Jay Litherland: “The quick turn around helps me not think about it”

^{Reported by Lauren Neidigh.}

MEN’S 400 IM:

1. Jay Litherland– 4:13.79
2. Abrahm DeVine– 4:17.57
3. Kieran Smith– 4:21.49

Georgia’s Jay Litherland, a U.S. Olympian in this event, shifted into a whole different gear tonight, annihilating his prelims time to win in 4:13.79. He narrowly missed cracking the world’s top 10 and is now the 13th fastest swimmer in the world this year.

Stanford’s Abrahm DeVine was the only other swimmer to clear 4:20, touching in a season best time of 4:17.57 for silver. Rounding out the podium was Ridgefield Aquatic Club’s junior standout Kieran Smith, who was just a second shy of his lifetime best with a 4:21.49.

MEN’S 200 FREE:

1. Jay Litherland– 1:49.28
2. Long Gutierrez– 1:49.49
3. Conor Dwyer– 1:49.53

Jay Litherland was on fire tonight, grabbing his 2nd gold for UGA in as many events. Litherland threw down a 1:49.28, capitalizing off his back half speed to run down Cal’s Long Gutierrez (1:49.49) and fellow U.S. Olympian Conor Dwyer (1:49.53), giving him golds in back-to-back events tonight.

Using a similar strategy to Litherland’s was teammate Gunnar Bentz, who just missed the podium by a hundredth. Bentz negative split the race, turning in a 54.83 at the 100 and bringing it home in 54.71 for a final time of 1:49.54, which was good for 4th place ahead of Dutch standout Dion Dreesens (1:49.78) and Olympic relay teammate Jack Conger (1:49.96) of Texas.

Cal’s Tom Shields threw down a 1:49.71 to win the B final, just missing his personal best by a few tenths. Georgia’s Chase Kalisz was also tenths shy of best, touching in 1:50.47 to take 7th in the championship final.