Florida Top Seeds Finke, Smith, Ledecky, and Dressel Scratch Atlanta Classic Day 4 Finals

2024 SPEEDO ATLANTA CLASSIC DRIVEN BY JIM ELLIS CADILLAC

Saturday Finals Heat Sheet

The last finals session of the 2024 Atlanta Classic will feature the fastest timed finals heats of the women’s and men’s 800 free, followed by the 18&U b0nus D-finals, bonus C-finals, consolation B-finals, and championship A-finals of the 100 back, 200 breast, 200 IM, and 50 free. Many top Florida Gator names, including men’s 800 free top seed Bobby Finke, men’s 200 IM top seed Kieran Smith, women’s 200 IM top seed Katie Ledecky, and men’s 50 free finalist Caeleb Dressel.

Saturday Finals Livestream

Peering at the timed finals heats of the 800 free, top seed Bobby Finke of St. Petersburg has scratched tonight’s finals, giving Florida’s Aryan Nehra the top seed for tonight’s finals. Finke previously won both the 400 IM and 1500 free here in Atlanta. Alfonso Mestre, who was seeded second, already swam his 800 free at 7:52.15 and is traveling out of Atlanta tonight with many other Gators. In the same way, top-seeded Ashley Twichell of TAC Titans has decided to forgo the women’s 800 free, giving Georgia’s Dune Coetzee of South Africa the top seed tonight.

Finke will also not contest both his 200 IM 7th seed and 100 back 9th seed. In the men’s 200 IM, top seed Kieran Smith scratched out of finals alongside fellow Gators 5th seed Mason Laur. Now leading the men’s 200 IM will be Munzer Kabbara, who set a new Lebanon national record in prelims. Out of the men’s 100 back, 10th seed Yeziel Morales of Puerto Rico also scratched finals, further highlighting the showdown between top seed Kacper Stokowski of Poland and Virginia’s Jack Aikins.

While Julian Smith scratched his 18th seed in the men’s IM, he is still scheduled to swim the 50 free A-final, where he is seeded 6th. Top seed Santiago Grassi of Argentina will take on a cooled-down A-final as Florida’s 2nd seeds Alberto Mestre and Macguire McDuff, as well as 6th seed Caeleb Dressel, have scratched out of finals. Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov also gave up his 15th seed while Florida distance swimmer Jake Mitchell bowed out of the C-final.

On the women’s side, Katie Ledecky will not contest her personal best top seed in the women’s 200 IM, giving 17-year-old Lilla Bognar of Greenville the finals top spot. While B-finalists 12th seed Olivia DellaTorre and 16th seed Kate McCarville also scratched the women’s 200 IM, it was in favor of stronger events. Georgia’s DellaTorre is scheduled to swim her 15th seed in the women’s 200 breast B-final while Tennessee’s McCarville will swim her 4th seed in the last women’s 800 free timed final heat.

Out of the Catie DeLoof-headlined women’s 50 free, 7th seed Alabama’s Kailyn Winter, as well as 20th seed Florida’s Bella Sims, will not swim finals. While Florida’s Micayla Cronk gave up her 7th seed in the women’s 100 back, she is still scheduled for the women’s 50 free, where she’s seeded 8th in the A-final. Almost exactly the same way, Alabama’s Cadence Vincent chose the 50 free (5th seed) over the 100 back, where she was 9th in prelims. Coming in as the women’s 100 back top seed will be Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon, who previously won the 200 back.

Contrastingly in the women’s 200 breast, both 2nd seed Zoie Hartman of Georgia and 5th seed Emma Weyant of Florida have opted out of the A-final. Ireland’s Mona McSharry once again leads a women’s breaststroke final in Atlanta. In the men’s 200 breast, all ten A-finalists are scheduled to swim tonight, featuring top seed Xavier Ruiz of Puerto Rico.

Notable Day 4 Finals Scratches – 2024 Atlanta Classic

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Cate
1 month ago

Hope the tickets to that event didn’t cost the public anything.

Admin
Reply to  Cate
1 month ago

I think the meet was just open access – no tickets sold.

oxyswim
1 month ago

The vast majority of athletes aren’t training on a Sunday anyway. 5 hour drive from Atlanta to Gainesville would be very easy to make Sunday and still have time to relax in the afternoon and be ready for normal Monday morning practice. Guess we’ll all have to be content with never growing the sport though.

Last edited 1 month ago by oxyswim
Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  oxyswim
1 month ago

Greyhound, the cheap way to travel from Gainesville, FL to Atlanta, GA without the hassle of driving.

Derp
1 month ago

This is so lame , biggest stars always bail no wonder outside the swim community and the Olympics every 4 years no one gives a shit

Hank
1 month ago

That sucks. Aren’t they paid to swim?

Last edited 1 month ago by Hank
SwimCoach
1 month ago

This is disappointing from a fan of swimming perspective.

The Original Tim
1 month ago

Golly gee willickers, the Florida pros scratching finals on Saturday, whoulda thunk?!?!

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  The Original Tim
1 month ago

Par for the course.

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
1 month ago

Caeleb has diapers to change.

Greg P
1 month ago

Scratching must be elite swimmers favorite hobby

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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