Seliskar Scratches Remaining Events at PSS-Knoxville (Heat Sheets)

2020 PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

• Thursday, January 16 – Sunday, January 19, 2020
• Knoxville, TN – Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center – University of Tennessee
• Long course meters (LCM) format
• Thursday distance session: 4 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
• Fri-Sun.: 9:30 AM Prelims / 6:30 PM Finals
• Meet site
• Live Stream
  • All Prelims, B finals, Thursday & Sunday finals
  • Friday & Saturday A Finals
• Psych Sheets
• Live results
• Sunday Prelims Heat Sheets

At a Knoxville Pro Swim Series meet that already lacked a little bit of punch in starpower, one of the biggest names from the meet have packed up and finished his meet early.

Andrew Seliskar has scratched his Sunday events, thereby concluding their first 2020 foray into the series.

For Seliskar, who was scheduled to be the #2 seed in the 200 IM and the #8 seed in the 100 free, this ends a less successful meet. He was relegated to B finals in the 200 free (1:49.63) and 100 fly (52.52), although he won both of those B finals, and placed 2nd in the 200 fly on Saturday in 1:59.60.

Seliskar’s scratch out of the 200 IM, along with the whole-meet scratch of Brazilian Vini Lanza, the #1 seed, leaves teenager Carson Foster as the top seed.

Other Significant Scratches:

• U.S. National Team swimmer Hali Flickinger has whittled her schedule for Sunday down to 1 race, the 200 backstroke, where she’s the 5th seed in 2:08.36. That’s at the expense of the 200 IM, where she would have been the #7 seed. She made the same event choice at this meet last year (when she actually scratched the 200 IM and the 100 free in favor of the 200 back). That paid off for a 2nd-place finish, behind only Regan Smith, and a swim that at the time was a new lifetime best.
• Teenage U.S. National Teamer Alex Walsh has made the opposite decision from Flickinger: she’s scratched the 200 back to focus on the 200 IM. Earlier in the meet, Walsh finished 3rd in the 400 IM, swimming a 4:42.1 that knocked over 6 seconds off her previous lifetime best (which was done at this same meet last year). For the versatile 18-year old, this 200 IM seems like the most likely spot for her to sneak in and grab a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.
• Canadian Kayla Sanchez has scratched herself down to just the 100 free where she’s the 6th seed (among remaining swimmers). She missed the A final of the 200 free in her first race of the meet but broke out a 1:57.91 to win the B final, which is 2 seconds better than she was at this meet last year. She also finished 7th in prelims of the 100 back on Saturday before scratching the final. She was due to be the #8 seed in the 200 IM.

Scratches from Swimmers who haven’t raced yet (AKA not surprises by this point of the meet):

• National Teamer Olivia Smoliga was scheduled to swim the 200 back as the #8 seed and the 100 free as the #17 seed.
• National Teamer Ella Eastin was scheduled to swim the 200 IM as the #2 seed
• Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian was scheduled to swim the 100 free as the #4 seed
• National Teamer Katharine Berkoff was scheduled to be the #12 seed in the 200 back
• South African champion Chris Reid was scheduled to be the #1 seed in the 200 back.
• Canadian Olympian Emily Overholt was scheduled to be the #10 seed in the 200 IM.