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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- Event Order
- Full selection procedures
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- Friday Finals Heat Sheet
Day Three of the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships will feature women’s and men’s finals in each of the following: 400 IM, 100 fly, 50 breast, and 50 back. 19-year-old Michael Andrew, whose goal is to become the world’s fastest sprinter in all four stroke 50s, will compete in the fly, breast and back.
Women’s 400 IM
Defending national champion Leah Smith led the morning qualifiers in the women’s 400 IM, clocking a 4:38.11. Melanie Margalis qualified second with 4:38.37, about 1.5 seconds off the lifetime best she swam at PSS Indy in May, setting up a potentially exciting battle in the middle lanes tonight. Ally McHugh took .55 off her seed time to crack the 4:40 barrier for the first time and earn the right to swim in lane 3 tonight. Stanford’s Brooke Forde was 4th with 4:39.85; she edged Evie Pfeifer (4:40.28, 5th) in her heat. 16-year-old Emma Weyant of Sarasota had a big morning swim to qualify 8th for the final with 4:42.19. Weyand is only .08 away from joining the all-time top-10 list for 17-18 girls. 15-year-old Mariah Denigan, who dropped 1.5 seconds to land in the 10th spot of the morning with 4:43.38, needs to take another 1.17 to replace Jasmine Tosky at #10 on the all-time list for 15-16 girls.
Men’s 400 IM
Chase Kalisz cruised to the top spot on the leaderboard in prelims with 4:11.09, coming to the wall nearly 2.3 seconds ahead of anyone else. He looked relaxed and smooth in prelims and could crack 4:10 in the final. Regardless, he is the overwhelming favorite and should lock up his roster spot for Pan Pacs tonight. Kalisz’s Georgia teammates Jay Litherland (4:13.34) and Gunnar Bentz (4:15.33) qualified 2nd and 4th, while Sam Stewart dropped 5.8 seconds in prelims to earn the 3rd spot in the final. Also coming in with 4:15s were Sean Grieshop, Abrahm DeVine, and Charlie Swanson. 18-year-old Kieran Smith snuck into the final at 8th in 4:17.70; he is .11 shy of joining the all-time top-10 list for 17-18 boys.
Women’s 100 Fly
Kelsi Dahlia dominated heats in the morning with the only sub-57 in the field. She posted a 56.86 in prelims, just a half-second off her best time of 56.37 from 2017 World Championships. Team Elite San Diego’s Kendyl Stewart, who represented the U.S. at 2015 Worlds in the sprint fly races, swam her second sub-58 of the season to qualify 2nd in 57.97. Together with the 57.89 she went at Los Angeles Invite earlier this month, Stewart is the fastest she’s been since 2014. Cal’s Katie McLaughlin qualified 3rd with 58.08; she, too, is swimming the fastest she has been in three years. Team Elite teammates Sarah Gibson, who swam the 50/100 fly events at Worlds last summer, and Hellen Moffit qualified 4th and 6th with 58.09 and 58.32, respectively. Dahlia’s Louisville teammate Mallory Comerford, who narrowly missed out on swimming this event at Worlds last summer, qualified 5th in 58.32.
Men’s 100 Fly
Michael Andrew, fresh off his U.S. Open Record in the 50 fly on Thursday night, is looking for his first qualification for Pan Pacs. He qualified 3rd out of heats with 51.98. Ahead of him were Jack Saunderson of Towson, who dropped 1.18 seconds off a month-old PB to lead the qualifiers with 51.48, and Jack Conger (51.79). Conger went a lifetime best of 51.00 at PSS Atlanta in February. World Champion Caeleb Dressel is also in the hunt for a spot on the Pan Pacs roster; he qualified 4th in 52.00.
Women’s 50 Breast
Lilly King of Indiana topped the qualifiers for the 50 breast final with 30.12. She has been sub-30 seven times, including the World Record time of 29.40 she swam at 2017 World Championships. Qualifying second was Molly Hannis with 30.21. Hannis went a PB of 29.71 at PSS Austin in January. Next was Lindsey Kozelsky of Minnesota, who dropped 1.2 seconds to qualify 3rd ahead of Breeja Larson, Jorie Caneta, Emily Weiss, Katie Meili, and Bethany Galat, all of whom swam 30-highs.
Men’s 50 Breast
Michael Andrew tied the U.S. Open Record and set the Championship Record in prelims with 26.86. That moves him to #7 on the all-time top performances list for American swimmers; 8 of those belong to Kevin Cordes, including the American Record of 26.76. Cordes qualified 3rd in 27.06 behind Andrew and Indiana’s Ian Finnerty (26.96). Finnerty dropped .58 to drop below 27 seconds for the first time.
Women’s 50 Back
Michigan’s Ali DeLoof led the qualifiers in the 50 back with 27.79, her best by .03. Olivia Smoliga of Athens Bulldog Swim Club, who set the American Record with 27.43 in April at PSS Mesa, put up the morning’s second-fastest time of 27.94. NC State’s Elise Haan took another .16 off a 6-week-old PB to qualify 4th with 28.06. National Junior Team members Katharine Berkoff (28.27), Isabelle Stadden (28.40) and Alex Walsh (also 28.40) are also vying for spots on the 2019 Worlds team.
Men’s 50 Back
Defending champion Justin Ress of NC State will be in lane 4 of the men’s 50 back final tonight, with Olympic champion Matt Grevers to his right in lane 5. The pair qualified in 24.46 and 24.53, respectively. Tied for 3rd out of heats were NC State’s Ryan Held and Michael Andrew with 24.59. Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy was 5th with 24.63, going a best time by .01. Murphy won the 200 back national title on Thursday night and could upset the apple cart in tonight’s final.
Nice night for the young Andrew! Damn near podiumed in all three events. I think I see the method to his madness, now. With Dressel having scratched the 200 free and 50 breast, the door was wide open for Andrew to seize the men’s high point award. After tonight’s performances, and with two more events to go where he’s a strong podium threat, Andrew has it firmly in his grasp.
I must say – I’m surprised he’s dropping time. Personally I’m very happy for him, but I am surprised since he typically doesn’t drop meaningful time at big meets. That said, his 50’s times are not world beating, but great for this meet. He’s not quite sure-fire medal-competitive yet in the 100 fly at Worlds/Olympics, nor is he medal-competitive in the 100 breast. It’s looking like his best event for an Olympic race is the 50 free, and he’s still over half a second behind Dressel/Manaudou (if he makes a return) there.
I’m happy that he was finally able to break through and start to live up to the expectations. Now, if he could only put together a solid two… Read more »
I don’t know how you define “meaningful” but he is consistently faster at championship meets than he is during the season, so I’m not particularly surprised. We’ll see how tired he is tomorrow for the breast, but my guess is he drops more time in the fly tonight, probably under 51.5. That might be enough to make Pan Pacs or it might not, but it would definitely set him up as a potential medal-threat in two years.
Sven’s take is accurate – he does typically swim his season-best times at championship meets. At Nationals last year, he dropped four tenths from his season-best in the 100 free. At World Juniors last year, he dropped four-tenths in the 100 breaststroke. At Trials in 2016, he dropped four-tenths in the 100 breaststroke from his previous season best, a week earlier, and 1+ seconds from his previous season best that was more than a week out.
@Marmot – I think maybe you got some bad info on what MA usually does and doesn’t do at championship meets.
I don’t know. At his age I do not think that dropping 4 tenths of a second in a 100 is that noteworthy. If I dropped 4 tenths in a year in my prime I would have been extremely disappointed.
That wasn’t your original comment. You’re trying to dance into a different comment than what you originally made. If your drop at 17 was from a 1:01 in the 100 breast to a 59.9, Ii bet you would’ve been as thrilled as thrilled can be.
No, I wouldn’t be happy with that at all. You’d drop that much time simply from aging a year, strength gains, nervous system firing, etc. You can do the dancing, I’m fine.
I think that for most 19 year olds, they’ve probably got more than 0.4 to drop, but think of the trajectory that MA has been on since he was 13 or so. He got so fast so early that there was no way that was gonna continue at the same rate. When you’re a 1:00 100 breaststroker and you drop 0.4, that’s a big deal no matter how old you are. The fact that he’s still dropping time at all is significant and suggests he’ll be a major player in a few years.
Disagree. That’s not a big drop at that age.
A 51.5 is nowhere close to medaling at the Olympics anymore, and is nowhere close to a tapered Dressel, which is what I said in my post. I don’t care about imaginary internet points and downvotes, but you essentially proved my point for me.
Sure, I totally agree that 51.5 will not medal in 2020. I never said that. But a 19 year old who goes 51.5 in 2018 who has not plateaued yet IS setting himself up well to be a medal threat in two years.
Can’t really address the upvote/downvote comment as I’m not sure where that came from, and I’m not sure which point I’ve proven for you, but I am happy to have helped.
Dressel, Milak, Minakov, etc. No medal for MA.
About his goal. Dressel, Govorov, Kolesnikov, Morozov, Murphy, Peaty, Proud…
Going from race to medal ceremony to a small warm down/warm up three times in a row is going to be a challenge tonight for MA. It does not help that these are short races which mean less time between events.
Are there rules that preclude him from skipping the ceremony, should he medal?
Swim all the races, then go back to count the bodies and collect the medals.
Don’t think so. I seem to recall other swimmers skipping medal ceremonies to handle doubles before. Could be mistaken, though.
Conger skipped his earlier this meet without apparent penalty.
Gotta say, I’m rooting for a Michael Andrew sweep. I don’t think it’s at all likely, but damn would that be cool.
It would be one of the more epic nights in a non-trials Nationals,
this is a trials nationals though
I think he meant Olympic Trials.
Love the “Take No Prisoners” attitude from Andrew. To paraphrase the US Army Rangers, “Swim ’em all, let God sort ’em out.”
Classic scholarships appreciated!
I don’t see MA making it in the 50 back. But 50breast for worlds seems likely unless finnerty has an extra gear. 100fly is a bit of a toss up?! I feel like almost anyone in the final can make it… let’s see who has it in them to put it all on the line
100 fly tonight will have me on the edge of my seat