Women’s 1500 Meter Freestyle – U.S. Nationals Preview – Ledecky By a Landslide

Women’s 1500 Meter Freestyle – U.S. Nationals Preview

  • Day 5, Sunday, August 10th
  • Defending national champ: Katie Ledecky, 15:47.15
  • Defending U.S. Open champ: Laura Crockart (Australia), 16:08.36. Top American: Gillian Ryan, 16:15.65.
  • Time to make the 2013 National Team (#6 nationally at selection meets): N/A 

Event note: Remember that the women’s 1500 and men’s 800 aren’t selection events for Pan Pacs (only Olympic events are).  The best two times between U.S. Nationals and Pan Pacs will go to worlds.

Before we get to the second sentence of the preview, let’s get this out of the way: defending World Champion and World Record holder Katie Ledecky is unquestionably the favorite in this event.  While a lot of swimmers would have let up (or at least experience senioritis) after shattering records and winning international gold medals, Ledecky has continued to take steps forward, cracking her own 800 and 1500 world records in the 800 and 1500-meter freestyles last month in Houston, Texas.  Even though she will likely be looking ahead to Pan Pacs on some level, Ledecky should win this event by at least 30-35 meters.

Also riding a big wave of momentum into Summer Nationals is Becca Mann, another teenage distance swimmer with international experience.  Mann recently relocated to North Baltimore to train alongside the likes of Gillian Ryan, Cierra Runge, Lotte Friis, and Allison Schmitt.  The benefits have already shown, with Mann establishing a new lifetime best by two seconds in the 1500 at the Charlotte UltraSwim two months ago.  At 16:08.86, she’s the second fastest American in 2014 behind Ledecky.  In addition, she won the Open Water 10k last month at U.S. Nationals.

With Ledecky probably locking up the first spot, Mann will be battling hard with a pair of her teammates/training partners (among others) for the second.  Like Mann, Gillian Ryan bettered her personal best this season in the 1500 at the UltraSwim, posting a 16:12.64, making her the third fastest American this year.  The future Michigan Wolverine finished fourth in this event last year at U.S. Nationals, and will look to jump into the top three to secure a spot at Pan Pacs.

Cierra Runge, another incoming college freshman from North Baltimore, will look to shake things up in Irvine next month.  Although the 1500 is a little bit on the long side for Runge, she has been on fire in 2014 (best times in the 200, 400, 800, and 1500 so far), and with the right swim at the right time, she could make things interesting.

Another name that always seems to be in the mix: Chloe Sutton of the Seal Innovation Team, represented Team USA in three events at last year’s World Championships, including the 1500.  One of the long-tenured members of the U.S. National Team, Sutton has really improved her pool swimming over the past few seasons after originally breaking onto the scene as one of the country’s top open water competitors.

Things will be a little different this time around, though, as she no longer represents the Mission Viejo Nadadores after recently moving to North Carolina.  Sutton has been competitive this season (although she underperformed at Santa Clara and left early) but it’s tough to tell exactly how her end-of-season meets will be in her first season with a new club program.  Sutton’s teammate Ashley Twichell, who finished seventh summer in this event, will challenge for another top eight spot, as well.  Twichell was sixth in the 10k at Open Water Nationals last month, just under eight seconds out of second overall position (in a two hour race, that’s a small margin).

U.S. National Teamers Lindsay Vrooman and Haley Anderson should also be in the mix.  Vrooman was eleventh at last summer’s World Champion Trials, and finished fifth in the 1650 at her final NCAA’s.  She has looked sharp this spring and summer, as well, currently sitting fourth among Americans in 2014.  Anderson hasn’t competed a lot in the pool this summer, but she was excellent at Open Water Nationals, winning the 5k and finishing second in the 10k.  It will be interesting to see if Anderson makes a full attempt to make the team in a pool event, or if she will stay focused on her open water events.

Two potential surprise names: Leah Smith and Ashley Steenvoorden.  Smith had a breakout season as a freshman at the University of Virginia, posting the third fastest times at NCAA’s in the 500 and 1650 freestyles.  She hasn’t competed in a 1500 yet this season, but with great swims so far this season in the 400 and 800 freestyles, Smith should be in contention here.  Steenvoorden actually posted the fourth fastest American 1500-meter time last year (16:07.89) with her surprise silver medal at the 2013 World University Games.  She also finished third in the 800 at that meet, with a time that was just eight hundredths off making the U.S. National Team.

Even though we haven’t seen much of them since NCAA’s, Amber McDermott and Alicia Mathieu deserved to be mentioned.  McDermott was second in the 1650 at NCAA’s, but has been dealing with some injury issues this spring.  Mathieu, eighth at NCAA’s and fifth at U.S. Nationals last summer, hasn’t competed this spring.

We need to mention a wildcard before we make some picks: 14-year-old Isabella Rongione from Nation’s Capital Swim Club, the eighth fastest American in 2014.  Rongione burst onto the scene last year when she put up some of the fastest 14-under times ever in long distance events, including a 16:27.23 at the U.S. Open, good for fifth place.

  

My Picks:

  1. Katie Ledecky (Nation’s Capital)
  2. Becca Mann (North Baltimore Aquatic Club)
  3. Chloe Sutton (Seal Innovation Team)
  4. Gillian Ryan (North Baltimore Aquatic Club)
  5. Lindsay Vrooman (Indiana University)
  6. Ashley Steenvoorden (Minnesota Aquatics)
  7. Leah Smith (Cavalier Swimming)
  8. Cierra Runge (North Baltimore Aquatic Club)

Note: Athletes are listed under the college/club that, to the best of our knowledge, they’re currently training with.

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Hswimmer
9 years ago

Anderson should be in the top 8 she always does well at big meets! This is her chance with Sutton not doing very well.

bobo gigi
9 years ago

I like watching Katie in the 1500 free, it’s very fun, but I really hope her focus is on the 400 free now.
World record! World record! World record!

CoachGB
9 years ago

In 1965 Ron Clark the Australian runner in 44 days rsn 18 races and broke 12 World Records one being the 10,000 and the others were 3-;5000. I had a coach at my little DIII school say how you could swim 3 fast 1500 one short and 2 long course in 3 out of four weekends. It seems sometimes to much is made being how many times you can go fast in period of time as if the body doesn’t recover. Also too much is made of difference SC-LC and puts it in the mind of swimmers. Between the swimming often and that no matter the pool it is just swimming. I have always my coach knew what he was… Read more »

JG
Reply to  CoachGB
9 years ago

Ron was a machine ! Someone who was involved in Athletics in Melbourne at that time told me that every weekend at Interclub a whole bunch of world class runners would compete in multiple events . Then there was a famous ‘tan’ a public track that everyone raced informally on Tuesdays & Thursdays . That would equal 3 Vo2 super max / lactate sessions per week. The criticisms for Ron were that he never ‘peaked’ to win Olympic gold . They just ran to race & race often.

Ledecky to me is an old fashioned retro girl who also likes to race full distances often & ses no reason to hold back. I cannot believe she would miss a chance… Read more »

Flyin'
Reply to  CoachGB
9 years ago

There is a difference between SC and LC though. My coach has never told me that, but the turns make a difference. And I think that it makes the biggest difference in the long races

Catherine
9 years ago

Since Becca Mann has already made the team in open water, that will probably affect her taper strategy and maybe even event selection strategy at Nationals. She’ll get to swim it at Pan Pacs on the strength of the open water selection, even if she doesn’t officially qualify in any pool events.

Sam
9 years ago

Yeah, isn’t there some rule that you qualify for the 1500 if you win the 800? 800 is first day, 1500 is final day. I’d bet on Ledecky winning 800 and saving a fast 1500 for Pan Pacific

Jim C
Reply to  Sam
9 years ago

I think you just qualify for the team in any one event, and then you are on the team and can swim multiple events.

Klorn8d
9 years ago

I think it’s possible katie doesn’t swim it. She doesn’t need it to qualify for anything and I doubt she comes down at all for it. She might just swim it for practice but it seems like she only
Swims miles when she’s gonna go fast

bobo gigi
9 years ago

1. Katie Ledecky unrested, untapered
2. Becca Mann
3. ???? I don’t know. Leah Smith or Gillian Ryan. Perhaps Leah Smith.

Youngster to watch this summer: 14-year-old Madison Homovich.

Michele
9 years ago

The women do swim the 1500 at Pan Pacs. It is on the schedule for Day 4 which is August 24.

Admin
Reply to  Michele
9 years ago

Michele – it is a pan pacs event, Pan Pacs selections just aren’t done at Nationals.

About Morgan Priestley

Morgan Priestley

A Stanford University and Birmingham, Michigan native, Morgan Priestley started writing for SwimSwam in February 2013 on a whim, and is loving that his tendency to follow and over-analyze swim results can finally be put to good use. Morgan swam competitively for 15+ years, primarily excelling in the mid-distance freestyles. While …

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