Note: there are two fantastic Pro-Am meets this week in Oklahoma City; we’ll identify them by their host teams: KMSC (King Marlin Swim Club) and AESC (American Energy Swim Club). This release is about the AESC Pro-Am.
Edmond, OK – Night 2 of the 2014 American Energy Swim Club Pro-Am in Edmond, Oklahoma saw the first full slate of events, including some major slug-fests on the pro side of the meet.
PRIZE STRUCTURE
Individual events: top 3 professional athletes will receive a cash prize based on their ABSOLUTE FINISH as follows:
- $800
- $500
- $300
The 1650 freestyles have double cash prizes, and the 50 freestyles (which will be swum as a bracket-style shootout) will award $5,000 to the champion, $1,000 to the runner-up, and $600 to the 3rd-place finisher.
Men’s Meet Recap
The men’s session started with a new lifetime best from U.S. National Teamer Cody Miller in the 100 yard breaststroke, which he won with 51.14. That time jumps Miller up two spots to place him as the 3rd-fastest swimmer ever in the event, behind only Kevin Cordes and Damir Dugonjic, and earns him a $200 Meet Record bonus.
He was one of a slew of pros in this field that saw the top 6 all go under 53 seconds – and just like we saw on Thursday night, included many lifetime bests.
Brendan McHugh, one of the summer’s breakout stars, took 2nd place in 51.68 – his lifetime best by almost a second and good enough to tie him as the 7th-best performer of all-time. Carl Mickelson took 3rd in 52.63 and SwimSwam’s senior reporter Jared Anderson almost matched his lifetime best for 4th. Anderson swam a 52.69 – .01 seconds off of his fastest swim in the event done at this same meet a year ago.
Club Wolverine post-grad Zach Hayden was 5th in 52.80 and Mike Alexandrov took 6th in 52.92.
The top-placing amateur was Oklahoma Baptist University senior Greg Penny, who was 7th in 55.82.
The men’s 100 fly was no less impressive. Spaniard Miguel Ortiz, a Club Wolverine post-grad, won in 45.17. That just surpassed the winning time of Giles Smith (45.22) at the cross-town KMSC Pro-Am on Friday night.
Coming in 2nd in that race was Dax Hill, not typically a butterflier but long enough to pull off all four strokes, in 46.55 – a lifetime best for him.
15-year old Michael Andrew took 3rd in 47.30. That’s a little better than he was at Winter Juniors last weekend, and his best time in the event since April.
The top amateur finisher was Wayland Baptist’s Gabriel Phillips who took 7th in 50.61. The top junior amateur was Joseph Short of the home-team American Energy Swim Club, who was 8th in 52.00.
That runner-up finish for Hill came after a 1:33.15 to win the 200 free – where he beat out the Winter National Champion Nathan Adrian (1:33.18). Adrian has vowed that he’s not going to take this 200 too seriously in long course, but he’s been racing it fairly frequently this fall.
Bobby Hurley was 3rd in 1:33.51, and the top American was SwimmAC Carolina 17-year old Nathaniel Murray in 1:41.10. That’s the second-best time of Murray’s career, even coming off of what appeared to be close to a full taper for Winter Nationals.
In the final men’s individual event of the night, Darian Townsend threw down a surprising 3:40.98 to win the men’s 400 IM. He’s swum this event at this meet for three years straight, but doesn’t frequently swim it elsewhere, typically focusing on the shorter IM’s when he races them at all.
In the process, he upended the U.S. Winter National Champion from two weeks ago Kyle Whitaker. Whitaker was a 3:41.33 – not far off of the time that he swam in Greensboro to win the nationa ltitle.
Typically-distance freestyler Michael McBroom took 3rd in 3:49.57. The top amateur was 17-year old Jared Crosby of the RAC AquaHawgs, who was 5th in 4:07.64.
In the day’s relay event, the American Energy Swim Club moved to a perfect three-for-three, thanks once again to a helping hand from 42-year old Olympic gold medalist Josh Davis. Davis swam the second leg of this relay in 45.89, joining with Jonathan Ye (47.73), Joseph Short (47.82), and Alan Tran (49.19).
The Badger Swim Club took 2nd in 3:15.47 and the Central Arkansas Swim Club was 3rd in 3:16.13.
Women’s Recap
The women’s pro ranks at this meet aren’t quite as deep as the men’s, but there’s still plenty of quality in the water.
The day started with the newly-engaged Maya DiRado winning the women’s 200 free in 1:43.76 – half-a-second faster than her previous career best.
She beat out Megan Romano, now based out of Austin (1:44.43) and Canadian Sam Cheverton, based out of Columbus, Ohio (1:46.16) for that win. The top amateur was the Badger Swim Club’s Anina Lund in 1:50.98.
DiRado would pair up her win in the 200 free later in the meet with one in the 400 IM, where she swam a 4:03.26 to beat out Melanie Margalis (4:05.56). On the back-half of this race, the two split very similarly, but the front-half saw wild swings in the lead: Margalis charged to a 55.59 split on the 100 fly, giving her a full second lead over DiRado, but DiRado earned four back on the backstroke with a 1:00 split to Margalis’ 1:04. That was enough cushion for DiRado to hold on to win.
Emily Brunemann was a distant 3rd in 4:18.23, and 17-year old Kallyn Barkey from Rochester, Minnesota took 4th in 4:28.49.
DiRado’s Stanford post-grad teammate Felicia Lee gave the program three wins in four individual events on the day with a 51.57 to take the women’s 100 fly. She beat-out former Princeton star, and current Longhorn Aquatics swimmer, Lisa Boyce in 52.28.
Lara Jackson took 3rd in 53.06, followed by SwimMAC Carolina high school junior Alyssa Marsh (54.42).
The one swimmer to break the chain of Cardinal victories was Breeja Larson, who did so in spectacular fashion in the women’s 100 breaststroke. She was a 57.76 to break the old Meet Record of 58.64.
Canadian Marthan McCabe took 2nd in 1:00.21 and Emily McClellan was 3rd in 1:01.07.
The top amateur was Taylor Ballard from Mississippi, who took 6th overall in 1:05.14.
In the session-ending 400 free relay, Charger Aquatics just beat out the Aquahawgs’ relay 3:31.55-3:31.82.
Full Meet Results available on Meet Mobile under “2014 Oklahoma Elite Pro-Am”.
Live results of that meet here.
http://results.teamunify.com/okcsc
It seems stupid there are 2 similar pro-am meets the same weekend in the same State. But let’s move on.
Nice double 200 free/400 IM for Maya DiRado.
Interesting to see again Mr Adrian swim the 200 free. Good training for him.
I didn’t know Darian Townsend still swam the 400 IM. Pretty impressive 3.40.
Very good 100 breast performances for Miller and Larson.
And of course congrats to the still very fit Jared Anderson despite his advanced age. 😉
Jared beat out Mr Alexandrov , which is pretty impressive . Well done Jared ! Keep the passion on
Look. Cody is a great breaststroker. But he doesn’t swim the stroke legally. He takes a dolphin kick after EVERY stroke. It is completely obvious from any underwater video of his race. I really don’t understand why breaststroke rules can’t be enforced.
I’m really interested to see if he could still beat McHugh without the cheating. Unfortunately, the way officiating is going, we’ll probably never know.
No problem. Hosszu won the 400 IM gold medal in Doha with double dolphin kicks off each wall during her breaststroke leg.
Correction. Silver medal.
Just like Allie Szekely, Molly Hannis, Kaylin Burchell, their strokes all look like dolphin kick w breast pull drills.. Szekely’s has gotten better.
So that’s allowed or not? 🙂
It’s not…are you confronting cheating by saying if Hosszu does it, it’s fine? Read the rule
It was a joke about Hosszu. Sarcasm. Of course that’s revolting.
And sorry if I’m not a specialist like you.
Underwater cameras for officials would do so much for the sport. It would clean things up a lot. It would he great to see breaststroke be breaststroke again.
Too bad that probably won’t happen, so I guess we just have to hope that the people who are swimming by the rules triumph in the end.
Molly Hannis’ kick looks legal, no?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h01g8izG5yc
Concerned, Cody as well as many other elite breaststrokes do appear to dolphin kick every stroke. However, what you are actually seeing are the hips coming up alarmingly high from dropping the chest after shooting forward. This makes it look like the a dolphin kick is initiated but, in actuality it only the lower back and hips coming up after dropping the chest. Looking at MBALLENGER is a perfect example. When looking from above the water it appears to be a dolphin kick, but under water cameras confirm that it is not. Simply very good hip motion. Many other elite breaststrokers like Gyurta and Scott Weltz both do the same thing.
Pretty sure Zach Hayden isn’t Canadian…