US Summer Nationals action keeps rolling tonight with finals of the 400 IM, 100 breast, and 100 back, featuring top teens, college stars, and Olympians. Current photo via Jack Spitser/Spitser Photography
David Johnston led a trio of NCAA swimmers who broke 3:50 in the 400 free on Day 4 of U.S Nats, one of the swims that you may have missed on the day.
After an epic battle in the women’s 400 IM, neither Katie Ledecky nor Leah Smith raced any of Day 4’s events. However, they did each time-trials events
16-year-old Nick Mahabir knocked a second off his own Singapore record from prelims, marking the 3rd time this year that the national record has been broken.
Katie Ledecky swam her long-awaited 200 fly time trial on Friday afternoon in Irvine, while Leah Smith put up a new lifetime best.
Michael Andrew is also slated to make his debut today, coming in as the top seed in the men’s 100 breast.
Jake Mitchell leads a men’s 400 free field crowded with NCAA stars, including two of his new Florida training partners on night 4 of finals at U.S Nats
Erin Gemmell of NCAP posted a 1:56.14 in the 200 free, putting her 10th in the world this year, a strong swim for the 17YO who’s never broken a NAG
Vargas came into the day with a best of 4:16.54, lowered that mark to a 4:14.27 in prelims, then took nearly another two seconds off of that time tonight.
July 29th, 2022 National, News, Previews & Recaps
US Summer Nationals keeps moving right along, and swims fans are in store for more exciting racing tonight. Check out the full finals preview here, but we’ll hit a few of the high points below.
There’s no Katie Ledecky in the women’s 400 free (she went 2:15.20 in a 200 fly time trial today), but it should still be a fun race, as top-seeded Erin Gemmell will swim against a mix of teenagers, college stars, and international swimmers. The men’s 400 free will have a distinctly NCAA flavor to it, and Olympian/Wolverine-turned-Gator Jake Mitchell will swim alongside Olympian/Gator duo Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke, alongside a Who’s-Who’s of other college distance stars.
Kaitlyn Dobler and Josh Matheny have lane 4 in the women’s and men’s 100 breast, respectively, after each put up some big swims this morning, 200 back champion Isabelle Stadden had the fastest time in the morning in the 100, and she’ll square off a field that include Rhyan White, an Olympian in this event. In the men’s 100 back, the top seed from this morning went to Worlds 50 back champion Justin Ress.
17 year-old Erin Gemmell of Nation’s Capital captured a National championship with a two-second victory tonight. Gemmell established an early lead and never was seriously challenged, touching in 4:06.17. Gemmell has improved her PB by nearly four seconds so far this season, going from 4:10.12 in December 2021 to 4:09.81 in April, then 4:08.69 in prelims. Her finals time moves her up to #8 all-time in the 17-18 age group.
Another 17 year-old Cavan Gormsen, of Long Island, maintained 2nd place from wire-to-wire, holding off Alabama’s Kensey McMahon at the end, touching 4:08.38 to 4:08.57. That was also a PB for Gormsen, improving on her 4:09.85 from last summer’s Olympic Trials. Likewise, McMahon hit her first bests in four years in this event today, improving from 4:10.46 to 4:09.39 in prelims before taking the better part of another second off of her time tonight.
Gemmell and Gormsen will both represent the US at next month’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
Olympic bronze medalist Kieran Smith set the pace early on, holding between a half second a whole second lead for the first 300m. Texas Longhorn David Johnston stayed the closest to him for the first half of the race, but SwimAtlanta/Georgia’s Jake Magahey moved up with a 28.78 split on the fifth 50, and continued to power forwards.
Meanwhile, Olympian Jake Mitchell roughly matched Magahey’s splits over the last 150, but he’d had to work himself up from 5th place at the 250m mark. He didn’t have quite enough in the tank to catch Magahey, who touched first in 3:46.36. That’s a new personal best for the 2021 NCAA Champion in the 500 yard free. Mictchell took 2nd in 3:46.59, followed by Smith at 3:48.48.
Both Magahey and Mitchell have reportedly been dealing with health issues, as has Florida’s Bobby Finke, who scratched the 1500 free Tuesday due to non-Covid related illness, but took 4th tonight in in 3:48.99.
Looking to defend her top seed from this morning, Kaitlyn Dobler, the reigning NCAA champion in the yards version of this event, took it out fast tonight, hitting the first wall in 31.47. But, Olivia Anderson was right there with her, only 0.03s behind at the 50m mark. Dobler kept it together on the back half, though, splitting 35.41 to Anderson’s 36.35 and winning 1:06.88 to 1:07.85.
That’s the 3rd-fastest time of Dobler’s career, coming in behind only a 1:06.19 from April’s US Trials and a 1:06.29 from Olympic Trials. The 25 year-old Anderson followed Dobler to a lifetime best, shaving 0.15s off of her previous best of 1:08.00 from 2016.
Australia’s Talara-Jade Dixon got her hands on the wall just ahead of Emma Weber, taking 3rd 1:08.15 to 1:08.16.
Just as in the women’s race, the top two men at the 50m mark finished first overall. This time, however, there, was a lead change in there. Texas Longhorn Caspar Corbeau, who represents the Netherlands internationally, took it out in 28.01. But top seed Josh Matheny was right there with him, touching in 28.21, with several other men right behind.
With 25m to go, it looked like there were several men in the race, but Matheny turned on the jets from there, powering home to a 59.44 victory. Matheny had been 1:00.32 or better six times before today, but hadn’t cracked the one-minute barrier until he went 59.68 in this morning’s prelims. Tonight’s time makes him the 11th-fastest US man in history.
Corbeau took 2nd in 59.91, the only man other than Matheny to finish in under a minute. Northwestern’s Kevin Houseman held off Long Island’s Jason Louser, who swims for Cal collegiately, to take 3rd, 1:00.24 to 1:00.30.
In the B-final final, 16 year-old Nick Mahabir set a new Singaporean record with a 1:00.37 to win the heat. American Record holder Michael Andrew finished 4th in the B-final with a 1:00.90; he finished 16th in prelims, but he and Matt Fallon avoided a swim-off after a scratch. Fallon took 3rd in 1:00.75.
Rhyan White flipped first at the 50, followed closely by Gretchen Walsh, 28.51 to 28.60. But White, who represented the US in this event in Tokyo, also had the 2nd-fastest second 50 in the field, closing in 30.40 to win in 58.91 as the only woman under 59.
Dutch star Kira Toussaint was 4th at the wall, but split 30.32 on the second 50 to take 2nd in 59.24. Cal’s Isabelle Stadden was 3rd at the wall, and kept it together on the back half to earn bronze in 59.55.
Walsh faded on the second 50, taking 5th in 1:00.03.
This promised to be a close race, and sure enough, the top three finishers all touched within 0.20s of each other.
Worlds 50 back champion Justin Ress touched first at the 50, flipping in 25.75, and he hung on to win in 53.55. In the post-race interview, Ress mentioned that he hadn’t had the “easiest month” since Worlds, including a bout of Covid.
Florida Gator Adam Chaney was 2nd at the 50, and he took 2nd in in a new best time of 53.68. UVA’s Jack Aikins touched 3rd at the 50, and he took bronze, also setting a new personal best in 53.75.
We like patterns, so we’ll point out that Lake Oswego’s Nick Simons, who’s heading to Tennessee, was 4th at the 50m mark…and he finished 4th overall, and like Chaney and Aikins, he set a new personal best time.
Nic Fink and Josh Matheny for 2024 Olympics and wipe MA out
Why the switch from listing the top 8 to only the top 3?
Whoops. Guess I was looking at something else, prelims most likely.
Matheny is an absolute beast, great guy too. Love his celebrations
Matheny hitting his stride again is great to see. He was so great in 2019 and has struggled the past few years.
MA looks like he is still on vacation
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