As the international portion of the Gator Swim Club was racing out in Santa Clara this weekend, the main American group was taking a much more low-key meet in at their home-team hosted GSC Summer Invite that began Sunday and will run through Tuesday.
This meet is flying; much like we saw in Austin, this is showing a bit of a rebellion by pro swimmers against the gigantic super-meets that have hours-upon-hours of preliminary sessions. Reports from on deck are that each prelims and final are lasting about an hour.
On the first day of finals, Ryan Lochte eschewed the two events most likely to be on his Olympic schedule (the 200 free and the 400 IM) in favor of a simple 100 breaststroke and 100 fly double. This is a sign that he's comfortable with his training at this point of the season, and is just trying to work out very-specific kinks in his swimming.
He won that 100 breast in 1:03.87, beating fellow Gators Richard Munch (1:04.10) and Matthew Elliott (1:04.68). That's actually an outstanding time at this meet; consider that it's more than a second better than he was three weeks out of last year's World Championships.
He also took the win in the 100 fly in 54.48, which is right about where he's been when he's swum this event this season. Bolles' Joe Schooling, who is an outstanding young 16-year old butterflier that represents Singapore internationally, was 2nd in 54.91. Marcin Cieslak was 3rd in 55.25, though without swimming Polish Nationals, and coming out of a college season, he should be about as beat-up as we would see from someone like Lochte in February or March. Not a very good time, but similarly not a cause for concern either.
In the women's 200 free, Elizabeth Beisel looked like she might still be flirting with the idea of going after a relay spot, after winning in 2:01.13, which is three seconds faster than we saw her in Charlotte in May.
In the men's 200 free, absent Lochte, IX3′s Charlie Houchin took a big win in 1:48.93. His times have been extremely consistent this season around 1:48-high or 1:49-low; even more consistent than when he was training regularly with Sean Hutchison in Fullerton. That could be a good sign for him.
Gator Swim Club's Conor Dwyer took 2nd in 1:49.12, and Peter Vanderkaay didn't look great with a 3rd-place time of 1:51.98.
Ariana Kukors won the women's 100 fly in 1:01.35, ahead of Icelandic Florida Gator Sarah Bateman (1:02.59) – who just locked up her Olympic qualification at the European Championships. That's not a great time for Kukors, but it's not terrible either.
Auburn commit Alex Merritt was 4th in 1:03.01, which is as fast as she's been this far before her big championship meet. In the B-Final of this race, Ellese Zalewski, who had to miss NCAA's to head back home for Australian Trials, had a very good 1:01.92. Beisel was 2nd in the B-Final in 1:03.54.
Other Day 1 Winners
- Sebastien Rousseau took the men's 400 IM in 4:25.62, followed by Dan Wallace in 4:28.16.
- Florida Gator Jordan Smith won the women's 400 IM in 4:55.41 – a best time by two-and-a-half seconds. Nova's Rebecca Ranier was 2nd in 4:57.97.
- Bolles' Meghan Haila won the women's 100 breaststroke in 1:12.20, which is a top-12 time in the 15-16 age group this season.
Full Meet Results not available online, but are on the MeetMobile app.