After Tom Shields and Sebastien Rousseau took their impressive runs on Thursday night, things didn’t slow down much on Friday morning.
The prelims session began with five swimmers breaking two minutes in the 200 freestyle, including a pair of teenagers who are on their second taper in the last month.
The top seed went to Minnesota undergrad Kiera Janzen in 1:59.39, which cuts a full two seconds off of her lifetime best. Australian Kelly Stubbins was 2nd in 1:59.59, which was tied by Longhorn Aquatics 16-year old Quinn Carrozza. Gillian Ryan from North Baltimore was 4th, and Sarah Henry was the 5th sub-two minute swimmer in prelims.
A couple of others, including North Carolina’s Danielle Siverling, were close to breaking it this morning as well.
Stanford’s Tom Kremer led the way in the men’s 200 free in 1:48.76, followed by South Africa’s Darian Townsend in 1:48.81. Kremer is a dual American and Israeli citizen, but last year chose to represent Israel to try and make the Olympic Team. The Americans might now try to begin luring him back stateside, as he’s shown incredible potential.
The top 5 are all internationals, including the 3rd-seeded Rousseau in 1:49.20.
Australia’s Lorna Tonks took top honors in the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:07.79, followed by Notre Dame swimmer Emma Reaney in a lifetime best of 1:07.97 – cutting over a second off of her previous best. A second Aussie, Leiston Pickett is 3rd in 1:08.04 – a nice redemption after the disappointment of missing the Australian Worlds team.
Mike Alexandrov and Cody Miller, fresh off of World University Games appearances, took the top two seeds in the men’s 100 breaststrokes with best times of 1:00.86 and 1:01.01, respectively.
Sarah Denninghoff, a senior at Texas, took the top seed in the women’s 100 backstroke in 1:00.62. If her long course explosion is any indicator for what she’s about to do in the college season, the Longhorns could have something to say about the Cal dominance in the backstroke races. Canadian Dominique Bouchard was 2nd in 1:01.55.
And finally, the great international wanderer: former Russian Arkady Vyatchanin, who has not yet announced which country he plans to represent next, took the top seed in the men’s 100 back in 53.55. Ryan Murphy was 2nd in 54.11, and Nick Thoman was 3rd in 54.29. Murphy should dip into the 53’s in finals, based on what we saw from his 200 back.
I will take Murphy, I think he has beat Arkady a couple times this year already. But it is always a great race with all 3 of them (thoman) the final meters are always intense. Go Ryan!!
Huge men’s 100 back final to come! Vyatchanin against Murphy.
And Gillian, please, swim 1.58 in the 200 free. It would be a good first step in the right direction for your speed improvement.