True Sweetser: “I was ready to rock out” (Video)

Reported by James Sutherland.

True Sweetser: “I knew going into the final that a lot of guys get excited and like to go out fast, and I just wanted to make sure that I went out as controlled as I could and have a really strong back half. I had a lot of confidence from the training that I’ve put in, I’m so happy with how it panned out – I can’t believe it!”

MEN’S 1500 FREE (TIMED FINAL)

• American Record: 14:39.48, Connor Jaeger, 2016
• U.S. Open Record: 14:45.54, Peter Vanderkaay, 2008
• LC National Meet Record: 14:45.54, Peter Vanderkaay, 2008
• FINA ‘A’ Standard: 15:12.79

1. True Sweetser, STAN, 14:59.73
2. Robert Finke, SPA, 15:01.31
3. PJ Ransford, MICH, 15:01.82

Wow, what a race in the men’s 1500. Early on, Robert Finke of Saint Petersburg took off, and looked like he was going to run away with the event. After the halfway mark, slowly but surely PJ Ransford of Michigan began crawling back into the race. And then all of a sudden Stanford’s True Sweetser started crawling back into it after looking like he was done early on, sitting over five seconds behind Finke just 400m in.

On his fifth straight 50 under 30 seconds, Sweetser caught Finke and Ransford with 150m to go and ran away for the win, touching in 14:59.73 to break 15 minutes for the first time in his career. Finke managed to hold off Ransford on the final 50, taking 2nd in 15:01.31 to Ransford’s 15:01.82. Both men also earned big personal bests.

Sweetser negative split the race big time, closing the back 750 (7:26.41) nearly seven seconds faster than he was out (7:33.32). Ransford also had a negative split of over four seconds.

Andrew Abruzzo (15:07.97) and Michael Brinegar (15:10.66) posted PBs in the heat as well for 4th and 5th, and Kevin Litherland, Chris Yeager and Ben Lawless all snuck into the top-8 out of earlier heats.