 2019
• Georgia Tech McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, Georgia
• LCM (50m pool)
• Meet Information
• Psych Sheets

While the official party of American swimming will be in Bloomington, Indiana next weekend at the Pro Swim Series stop, there will be another big party happening: this one in Atlanta at the 2019 Atlanta Classic Swim Meet. The 2019 edition of the meet is arguably the most impressive field since the inaugural edition in 2016, when Nathan Adrian and Katie Ledecky raced (and Michael Phelps was scheduled to race, before pulling-out at the last minute).

In fact, this year’s field arguably rivals that of the Bloomington Pro Swim Series stop, certainly at the top end of the field, and in number of entries, as swimmers based out of the southeastern United States will converge upon the Georgia Tech pool.

That includes both pro and collegiate groups from the University of Florida, Tennessee, Florida State, Kentucky, Auburn, and Georgia, among others. Among the names on the entry sheets: Caeleb Dressel, who has 2 Olympic gold medals and is the defending World Champion in 13 events between long course and short course meets.

He’s entered in 5 events: the 100 fly, 200 fly, 100 breast, 200 IM, and 100 freestyle. That means no 50 freestyle: an event where he won the World Championship in 2017.

Also present at the meet will be Atlanta native Dean Farris, who swam the fastest 200 yard free in history last year to end his junior season at Harvard. This will be his first long course meet since that historic swim.

The women’s field is even deeper than the men’s, with 4 members of the U.S. team for this summer’s World Championships present: Hali Flickinger, Melanie Margalis, and Olivia Smoliga,  They top an impressive field of women that include NCAA Record holder Erika Brown, National Age Group Record breaker Kate Douglass and comeback swimmer Natalie Hinds.

Also scheduled to race in the men’s meet is Chase Kalisz: the defending World Champion in the 200 and 400 IMs. He’s scheduled to swim 4 races, but the 400 IM is not among them. Instead, he’ll race the 100 breast, 200 breast, 200 fly and 200 IM. Kalisz also didn’t race the 400 IM at the FINA Champions Series this weekend in Budapest (where it wasn’t offered), meaning that he’s only got 2 swims in Richmond in that race under his belt so far this season. We assume that he was eligible to, as the defending World Champion, but he didn’t.