The first day of the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series Charlotte features the non-Olympic distance events; the women’s 1500 freestyle and the men’s 800 freestyle. Without Ledecky, Lotte Friis is the top seed in the women’s 1500 freestyle while Connor Jaeger is the top seed in the men’s 800 freestyle.
2015 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES – CHARLOTTE
- Thursday, May 14 – Sunday, May 17, 2015
- Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Charlotte, NC
- Thursday: Timed finals, 4PM (Eastern)
- Friday-Sunday: Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern)
- Live Stream
- Live results
- Psych Sheet
Women’s 1500 Freestyle – Timed Finals
Lotte Friis picked up the first win of the meet with her time of 16.00.82. That time is her best of the season and will stand as the second fastest time in the world this year. Becca Mann picked up a second place finish, reaching in with the third fastest time in the world this year at 16:05.42.
2014-2015 LCM Women 1500 Free
LEDECKY
15.25.48*WR
| 2 | Lauren BOYLE | NZL | 15.40.14 | 08/04 |
| 3 | Boglarka KAPAS | HUN | 15.47.09 | 08/04 |
| 4 | Lotte FRIIS | DEN | 15.49.00 | 08/04 |
| 5 | Jessica ASHWOOD | AUS | 15.52.17 | 08/03 |
Third place went to Sierra Schmidt with a final time of 16:23.75. At this point, it is possible for later heats to shake up the podium, but this is most likely your top three for this event.
Men’s 800 Freestyle – Timed Finals
Connor Jaeger was just shy of breaking eight minutes to win the men’s 800 freestyle with a final time of 8:00.23. He lead the whole way, but did allow Ryan Feeley to gain on him slighlty during the back half of the race. Down the strech, however, Kevin Litherland out-touched Feeley to finish in second place with his time of 8:04.87. Ryan Feeley finished third with his final time of 8:05.25.
More interesting at this point is the Australian GP ( LC of course ) where the events are broken eg
50 /100/ 50
100fly / 2×50 ba/ 2×50 br/100 free
50fly/ 100 back br/ 50 free .
Cate won all legs of the broken 200 – 25.0/ 54.9/ 26.7 .
Hagino won the 100 fly , 2×50 back / 100 free ( Seto took out the breasts ) .
Larkin beat Irie in back 50/50 .
It is demonstrating why swimmers are at the top & generally no surprises maybe except Cate who had impressive 200 splits for someone who has done one event (s/c) in her career.
Compare Seto’s breastroke splits in the 400 im to the specialists on their 200 split br.
Tateishi – 29.25 63.3 29.16
Koseki. – 29.43 64.8. 29.16
Seto after 100 fly / 2×50 ba goes 29.75 30.3 .
He paid for it iN the free where Hagino finished off with a 52.9 which is equally incredible .
I don’t know about boring. I was excited to see Lotte improve over last year, and it is nice to see her get in a win. I was so bummed when she was sick at the Euro Championships last summer. I was also impressed that she chose to stick with Bowman when so many other of the elite swimmers decided to move on. Not because moving on is bad, but I think staying somewhere when other people doubt shows an admirable ability to listen to one’s gut.
Question though: I read back in February somewhere that she might not be able to stay because of the exchange rate on the kroner. Is there an update on this? Did she find… Read more »
Pretty boring first day. I hope the rest of the meet is more exciting.
I’m discovering the results.
Friis-Mann 1-2 like last year! Pretty good times.
16.07.14/16.08.86 last year vs 16.00.82/16.05.42 this year
Slow men’s race. Jaeger winner like last year.
7.58.59 last year vs 8.00.23 this year
Bobo: What do you think about Lotte and Becca’s chances this summer? I know Ledecky has the gold, but I mean for podium placements.
Becca’s entries are 800M free in the pool and 10K open water. I don’t think she’s got the speed to go 8:18, which it probably what it will take for a podium finish, but do think she’s got very good shot at a top ten/ Rio ticket in the 10K, and as good as any of the names to pick up hardware from there.
Wish she would have tried for the 1500M spot last summer since she’s quicker than Katy Campbell and IMO she would have finished better in that than the 800M.
I certainly don’t claim to be an expert in distance freestyle racing, but doing the #2 or #3 ranked time of the season (without a taper) after the other nations of the world have just had their qualification meets for World Championships sounds pretty good to me! Mann won’t be swimming this event in Kazan, unfortunately; but she must be in full training mode after having just won the US 10K title recently.
Do most other nations hold these events at their World Championship Trials? Genuinely don’t know. Either way, great swims.
Joe: You have a point, the women’s 1500 may not be a selection event for some World Teams; but, the former #2 time was swum by Lauren Boyle at Australia’s Trials. The thing is, a lot of athletes (Lauren Boyle of New Zealand and Mireia Belmonte of Spain among them) don’t have much competition to make their country’s World Team, so they don’t have to taper prior to Worlds. I also don’t know if Friis needed to swim a qualifying time prior to Kazan; if so, she may be a bit rested.
Psychologically or physically, KL is unbeatable now.
Still, these were great swims by Friis and Mann, especially for Mann.
I believe that’s a PB for Mann, if the US Swimming website bio is up to date…. her previous being last year’s 16:08.86 at this meet.
2nd and 3rd fastest times in the world for Friis and Mann, however Friis went pretty easy for most of that race. I don’t know where she is in her training, but I would think that some of these women’s distance swimmers would want to start pushing themselves to be under the 16 min mark. I was surprised when the announcer said Ledecky was the only woman to be under 16 minutes so far this year, and she’s under it by 18 seconds. If Friis and the other top 1500 swimmers don’t start breaking that barrier then psychologically does Ledecky becomes that much more unbeatable?