Men’s 200 Freestyle – 2013 World Championships Trails – as reported by swimswam editor-in-chief Braden Keith:
Ryan Lochte continues to play his meet perfectly, cruising through prelims and then blowing-up in finals. He led the men’s 200 free final wire-to-wire into a 1:45.97 – the 5th-best time in the world in 2013. He looked understandably tired, but not totally exhausted as we’ve seen him at some of the Grand Prix meets this year, which will be key headed into his second event, the 200 back, later in the session.
Conor Dwyer continued to excel after making the move to swim with Bob Bowman at NBAC, taking 2nd in a personal best time of 1:46.25. His development will continue to be key to the Americans retaining their crown in the 800 free relay with no Phelps. He now sits 7th in the world, as the Americans, Russian, French, and Chinese all have two swimmers in the top 10.
Those two will be joined on the 800 free relay in Barcelona by Virginia’s Matt McLean, who was 3rd in 1:46.78. As discussed in prelims, he and Charlie Houchin (4th – 1:47.36) both had similar best times in this race, and whichever one could go a PB in finals would mark the edge.
Ricky Berens sits 5th in 1:47.43, which will leave him on the bubble for World Championship qualifying. Thus far, the men’s races have not been as kind for the relay alternates, who have the lowest priorities for Worlds selection, in terms of roster size. The good news is that Berens was 5th in the 100 free as well, so the chances for him making the team look marginally better. 6th-place finisherConnor Jaeger was yet another lifetime best of 1:47.60; he’s already on the team in the 1500, and so will be part of a pool available for selection in the 800 free relay.
Jaeger’s training partners Michael Klueh (1:47.66) and Michael Wynalda (1:48.76) rounded out the A-Final; both finished their races very well, but were in too much of a deficit.
Texas’ Clay Youngquist won the B-Final in 1:48.99, and Bolles’ Caeleb Dressel capped his meet with a 1:49.83 tie-for-victory with Gunnar Bentz in the C-Final. For Dressel, that was only about four-tenths off of a third National Age Group Record of the meet.
Video edited by Coleman Hodges.
Great Guy , well composed and ready to go faster . With Yannick and Bob Bowman , he should be able to go to 1.45 or even 1.44 one day …..i bet on that !
Would be cool to see Connor go a 1:45.5 or lower at worlds, because Lochte ain’t dippin down there! It’s too bad Dwyer didn’t have more training time with Yannick as I’m sure that would have made a big difference.
Question is, now that he’s on the team and he finished 7th in the 100 free, will they use him in prelims and rest three guys?