2018 TYR Pro Derby: Women’s Round-by-Round Predictions

2018 TYR PRO DERBY

• April 28th, 2018
• Louisville, KY
• Meet website
• TYR Pro Derby Instagram
• LCM

The 2018 TYR Pro Derby will be held at the University of Louisville on April 28th, featuring a shootout style set of heats of 50 freestyle. The meet will have Sam Kendricks announcing, while 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte will emcee the meet. Going hand-in-hand with the competition will be a drowning prevention clinic, to be held prior to the meet on April 26th. About 100 children who have no prior swimming experience are expected to attend the clinic, making it a beneficial event for the Louisville community.

We’ll go over who we’ll see racing on the women’s side, and break down our predictions for each round.

PARTICIPANTS:

Women

HOW IT WORKS

1. First Round – eight swimmers race, one heat for men, one for women. The top six qualify to the next round.
2. Second Round – six swimmers race, one heat for men, one for women. The top four qualify to the next round.
3. Third Round – four swimmers race, one heat for men, one for women. The top four all win cash prizes. $4,000 for first, down to $1,000 for fourth.

FIRST ROUND PREDICTIONS

IN (in no particular order): Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Margo Geer, Madison Kennedy, Kelsi Dahlia, Farida Osman, Lia Neal

OUT: Caroline Baldwin, Hellen Moffitt

Seeing as neither Baldwin nor Moffitt have ever broken 25 seconds, we predict that they won’t make it through to the second round.

SECOND ROUND PREDICTIONS

IN (in no particular order): Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Margo Geer, Madison Kennedy, Farida Osman

OUT: Kelsi Dahlia, Lia Neal

Things get dicier in this round, as Neal, Dahlia, and Geer are all 24.7’s. Only four can move to the final, though, and Geer has been hot this year after relocating to train in the IU post-grad group with Coley Stickels.

THIRD ROUND PREDICTIONS

FIRST: Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace 
SECOND: Madison Kennedy
THIRD: Margo Geer
FOURTH: Farida Osman

Vanderpool-Wallace and Kennedy are consistent sprinters with best times several tenths ahead of the next-best competitor, but we’ll give it to AVW on this one.