Relay Lineups: King, Dressel Surprising Additions To U.S. Mixed Medley

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

After breaking the world record in the prelims, the U.S. will substitute in four new legs for the final. Matt Grevers takes over for Ryan Murphy on backstroke, and Simone Manuel takes over for Mallory Comerford on free. Those were the anticipated moves.

A bit more surprising is their decision to put a female on breaststroke and a man on fly, as Lilly King and Caeleb Dressel take over for Kevin Cordes and Kelsi Worrell. Hard to argue with the picks though, considering King has a world record under her belt and Dressel a pair of American records so far in Budapest.

Australia has also exchanged their entire lineup, moving in Mitch Larkin, Daniel Cave, Emma McKeon and Bronte Campbell in exchange for Kaylee McKeown, Matthew Wilson, Grant Irvine and Shayna Jack. The only somewhat surprising move was Cave, who did have a solid 100 breast going 1:00.22, but Wilson’s 59.69 this morning was argument to keep him on.

The 3rd seeded Canadians have made three moves, going with newly minted 100 back world record holder Kylie Masse on the lead-off leg, Penny Oleksiak on fly and Yuri Kisil on free. Richard Funk stays on as the breaststroker after sizzling to a 59.0 split this morning.

The British made a pair of moves, not surprisingly moving in Adam Peaty, as well as Siobhan O’Connor on free in exchange for Ross Murdoch and Freya Anderson.

Russia made three moves, including inserting 100 breast bronze medalist Kirill Prigoda in, while Grigory Tarasevich takes over on back which begs the question: what is up with Evgeny Rylov this week?

China’s made three exchanges, including 100 back world champion Xu Jiayu leading off, Italy has also made three moves, and Germany has made two.

This race is shaping up to be a very exciting one, with the teams clearly taking this race seriously. In total, just half the teams went with the traditional 2 men – 2 women lineup. Canada and Germany have gone W-M-W-M, while the U.S. (M-W-M-W) and GBR (W-M-M-W) are the only two with those combinations.

  1. Italy (Milli, Martinenghi, Bianchi, Pellegrini)
  2. Russia (Tarasevich, Prigoda, Chimrova, Popova)
  3. Canada (Masse, Funk, Oleksiak, Kisil)
  4. USA (Grevers, King, Dressel, Manuel)
  5. Australia (Larkin, Cave, McKeon, Campbell)
  6. Great Britain (Davies, Peaty, Guy, O’Connor)
  7. China (Xu, Yan, Zhang, Zhu)
  8. Germany (Graf, Koch, Schmidtke, Wierling)

See the full start list here.

 

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xenon
7 years ago

SImone did have a faster split on the anchor of the 4×100 final than Mallory did in the prelim of the 4×100 free. If things were flipped though and Simone won nationals and Mallory had a faster split in the 4×100, everyone knows that Meehan would have said that SImone deserved to be on the final because she won nationals. It’s bias, come on.

No medal mel
7 years ago

Meehan almost cost the women the gold in the 4×100 by putting his swimmer on it – and he shows the same bias again just days later. Obviously knew that he was going to put simone on the finals relay when he threw the American record holder on for prelims. Shouldn’t be hired back as head coach again.

Bill
7 years ago

Wow, great job USA! The coaches ended up being right with their choices as the team smashed the World Record. This crazy event is quickly becoming one of my favorites. So strange seeing men and women racing each other, but I love the strategy that is involved. Super cool!

sccoach
7 years ago

Good move Meehan

Takinpics
7 years ago

Does anyone have a link to the race from this morning? I fell asleep during the 200 fly (hey, it was almost 4am) and missed it. 🙂 Much appreciated in advance!

target
7 years ago

No one was this upset four years ago in Barcelona when they put Natalie Coughlin on the 400 freestyle relay in finals instead of Simone even though Simone earned her spot on the relay at Trials.

ALEXANDER POP-OFF
Reply to  target
7 years ago

Thanks for saying that. The degree of upset is revealing.

target
Reply to  ALEXANDER POP-OFF
7 years ago

Natalie Coughlin also beat Simone at that trials in the 50 free and look who did better at Worlds…

Coachy
Reply to  ALEXANDER POP-OFF
7 years ago

What is it “revealing”? I’m excited to hear this.

Coachy
Reply to  target
7 years ago

There is absolutely no evidence to what you are referring to. This is a made up “statistic” of you trying to push an agenda.

So just to be sure
1- What level of upset are people this time?
2- What level of upset were people 4 years ago?
3- How did you develop these “levels”
4- How many people are upset this time?
5- How many people were upset 4 years ago?

Yeah, you’re pretty much full of……..

Frequent Flyer
7 years ago

Amen!

Leto
7 years ago

Why no Adrian on the relay?

E Gamble
Reply to  Leto
7 years ago

The teams finished up with women on free not men. He was never an option.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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