2022 Phillips 66 International Team Trials
- April 26-30, 2022
- Greensboro, NC
- Greensboro Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- Start Times: Prelims – 9 am ET / Finals – 6 pm ET
- Worlds Qualifying Criteria
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- SwimSwam Pick ‘Em Contest
- How To Watch
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
It’s Day 5 in Greensboro, which means we’ve reached the last prelims session of the meet. This will be a short session, featuring heats of only the 200 IM and 50 free as the women’s 1500 and the men’s 800 (excluding the fastest heats) will be contested in their own session starting at 3:50 pm ET.
Michael Andrew and Torri Huske scratched the 200 IM to focus on the 50 free, so Kate Douglass is the only one left with the double. She’s on the heat sheets, so we’ll assume she’s swimming both until proven otherwise.
In the 200 IM, Douglass is the Olympic bronze medalist. Also in the field is her UVA teammate and Olympic silver medalist Alex Walsh. They’re undoubtedly the favorites in the event, so it will be interesting to see how close to the vest they’ll play their cards here. #5 seed Leah Hayes dropped over three seconds in the 400 IM earlier in the meet, so she could be primed for another drop.
Without Andrew, Olympian Chase Kalisz is the men’s 200 IM #1 seed at 1:56.97. Close behind him are Carson Foster and Trenton Julian who’ve both had a breakthrough meet. Already qualified in the 200 and 400 free, Kieran Smith could set himself up to play spoiler. And lurking further down the psych sheet at #10 is Shaine Casas, who is the third fastest performer in the world this year.
The 50 free is Abbey Weitzeil and Olivia Smoliga’s last chance to make the Worlds team. Notably, Weitzeil scratched the 200 free earlier in the meet to focus on the 50. Smoliga has been swimming well, but she hasn’t been able to beat either Huske or Claire Curzan, who have both had strong performances this week and are swimming here. And Douglass will be looking to translate her short-course American record speed to the big pool.
In the men’s 50 free, we’ll set up for another likely head-to-head between Andrew and Caeleb Dressel in finals. However, the rest of this field won’t go quietly. Justin Ress has been on fire in the sprints. Ryan Held put together a strong 100 free, and Drew Kibler swam lifetime bests in his three previous events this week.