Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions psych sheets released with Hardy, Plummer among headliners

Mission Viejo’s Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions will take place this weekend in Southern California, and the psych sheets have been posted by USA Swimming.

Olympic gold medalist Jessica Hardy and World Champs silver medalist David Plummer are among the headliners of the meet, which runs Thursday through Sunday.

Hardy will swim the 50 free, 100 free and 100 breast at the event, while Plummer will compete in the 100 back and 50 free.

As usual, Canadian clubs will bring down some of the country’s top swimmers for the event. Russell Wood will go up against Plummer in the backstrokes, Eric Hedlin is among the leaders in the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 freestyles, and Brooklynn Snodgrass leads both women’s backstroke fields.

Other big Canadian names include distance man Jeremy Bagshaw, 18-year-old sprint sensation Yuri Kisil, breaststroker Kierra Smith and Fiona Doyle, an Irish national who trains and attends school at the University of Calgary.

• When: June 25th-28th, Prelims start at 9:00 a.m. and finals begin at 5:00 p.m.
• Where: Marguerite Aquatic Center
• Tickets: Admission to prelims is free, and $7 for finals. An all-session pass is available for $20.

The meet is named in honor of Fran Crippen, the former Mission Viejo open water legend who passed away during an international open water race in 2010.

A few more notables from the psych sheets, which you can view here:

• This will be the first major competition for Arizona sprint star Giles Smith since wrapping up his NCAA eligibility in March. It’s been a quiet spring for Smith, who just returned to competition at a local Arizona meet two weeks ago.
• USC seems to be sending many of its studs here, choosing the closer SMOC over last weekend’s Santa Clara Grand Prix. Cristian Quintero is entered, as are rising sophomore Dylan Carter, rising junior Kendyl Stewart and New Zealand’s top breaststroker Glenn Snyders, who is competing for Club Trojan. One major name not entered for USC, though, is Vlad Morozov, who left Southern Cal for Russia earlier this week.
• The other school particularly well-represented here is Minnesota, which is a bit less expected geographically. Minnesota Aquatics pros Ashley Steenvoorden and Haley Spencer will compete, along with sophomore IMer Jakub Maly, 2013 U.S. Open champ Kiera Janzen and the Canadian Kierra Smith, a rising junior with the Gophers.
• A couple great races to watch may be the women’s sprints. The 27-year-old Hardy is the reigning Olympic Trials champ in the 50 and 100, but hotshot high-schooler Abby Weitzeil is nipping at her heels in both, fresh off breaking the national high school record in the 50 this spring. Also in the hunt is Stanford pro Andi Murez.
• No surprise that local Mission Viejo standout Katie McLaughlin is swimming the meet, and entered in a heavy event lineup. One of the top high school prospects in the nation for this upcoming recruiting season, McLaughlin is seeded into no less than 11 events over the meet’s four days. Barring scratches, she’ll swim every freestyle distance from 50 to 800, plus the 100 and 200 back, 100 and 200 fly, and 200 and 400 IM.
• Cal is well-represented in the men’s freestyle races. Seth Stubblefield, Shayne Fleming, Tyler Messerschmidt and Trent Williams are all entered. Josh Prenot will also swim some breaststroke and butterfly races. For the women, Cal fans will want to keep an eye on incoming freshman Jasmine Mau, one of the nation’s top butterflyers, who is making a mainland appearance all the way from her Hawaii home.

Live results will be here beginning Thursday night.