17-year old Katie Ledecky swam a new lifetime best in the 200 free on Friday at the 2014 Potomac Valley Long Course Senior Championships.
Ledecky, a World Record holder in the 800 and 1500 freestyles, swam a 1:55.79, beating out UVA’s Leah Smith (1:58.24) for the win. That beats Ledecky’s own lifetime best of 1:56.27 done at the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix, and also clears her own official FINA Junior World Record.
It’s still a ways from Missy Franklin’s National Age Group Record – 1:54.81 – but this is still not an insignificant swim. This year, before even getting to Nationals, she’s swum a lifetime best in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 800 free, and 1500 free. If she hits a taper of any nature, the times for Nationals and Pan Pacs are almost unfathomable.
That was the start of a fantastic session of swimming at the University of Maryland on the meet’s first full day (Thursday was distance day).
In the 200 free, Jack Conger, who is back at home training with Machine Aquatics this summer, swam a 1:49.97. That beat out NCAP’s Andrew Seliskar (1:50.92). Those are lifetime bests for both swimmers, and by a significant margin (neither had been under 1:52 previously).
That was Conger’s only individual swim of the night, as he passed on the 100 fly. After swimming a lifetime best in the 200 yard free at Big 12’s as a freshman, he’s easily carried that success over to long course. He didn’t, however, get his best in his primary backstroke races this past college season, and so his 100 back on Saturday will be more telling of how his summer of training is going.
NCAP’s Carsten Vissering won a very good battle in the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:03.18. He beat out Penn State’s Andy Schuehler (1:03.21) and Notre Dame’s Patrick Olson (1:03.95).
Cassidy Bayer was one of two to break the minute mark in the women’s 100 fly. The 14-year old swam a 59.75 to win the championship final over UVA’s Ellen Williamson (59.88). That’s Bayer’s best time by about two-tenths, and leaves her .24 from Kendyl Stewart’s National Age Group Record – a time she’ll probably get at Nationals.
Janet Hu took 3rd in that race (1:00.43), followed by Kylie Jordan (1:00.87), Kaitlyn Jones (1:01.07), and Ledecky’s second swim of the day (1:02.63). That’s another personal best for Ledecky.
Open water 10km National Champion is getting some pool racing in at this meet, and won the men’s 400 IM in 4:26.96. Second place in that race went to Virginia’s Austin Quinn in 4:31.77. He impressively was able to match splits with Gemmell on the last 50 yards, but left himself in too much of a hole after the fly and backstroke legs.
Other winners:
- Jenna Van Camp won the women’s 100 breaststroke running away in 1:10.34. She beat out Natalie Martin (1:13.14) and 15-year old Jaycee Yegher (1:13.99).
- Molly Kowal won the women’s 400 IM in 4:55.26, beating NCAP swimmers Megan Byrnes (4:55.67) and Kylie Jordan (4:55.83). Kowal had a huge four second lead after the breaststroke, and though Byrnes closed and Jordan made up that gap on the freestyle, Kowal had just enough of a lead to hold on for the win.
Janet Evans’ 8:16.22 was 8.52s slower than twice her 4:03.85. That is 4.26s / 400m slower. If Ledecky is the next Janet Evans, then for her 4.26s/400m should be a reasonable basis for comparing 400m and 800m times.
I get her current PB of 3:59.82 in 400m would be like 8:08.16 in an 800m
The current WR of 3:59.15 in 400m would be like 8:06.82 in an 800m
The current WR – 1s 3:58.15 in 400m would be like 8:04.82 in an 800m
In the other direction, her 8:11.00 for 800m would be like 4:01.24 in a 400m.
I do expect Ledecky to get better and break 4:01 in the 400m free.
And to be the most comprehensive possible, the French 14/15 age group championships
I think there isn’t any news about that meet in USA so I post the live results’ link.
http://www.liveffn.com/cgi-bin/resultats.php?competition=20462&langue=fra
We’ll see if there are 1 or 2 good prospects for the future. France badly needs new young talents for the after Rio.
Updated links for interesting US meets of the week.
PVS LC senior championships with Miss Ledecky and the others
Live results
http://www.pvswim.org/realtime/2014LC_SeniorChamps/
Florida age group championships. Kravchenko, Rockway, Finke and Cianciolo are pretty good.
Live results
http://fastswimresults.com/realtimeresults.html
Live webcast
https://new.livestream.com/floridaswimnetwork3/flagsjuly14
Sierra Nevada junior olympics. With young phenom Winn Aung? I don’t know. There are no news. If someone is aware of his performances, I’m more than interested.
http://www.ccaswimming.org/pscca/__eventform__/463967_2014_LC_JO_Meet_Sheet.pdf
Los Angeles Invitational with Missy and the others
Live results
http://www.socalswim.org/live-results/2014LAInvite
Middle Atlantic… Read more »
Very happy to see Cassidy Bayer swim a new PB in the 100 fly! 🙂
She’s one of my favorite US young swimmers for a long time now.
The 13/14 NAG record is 59.51 by Kendyl Stewart.
She will break it in Irvine. A 58 isn’t even out of reach in my opinion.
Hopefully we’ll see again a post-race reaction like that in Irvine!
Can she swim 4 individual events in Irvine and at Pan Pacs?
I know she is a beast but 200 free/400 free/800 free/1500 free is a huge line-up! 😯
At Pan Pacs, her schedule would be:
Day 1. 200 free prelims and final and 800 free final
Day 2. 4X200 free final
Day 3. 400 free prelims and final
Day 4. 1500 free final
400 FREE WORLD RECORD FOR KATIE AT PAN PACS!
I’m sure she wants it very badly!
It must be her goal of the summer.
Again, it will be very hard. The schedule isn’t perfect. I would prefer… Read more »
For anybody else, that program would be ridiculous, but apparently Katie is Wonder Woman! Even so, I think we’ll all have to wait until Worlds to see the 400 free record broken.
It looks like the US women are going to have THREE potential medalists in the 200 free; assuming Schmitt and Franklin can get back down near their best times, it will be a real dog fight for those 2 spots! Well, barring a false start, at least we can expect 1 relay gold for our women next year. The race for that final relay spot at PanPacs will be intense too, because currently Smith, Hoff, Vreeland and Runge have season best times within about a tenth of a second of each other!
Unlike the men’s side, the US women’s 200 free looks stronger than ever.
Imagine if Allison Schmitt is back at her very best level, we’ll have 3 girls in 1.54 or better!
Then you have veterans like Katie Hoff and Shannon Vreeland who can swim 1.56/1.57.
And then some youngsters ready to shine at the next olympic trials. I have Cierra Runge in mind. I will not be surprised at all if she’s also in 1.54 in 2 years.
The 800 free relay world record the US women set in Rio will last for 20 yrs! I think you’re right about Runge, but I’m crossing my fingers and toes wishing that one of the relay spots will go to Hoff and she’ll end her Olympic career with that elusive gold medal!
Bobo will be happy. He’s promoting the idea that Conger should be swimming the 200 free for a while now. Looks like he’ll be in the mix for the 4×200; would love to see him make the team this summer in something.
He’s happy.
Yes. I promote that idea for a long time.
His best 3 events in long course are RIGHT NOW the 200 Back, the 100 fly and the 200 free.
Yes I think he has all the tools to become a great 200 free swimmer.
He has the body and a perfect mix of speed/endurance. He’s great from the 50 free to the 500 free in yards so the 200 free is probably his best freestyle event.
But he will have to make some choices. If he wants to swim 1.45 in 2016, he has to train much more for that event. Perhaps to the… Read more »
Having the 200 free and the 200 back on the same day at Nationals is not going to help Conger.
Ledecky is swimming in a depressing level(for her rivals)…It is hard to break 4:02 in 400 free, and we are talking about 3:58.It is hard to be under 8:20 in 800, she is 8:11.Only the great ones break 16minutes in 1500, she is aproaching a half minute under that mark.
IT must be very tough to enter a final with ledecky in the pool since London !