What To Expect During Prelims On Day Two Of US Nationals

What You Need to Follow Day 2 in Real-Time

• Day 2 heat sheets.
• Day 2 timeline (session should end by 12:30 PM, local time).
• Day 2 events: W/M 200 free, W/M 200 breast, M/W 200 back, W/M 50 fly, (timed final) M 800 free relay
• All the links you need to follow the meet here

Scratches

The men’s and women’s 200 frees both came through the pre-meet scratches pretty clean, with the top 24 remaining entered in both genders.

The other events saw more swimmers drop out. Melanie Margalis and Celina Li, the #6 and #10 seeds in the women’s 200 breaststroke, were both scratches. Margalis has retained her entry in the 200 free. Coming from Georgia, that would typically not be a surprising choice, but Margalis’ breaststroke looked outstanding in the last college season (although so did her 200 free – really just an unfortunate event schedule more than anything).

That will slide up Lilly King from the Newburgh Sea Creatures and Anna Meinholz from Wisconsin into the circle-seeded heats, which is a value move that can not be underrated.

Less surprising is that sprint specialist Mike Alexandrov scratched the men’s 200 breast as the #8 seed. The 100 is his shot at the Pan Pacs team, and though he maybe could have snuck onto the National Team in this 200, the 200 depth in the U.S. is really deep. Cal’s Chuck Katis moves into the circle-seeds.

Two women dropped out of the 200 backstroke – Kendyl Stewart (who is in a constant battle between the 100 and 200 backstroke and butterfly events), and Rachel Zilinskas. They were the #6 and #21 seeds. Zilinskas had a fantastic 800 freestyle swim on Wednesday (dropping 11 seconds), and although it would’ve taken about a 5 second drop here to make the Pan Pacs squad, we were interested in her time in this 200 back.

The only other top 24 scratch on the day came from Carl Weigley, who dropped the men’s 50 fly.

What to Watch For

There’s a few specific swims that are really going to stand out for us here. Chase Kalisz is off to a good start to his meet, and he’ll be looking for a possible win in the 200 breaststroke. That race is full of intrigue, including Kevin Cordes’ meet debut. He’s the 4th seed, but hasn’t done great in 2014 so far – his season best is a 2:14 from January. He has always been a very good taper swimmer though – his season-best was a 2:14 headed into his Olympic qualification in 2012 as well.

Both 200 backstrokes should be great races as well. The women’s event will feature the Cal crew (Missy Franklin and Liz Pelton) trying to hold off a lot of capable challengers. Elizabeth Beisel, Kylie Stewart, Kathleen Baker, and the returned-from-injury Sarah Denninghoff will give chase, among others.

The men’s race will be top seeded by two guys who were outstanding in their swims on Wednesday – Ryan Lochte (silver in the 100 free) and Tyler Clary (silver in the 200 fly), followed by three guys (Jack Conger, Ryan Murphy, and Jacob Pebley) who have come up through the age groups together and are now at the point where they’re going to start taking away spots on international rosters from guys like Clary and Lochte. This is as good of a time to start as any.