Jansen, Gemmell Out of 200 IM to Focus on 100 Free; Regan Smith Still Entered Saturday

PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

Regan Smith has held on to her entries on Saturday morning, while a pair of #1 seeds have scratched from the final day of the 2023 Pro Swim Series in Knoxville.

Smith, who raced Thursday morning but who has been a late scratch/no-show since, has been dealing with what she is calling a “stomach bug/food poisoning.” The 20-year-old Olympian was hoping to race Friday morning before ultimately declaring false starts in her events, so it’s still possible that she’ll race on Saturday.

The two #1 seeds to scratch are not really surprises. One is Sam Stewart in the 200 IM, and the other is Penny Oleksiak in the 100 free. Neither have raced so far in this meet.

The other notable information in Saturday’s morning psych sheets is the scratch of the #5 and #6 seeds in the women’s 200 IM: teenagers Ella Jansen of Canada and American Erin Gemmell, respectively. Both are focusing on other the 100 free on Saturday, where Gemmell is the #5 seed and Jansen is the #25 seed.

Gemmell has been far from her bests throughout most of the meet, but her best swims so far have come in the 200 free (3rd place – 1:57.97) and the 50 free (5th place – 25.72).

Jansen, meanwhile, has shown the American audience why she is Canada’s top young prospect: she won the 100 fly in 58.92, which knocked three-tenths off her best time. Expect an evening swim for her in spite of swimming prelims outside of the circle heats. Jansen is committed to swim at Tennessee, the host team, in fall 2024.

Miguel de Lara Ojeda, a late addition to the meet, will swim as the #2 seed in the 50 breaststroke. He earlier finished in 2nd place in the 200 breast (2:12.78), but didn’t swim the 100 breast.

Other High Seed Scratches:

  • Missouri’s Jack Dahlgren is out of the 200 back as the #10 seed. Missouri has scratched most of their races this weekend.
  • #4 seed Marwan Elkamash and #6 seed Joey Tepper are both out of the men’s 1500 free; neither has raced yet this week.

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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