2018 Columbus Pro Swim Series: SwimSquad Projections

2018 PRO SWIM SERIES – COLUMBUS

• Thursday, July 5 – Sunday, July 8, 2018
• McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, Columbus, OH
• Thursday: Timed Finals 5 PM (US Eastern Time)
• Friday-Sunday: Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6:30 PM (US Eastern Time)
• Meet site
• Meet info
• Psych sheet

This weekend marks the final regular-season stop of the 2018 Pro Swim Series, with the four SwimSquads doing battle one last time before the series concludes at U.S. Nationals. Currently, KrayzelburgSquad leads handily, with CoughlinSquad sitting second by almost 40 points.

Columbus will see a bit of a skeleton crew for SwimSquads – every team should have an empty spot amongst its starters, making contributions from the top-tier swimmers even more vital.

CURRENT POINTS

FULL ROSTERS

SCORING FORMAT

• Prior to each meet, the captain will select 6 swimmers from their overall roster to score.
• Each of the six athletes is designated for one specific category, and can score in up to two events from that category. The categories are:
  • Free (50 through 1500)
  • Back (50 through 200)
  • Breast (50 through 200)
  • Fly (50 through 200)
  • IM (200 and 400, not the mystery order 200 IM)
  • Flex (any two races)
• An athlete must make the top 8 to score points:
  • 1st: 10
  • 2nd: 8
  • 3rd: 7
  • 4th: 5
  • 5th: 4
  • 6th: 3
  • 7th: 2
  • 8th: 1

Columbus OUTLOOK

The final regular-season stop is easily the thinnest among national teamers. The SwimSquads have between 5 and 7 active swimmers, and with scarcity in certain events, every single squad will likely have a blank spot in its lineup. That should mean that the team that can maximize points from its top-tier stars are probably in control, even if they take zeros in another spot or two.

TEAM KRAYZELBURG

Swimming for: Never Ever Give Up: Jessie Rees Foundation

• Active: Chase Kalisz, Kelsi Dahlia, Zach Apple, Ryan Held, Amanda Kendall, Sierra Schmidt
• Notable inactives: Katie Ledecky, Matt Grevers, Olivia Smoliga, Ryan Lochte

Krayzelburg doesn’t have anyone entered in breaststroke beyond Chase Kalisz, and he’s clearly worth more points in the IMs. Kelsi Dahlia is the obvious starter at fly, and it’ll be up to Kalisz and Dahlia to get as close to 40 combined points as they can – if they can do it, it might be enough to win the meet.

Krayzelburg has a trio of sprint free/fly types, so we’ll finagle them around to get them all starting somewhere. Ryan Held is entered in the 100 fly and 100 back, so we can use him as the backstroker, especially after his 50 back looked great in Europe last month. Zach Apple fills in the free role and we can use Amanda Kendall as a flex play with her two highest-placing events in Indy.

Best mixed 4×50 medley relay: Held, Kalisz, Dahlia, Kendall – this relay fits the format pretty well, depending on how well Kalisz can sprint in breaststroke.

TEAM COUGHLIN

Swimming for: DAM-Cancer Foundation

• Active: Lilly King, Bridgette Alexander, Ali Deloof, Becca Mann, Miranda Tucker
• Notable inactives: Ryan Murphy, Melanie Margalis, Hali Flickinger, Simone Manuel, Tom Shields, Townley Haas

Coughlin is also hurting for starters, with only five swimmers to fill six slots. Her two best are both breaststrokers, so we’ll try to maximize points by putting Lilly King in the breaststroke slot and former teammate Miranda Tucker as the flex play.

Both Ali Deloof and Bridgette Alexander are backstrokers, but only Alexander swims both distances. That allows us to use Deloof as a freestyler. Becca Mann is seeded highly in the distance frees, but hasn’t competed long course yet this season and is coming off a pretty lackluster NCAA season. She does have an IM entry that fills a vacant lineup spot, though, in case she goes off in Columbus.

Best mixed 4×50 medley relay: Deloof, King, Alexander, Mann – Coughlin has only four women competing, so her medley relay may have to be single-gendered. The front half is awesome; the back half is a bit of a patchwork.

TEAM SANDENO

Swimming for: Never Ever Give Up: Jessie Rees Foundation

• Active: Leah Smith, Michael Andrew, Zane Grothe, Katie Meili, Kaersten Meitz, Blake Pieroni, Charlie Swanson
• Notable inactives: Caeleb Dressel, Jack Conger, Jacob Pebley, Ella Eastin

Sandeno has 7 options, but no one entered in any backstroke events, so that slot will remain empty. She’s got several great options, but the issue is that they’re all freestylers. Zane Grothe is a must-start somewhere between the 400 and 1500 frees. Blake Pieroni won the 200 and finished second in the 100 in his last PSS outing, so he should start somewhere. We’ll go with Grothe at free and Pieroni at flex.

The other two top freestyle options have other events that could fill a lineup spot and trickle in some points. Leah Smith could very well win the 400 IM with most of the top contenders gone in that race. Michael Andrew is entered in the 100 breast and 100 fly, and is really the only high-level scoring threat in butterfly on this roster. With Katie Meili set to hold down the breaststroke spot, let’s throw Andrew in butterfly and Smith in IM.

Best mixed 4×50 medley relay: Andrew, Meili, Smith, Pieroni – this team will struggle a little for a flyer, but the other three legs are really solid, and mostly made up of natural sprinters.

TEAM LEZAK

Swimming for: USA Swimming Foundation

• Active: Cody Miller, Mallory Comerford, Ian Finnerty, Zach Harting, PJ Ransford, Justin Ress, Cierra Runge
• Notable inactives: Nathan Adrian, Josh Prenot, Kevin Cordes, Lia Neal, Kathleen Baker, Pace Clark

LezakSquad has a backstroker this time around, solving his biggest Achilles’ Heel of the competition so far. Justin Ress is coming off a huge 100 back at Charlotte Ultraswim and might be the favorite to win the 100 back with most other contenders gone. However, it’s IM where Lezak has no swimmers entered and will take a zero.

With Adrian gone, Mallory Comerford fits right into the free slot, and PJ Ransford makes a pretty good flex play based on his distance performances in Santa Clara. Lezak will always have his pick of breaststrokers, and Cody Miller seems the best option by far with Finnerty looking a lot more like a taper swimmer through this regular season. Add in Zach Harting in the butterflys and Lezak might have one of his most competitive rosters so far – though with a lot of ground to make up.

Best mixed 4×50 medley relay: Ress, Miller, Comerford, Runge – easily the best front-half in this field. Depending on how good Runge is over 50 meters, this might be the relay to beat.

FULL PROJECTED ROSTERS