Day two finals at the Mel Zajac International started off with a big win for Missy Franklin. Franklin swam a 209.57 to take the win over a tough field which included her Cal teammate Elizabeth Pelton who finished second in 2:10.89. That time for Franklin was the ninth fastest time in the world this year. Genevieve Cantin holds the eighth fastest time this year for the time she swam at trials; tonight she finished third behind Pelton in 2:10.89. Cascade Swim Club’s Brooklynn Snodgrass finished fourth in 2:13.85.
Russell Wood took absolute control of the mens 200m backstroke final winning the event in 2:02.12 almost three full seconds faster than second place finisher Markus Thormeyer. Up-and-coming freestyle sprinter from Cascade Swim Club, Yuri Kisil, finished fifth in the final in 2:08.29. Evan White who’s shown huge improvements this year and will be competing next year with the Michigan Wolverines finished eighth in 2:10.57.
The womens 100m breaststroke final looked as though it would be one of the closest of the night after the top seven qualifiers were all within six tenths of a second from each other this morning. Tera Van Beilen took the race in 1:10.09 over top qualifier Kierra Smith who finished second in 1:10.84. Erin Stamp finished behind her in 1:11.19 to round out the top three. Martha McCabe who missed a large portion of the season due to an injury finished eighth in the final with a time of 1:12.46.
The mens 100m breaststroke final wasn’t nearly as close as the womens as Richard Funk made sure to separate himself from the rest of the field. Funk swam a 1:02.48 to win the final, just shy of the time he swam this morning in prelims. Funk swam in a similar fashion at trials a few weeks back where his prelims and finals swims were almost identical times.
Missy Franklin picked up her second win of the night in 2:00.03 over her closest competitor Samantha Cheverton. Franklin and Cheverton were extremely close to each other at the 150m mark, but Franklin’s last 50m separated her from Cheverton giving her the win. Cheverton finished second in 2:00.95 followed by Alyson Ackman in 2:01.42.
Coleman Allen won the mens 200m freestyle over Keegan Zanatta and Stefan Milosevic. Milosevic had the lead going into the last 50m but both Zanatta and Allen passed him, Allen taking the win in 1:52.31 over Zanatta’s 1:52.49. Milosevic finished just behind Zanatta in 1:52.55.
Noemie Thomas took a huge win over some of her Canadian butterfly rivals by taking home the gold in the 50m fly touching in at 27.02. Farida Osman from Cal finished second in 27.33. Sandrina Mainville, Katerina Savard, and Audrey Lacroix finished behind Osman in that order. Thomas finished third in this event at the Canadian trials a few weeks ago behind winner Mainville and silver medallist Savard.
Michigan Wolverine swimmer Geoff Cheah just out-touched his teammate Sean Fletcher 24.81 to 24.84 to grab the gold in the mens 50m fly. The two were the only swimmers to dip under the 25 second barrier tonight, Kyle Troskot finished third in 25.14 behind Fletcher.
Caitlin Leverenz swimming out of Cal won the womens 400m IM in 4:42.81 in an impressive swim. Leverenz is currently sitting 20th in the world rankings in the 400m IM after the 4:41.56 she threw down at the Austin Grand Prix in January. Celina Li finished second in 4:50.00 just ahead of Canadian freestyle swimmer and Georgia Bulldog Brittany MacLean who touched in third at 4:51.41.
Etobicoke’s Tristan Cote took down Luke Reilly in the 400m IM with a 4:29.46 being the only swimmer under 4:30. Reilly finished second in 4:31.24, Oakville’s Mack Darragh was third in 4:32.23.
Most notably missing from tonights finals was Hilary Caldwell. According to a representative at Swimming Canada head coach at Island Swimming Randy Bennett took his swimmers out of the competition this morning to focus on training back in Victoria. The plan was to have the swimmers train through the meet, but this option seemed to suit their needs better.
For full meet results click here.
The other US swimming female big star, Katie Ledecky, swims at the Virginia state long course championships this weekend with other great NCAP talents like Isabella Rongione, Andrew Seliskar, Janet Hu or Cassidy Bayer.
Psych sheet
http://www.pvswim.org/1314meet/14-71-psych.pdf
If I remember well an interview in Mesa, Miss Ledecky said she would swim at local meets and at a meet in Texas in June (Texas senior circuit series?) before the US nationals.
Link to live results. But it doesn’t work for me so far.
http://www.potomacmarlins.com/MEETS/VSLC/%3Chttp://www.pvswim.org/realtime/2014VaStateLC/%3E.
It’s hard to compare Missy’s performances at that meet with those she usually swam with Todd Schmitz in the past years at Grand Prix meets. She used to swim in-season around 1.57/1.58 in the 200 free and 2.08 in the 200 back. But she was probably more rested. Now she has another coach and another training methods. And she swam in college from September to March. So 2.09 and 2.00 with not much rest are good times in my opinion.
So she’s added time and the exact reason is unknown? Shouldn’t her current training regime be questioned?
why do you assume she is more tired with Teri than with Todd?
Missy churned out a respectable in-season 54.65 to anchor the Bears to the win in the 400 free relay.