2018 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, July 25 – Sunday, July 29, 2018
- William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Meet website
- Meet information
- Event Order
- Full selection procedures
- Psych Sheet
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- Pick ‘Em Contest
- Omega Results
- Live Stream
- Friday Prelims Heat Sheet
So far, so good in Michael Andrew’s day-3 triple try. After qualifying 3rd to the final in the 100 fly, he qualified 1st through to finals, and tied the U.S. Open Record, in the men’s 50 breaststroke preliminaries.
He swam a 26.86 in prelims, which ties him with World Record holder Adam Peaty as the fastest swim ever done on U.S. soil. Peaty, a Brit, did his swim in 2017 at the Indianapolis stop of the Pro Swim Series.
Andrew is now within a tenth of a second of Kevin Cordes‘ overall American Record of 26.76 that was done at the 2015 World Championships. Cordes, who also swam on Friday in prelims, qualified 3rd in 27.06.
Andrew’s previous best time was 27.12, done in Canet at this year’s Mare Nostrum series.
The swim ties retired U.S. Olympian Mark Gangloff as the 2nd-fastest ever done by an American, matching the time that Gangloff did at the super-suited World Championships in 2009.
Ian Finnerty, who is the fastest-ever 100 yard and 200 yard breaststroker, also jumped into the top-5 all-time Americans list with his 2nd-ranked swim of 26.96.
Andrew’s swim also makes him the 12th-fastest all-time, for all nationalities.
Top 5 Americans All-Time, 50 LCM Breaststroke
- Kevin Cordes, 2015 – 26.76
- Mark Gangloff, 2009/Michael Andrew, 2018 – 26.86
- Ian Finnerty, 2018 – 26.96
- Brendan McHugh, 2014 – 27.10
I appreciate Michael Andrews amazing swims, however I have a question for my fellow ex-swimmers that are in the 35-55 age group. When we swam it was about SWIMMING not underwater BS. My apologies, I have digressed from my point. What are your opinions of the 50 events at Nats? I’m not convinced that the best SWIMMER wins these events. I would prefer to go back to the 100/200 in each of the non-freestyle events.
No one has mentioned this, but my pick for the back win tonight is Ryan Murphy. If you watched prelims, he totally shut it down his last several strokes
MA is doing all 3 events tonight as per his instagram
Oof that’ll be rough. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’ll have significantly less rest than in the morning, right?
Hope he kills it, good luck to him!
This is a club meet for him – just out there having fun racing a bunch of events. Go MA!!
Real big time sprinting this week from MA!
I don’t see how you could root against, or even be neutral with him. He got so much stick going pro so young, and the pressure that decision placed on him to make a success of swimming could easily have ruined even the strongest athlete’s out there.
Hope he keeps ripping it up!
12th fastest is good. No doubt. It is good.
What I’d like to see is an all-strokes 50s meet with Manadou, Morozov, Dressel, Proud, Fratus, Govorov and Andrew. The winner would be the one with the lowest combined times. I think that should settle who the fastest sprinter in the world debate.
Would be crazy entertaining. I don’t think Dressel has the long course breast or back to match up. My money is on Morozov in that scenario.
I Think I never saw Fratus swim anything other than 50 free.. I Would bet on Morozov on this.. But I am curious what Govorov could drop on breast/back. Manadou on top could be a threat too..
You know what I think about 50s of stroke but I like making predictions so my bet is on Mr Andrew. Especially at the rate he improves his best times in every stroke.
What’s your reasoning for not liking 50s?
Manaudou has PB’s of 21.1/22.8/24.7/26’1 short course swimming it just for fun. My money would be on him.
21,1 is his LCM Best time, his SC free is the WR (20,2)
Schoeman in his prime would be epic in such a contest too (he is still second fastest ever in SCM for fly, free AND breast)
Crazy impressive performance by him. I hope he scratches the fly and pursues those 50s, as I think he can makes pan pacs in the 50 free.
I think he’ll take the breast tonight, and watch out for an AR. Backstroke we’ll be tougher, but I feel like he didn’t have a particularly strong start. If he fixed that up a bit tonight… maybe 24.3 or 24.4? Might get him the win it’ll be close
He gets far too much hate for such an upstanding guy, so I really can’t help but cheer him on tonight. Wishing him the best!
If he doesn’t do the fly I could see a 24.2 or 24.1 in the back. Look how much he dropped from prelims to finals in the 50 fly.
I think staying in the fly is smart because it could keep Dressel out of Pan Pacs. Dressel is MA’s biggest competition at Pan Pacs in the 50 free.
Beating Dressel in the 100 fly won’t keep him out of Pan Pacs even if Dressel doesn’t get top 3. The 50 free is right around the corner and I think what Dressel showed last night was that his 50’s are doing well, but he doesn’t have his 100 speed yet and 3 people get to go for the 50 free because it’s an Olympic event.
I don’t think any 3rd place finishers are going to make the men’s team.. 1 or 2 at most… not many doubles out there.
There is definitely a scenario where Dressel gets 3rd in 100 fly and 50 free and misses Pan Pacs. Don’t sleep on Nathan Adrian.
Don’t care if two of them were 50s. MA making top 3 in 3 events back to back to back is the most impressive thing I’ve seen at Nationals in 30 years.
Really? You talk about prelims. Making top 3. And 50 breast and back….
MA is a great talent but come on. Please.
Not sure how long you’ve been following US swimming but I’ve been watching for a while and this is unheard of. We’ll see if he does them all tonight too. If not, then I don’t think it’s quite the same feat but still amazing.
He’s doing all three. Mark my word.
idk…it’s impressive, but I’d say things like a 200 back/200 IM back to back in 2012 from Lochte are more impressive. tougher events and at the highest international levels of competition where everyone is fully tapered.
I said for US Nationals meet. Missy Franklin in 2012 is up there if we’re talking Olympics.
Ahh, you’re correct, I missed that. My bad.
Tbh you deserve all the dislikes for that comment bobo
I agree with Bobo. This was just prelims. Let’s reserve all these accolades for if h actually wins medals in all three events in Finals. We all know USRPT has no “cruise mode.”