Sydney Pickrem Working to Shift Mindset to “Have fun to swim fast”

^{Reported by Lauren Neidigh.}

WOMEN’S 400 IM:

• NCAA Record: Katie Ledecky (Stanford), 2018, 3:56.53
• American Record: Katie Ledecky (Stanford), 2018, 3:56.53
• Championship Record: Katinka Hosszu (USC), 2012, 3:56.54
• 2017 Champion: Ella Eastin (Stanford), 3:57.57

1. GOLD: Ella Eastin, Stanford, 3:54.60
2. SILVER: Katie Ledecky, Stanford, 3:58.29
3. BRONZE: Sydney Pickrem, Texas A&M, 3:59.05

Stanford’s Katie Ledecky took it out with a 54.55 on fly, leading under American Record pace. Teammate Ella Eastin pulled slightly ahead through backstroke, flipping over half a second ahead of Ledecky. Eastin was leading by a body length after the first 50 breast, and touched was 4 seconds ahead of Ledecky and 3 seconds under American Record pace. She continued to build her lead on Ledecky through the first half of the free leg, and she was way too far ahead for anyone to close on her by that point. Eastin destroyed the American Record by 2 seconds.

Texas A&M’s Sydney Pickrem pulled ahead of Ledecky on the breast leg, but Ledecky came through on the free leg to give the Cardinal a 1-2 finish. Another Cardinal, Brooke Forde, nearly made it a top 3 sweep. She moved up to trail Pickrem by just a tenth with 50 yards to go, but Pickrem outsplit her down the stretch to out-touch Forde as she clipped her best from SECs. Forde broke 4:00 for the first time in 3:59.30, followed by Texas A&M’s Bethany Galat.

In the B heat, Denver’s Bailey Andison trailed halfway, but made a big move on the breast leg to take the lead. She held on through the freestyle leg to top Ohio State’s Kristen Romano, 4:03.83 to 4:04.56. Texas’ Evie Pfeifer led through backstroke. She fell back on the breast leg, but pulled into 3rd on the free leg with a 4:05.32.