INFO YOU NEED TO FOLLOW DAY 4 OF THE 2014 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday Finals Heat Sheet
- Saturday Finals Timeline
- More Links, Storylines, and Selection Procedures
- Scratches:
- Michael Weiss scratched the B-final of the men’s 400 freestyle, bumping Andrew Gemmell into the B-final and Kevin Litherland into the first alternate position.
- Melanie Margalis scrathed from the A-final of the women’s 100 breaststroke, bumping Andrea Cottrell into the A-final, Bridget Blood into the B-final, and Greta Leberfinger into the first alternate position.
- Josh Prenot scratched the B-final of the men’s 100 breaststroke, bumping Andy Schuehler into the B-final and Austin Temple into the first alternate position.
- Maya DiRado and Kendyl Stewart both scratched the B-final of the women’s 100 Backstroke, bumping Takija Karosas and Bonnie Brandon into the B-final and Ellen Williamson into the first alternate position.
WOMEN’S 400 Freestyle
- Average Age of A-final: 19 Years, 1 Month
- Youngest A-finalist: Becca Mann, 16
- Oldest A-finalist: 2 Swimmers, 22
Katie Ledecky is hunting for a Word Record sweep of the distance freestyle events. The last swimmer to hold the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyle world records at once was the great, Janet Evans. Ledecky was flirting with history, cracking 4 minutes in the 400 freestyle for the second time this morning. She has another shot at it tonight and only needs to drop .74 seconds to knock down Pellegrini’s world record time of 3:59.15. Ledecky is also swimming in a textile suit, compared to Pellegrini’s super suit from 2009.
MEN’S 400 Freestyle
- Average Age of A-final: 22 Years, 7 Months
- Youngest A-finalist: Reed Malone, 19
- Oldest A-finalist: Michael Klueh, 27
Connor Jaeger, the defending champion in the men’s 400 freestyle will have to fight off Matt McLean and Michael McBroom tonight to claim the title for a second year in a row. McLean won the 200, and McBroom was ahead at the 400 meter mark during the 1500. It will be an interesting race, to say the least.
WOMEN’S 100 Breaststroke
- Average Age of A-final: 21 Years, 11 Months
- Youngest A-finalist: Lilly King, 17
- Oldest A-finalist: Jessica Hardy, 27
This will be a race between Larson, Lawrence, and Hardy. When you look at all of their strengths on paper, Hardy has the best 50, Lawrence has the most endurance, and Larson is stuck floating somewhere in the middle. This should be a great race tonight.
MEN’S 100 Breaststroke
- Average Age of A-final: 23 Years, 1 Month
- Youngest A-finalist: 2 Swimmers, 20
- Oldest A-finalist: BJ Johnson, 27
Kevin Cordes looks to be the future of American breaststroke. He is going for his second win of the weekend after winning the 200 breaststroke earlier in the week. He dipped under a minute to claim the top seed for tonights final. Watch out for Brendan McHugh, the winner of the 50 breaststroke yesterday. He qualified second in the 100 breaststroke.
WOMEN’S 100 Backstroke
- Average Age of A-final: 19 Years, 7 Months
- Youngest A-finalist: Kathleen Baker, 17
- Oldest A-finalist: Cheyenne Coffman, 25
Olympic Champion Missy Franklin, leads her Cal teammtes and the rest of the final in the women’s 100 backstroke tonight. Nobody was under a minute this morning, so hopefully we will see a few under that barrier tonight.
MEN’S 100 Backstroke
- Average Age of A-final: 25 Years, 1 Month
- Youngest A-finalist: Ryan Murphy, 19
- Oldest A-finalist: 2 Swimmer, 29
This is a loaded final with Phelps, Grevers, Thoman, Godsoe, and Plummer. All five of those athletes have represented the United States internationally long course. Ryan Murphy should challenge this group, although I don’t know if he will have enough to win tongiht. Matt Grevers told us he predicts it will take a 52 to win the final tonight. That is the same time that won the World Championships last year.
Clary and Marsh just did the ALS ice water challenge, and Clary followed it up with a belly flop. Fun times.
Troy, I wouldn’t say “only 0.74s” about Katie Ledecky in her 400 free world record quest.
It’s huge at this level. And it’s the difference with the magical suit. It’s still a big step to climb. She will break that suited world record this summer or next summer but nothing will be easy.
Why does USA Swimming list 1st and 2nd place finishers on the Pan Pacs team for women, but only 1st place for the men? And if it is only 1st place finishers, why is Lochte on the list for the 100 free? http://usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&itemid=6275&mid=14491
In the 100 free, the top 4 all make it because of the relay.
An accurate list will only exist after europeans and asian games for people like katinka and sun you can qualify taking it too easy so the world ranking now is not accurate
Rafael – the PanPacs roster will be set tomorrow, I believe, so the other events you mentioned won’t be factored into the world rankings as they stand currently.
Like the other days there was a big show in the morning session.
Perhaps nobody has said to the swimmers that they were not in Beijing and not in 2008 either. 🙂 Keep the fireworks for the evening! We have been sometimes disappointed by the times swum in finals this week.
I didn’t watch the prelims and when I’ve read the results, I wondered if there were some errors. But no. It was correct.
I’m talking about Katie Ledecky. 3.59 in prelims! Ok. Either she gave everything in prelims, and why? Or she still has more gas in the tank, and it’s scary!
And I’m also talking about Michael Phelps and his 100 back splits. 27.19/26.57! 😆… Read more »
Considering his own expansion into sprint butterfly and freestyle, perhaps Grevers is rooting for Plummer.
US men should be able to take 3 swimmers in each event. Might even get a few 4th-place finishers. If that happens, Matt Ellis should be first (7th in world this year), and Pebley would be next (13th).
Can we get an updated list at some point?
It’s too bad Katie Ledecky can’t receive a nice $25,000-50,000 bonus every time she breaks a world record. She could slice a tiny margin every swim (just like the great Soviet pole vaulter Sergei Bubka used to do in the 1980-90s) and create a nice bankroll for herself! (I bet her coach would like that too!)
Klueh is the oldest in the 400 free at 27.
Thanks for catching that for us. It is updated now.