Michael Andrew Will Swim All 3 Prelims Races on Friday

2018 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, July 25 – Sunday, July 29, 2018
• William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
• Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
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As prelims slog through 2 hours of 400 IM heats, Michael Andrew, still basking in the glow of (probably) making his first senior international team on Thursday evening in the 50 fly, has given a diversion for sprint fans to the prelims session: he plans on swimming his triple of the 100 fly, 50 breast, and 50 back in this morning’s prelims.

Racing 100 Fly, 50 Breast, and 50 back this morning! Still buzzing after last night! #Firedup #phillips66nats 📷: melissalundie @ William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center https://t.co/oaiEvklMgc

— Michael Andrew (@SwimmerMichael) July 27, 2018

Whether he will swim it in the evening remains to be seen – depending on both how he does in prelims, and how he feels after those prelims races – but in the morning, at least, he’s going to swim each of the last 3 events of the meet.

According to the official meet timeline, rough times where the events start:

• 100 fly – 11:03 AM
• 50 breast – 11:28 AM
• 50 back – 11:50 AM

That means Andrew will be swimming all 3 races within an hour.

We’ve seen Andrew take on a 3-event day before, most significantly at the 2015 World Junior Championships. There, he swam the 100 breast final (4th), the 100 fly semi-final (9th), and the 200 IM final (7th), with that 200 IM final coming in 2:06.54: almost 7 seconds faster than what he did in prelims (where he was the top seed). While the results weren’t encouraging there, on that ocassion, all 3 races came across almost exactly an hour, but the distance was twice as much: 400 meters, instead of the 200 meters he’ll attempt on Friday.

There’s also the fact that Andrew is now 3 years older than he was then, and based on his 50 fly win on Thursday, is stronger, and broadly a better swimmer than he was then.

We saw him take on 6 races, for 300 meters, at the PSS meet in Mesa earlier this year. That didn’t end so well for him either – after winning the 50 fly, he held 22-lows and mids in the 50 free, until that final, where he finished in 23.70. Up until the 200 meter mark, though, he was swimming well, and he’s had even more experience in these kind of many-race-sessions even since then.

In his post-race interviews on Thursday, Andrew said that his goal was to be the best in the world in all four 50-meter races. He’s also previously revealed his goal times in many of his primary races, so we know that he’s shooting for a 50.80 in the 100 fly, and a 26.75 in the 50 breast – all of which would be even more incredible in a 3-race session.