The newfound 14-year old superstar Katie Ledecky debuted at the 2011 version of the Tom Dolan Invitational, one of the biggest short course yards age group meets in the country, last night in the women’s 1650, and took a dominant win. We perhaps didn’t get to see her true capabilities, though, after some technical issues.
Roughly halfway through the race (didn’t mark an exact yardage) she lost her cap. Not coincidentally, her speed drastically reduced at the end of the 1650, which is not the norm for her in this race. She ended up touching in 16:24.20, which is off of her best of 16:07 as well as 4 seconds slower than she was at this meet in 2010.
The cap probably had some impact on the swim, but even moreso the context that she’s just recovering from a rough viral illness that kept her out of Winter Nationals.
The men’s distance event on night one was the 1000 (500 for 12 & unders) freestyle, with the top time going to 17-year old Garrett Powell of Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club in 9:00.87. Tyler Harris of Trojan, a former North Carolina post-grad, was 2nd in 9:04.12.
The meet is being held at the University of Maryland pool, and will continue through Sunday.
Go Katie. Its a decent time for her after an illness. She must be very tired.