Ryan swam in the prelims of the 100 free and the 200 IM at US nationals this morning. Here are the results:100m free:
Ryan had the 2nd fastest time in the morning prelims, a personal best of 48.16. I wanted so badly for him to go 47 something, but 48.16 is really fast. Only Nathan Adrian went faster with a time of 48.10. I don't think Ryan will swim the finals of this event, so hopefully 48.16 is fast enough to secure a spot on the 4 x 100 free relay in Rome.
The big news is Michael Phelps dropped out of the 100 free with a stiff neck. Apparently he wanted to race but his doctor & coach told him no. He will no doubt still be on the 4 x 100 free relay at the US national team coach's option. It would be crazy to leave him off the relay given he is one of the fastest if not the fastest American in this event when healthy and he has tons of experience on the relay.
The top prelim times in the 100 free were:
1 ADRIAN Nathan - 48.10
2 LOCHTE Ryan - 48.16
3 TARGETT Matthew - 48.17* (Australian - will swim in B final)
4 WALTERS David - 48.46
5 WEBERGALE Garrett - 48.52
6 BRUNELLI Nicholas - 48.73
7 JONES Cullen - 48.74
8 BERENS Ricky - 48.83
9 FEIGEN Jimmy - 48.84
10 BROWN Adam - 48.97
Given that Matt Target is Australian and cannot swim in the A final, Jimmy Feigen will move up. I expect Adam Brown will also move up to the A final when Ryan drops out. It's hard to bet against Nathan Adrian and Dave Walters is having such a good meet, but I've got to go with Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones finishing 1-2 in the final tonight.
Notably, Cesar Cielo and Fred Bousquet did not finish in the top 8, swimming just fast enough to qualify for the B final. They both took it easy presumably because as foreign nationals the B final was the best they could do. Watch for them both to be very fast in tonight's finals.
200m IM
I did not get to see Ryan's race against Tyler Clary in this morning's 200 IM prelims due to work, but I heard it was a lot like the 400 IM. Tyler led through the fly, back & breast and Ryan put it into the next gear and cruised by him in the freestyle, winning by 1.56 seconds with a time of 1:57.05. Interestingly, Ryan's prelim time was the 2nd fastest time in 2009 by only .02!
The top 8 finishers were:
1 LOCHTE Ryan - 1:57.05
2 CLARY Tyler - 1:58.61
3 SHANTEAU Eric - 1:59.37
4 BROWN Jack - 1:59.94
5 D'INNOCENZO Nicholas - 2:01.43
6 COLLINS Bryan - 2:01.76
7 THOMPSON Matthew - 2:01.82
8 MARGALIS Robert - 2:02.19
Here's my bold prediction for tonight. I think Ryan is going to break the world record in this event, or at least come very close. After reviewing the schedule for world championships, I am changing my prediction from yesterday. The 200 IM is on the same day as the 200 back in Rome and it will be swum second, just like at the Olympics. I don't think Ryan will be able to break the WR in Rome when the race will be the 2nd swim in an extremely tough double. Thus, this is his big chance to do it. He needs a 1:54.23, which is nearly a second faster than his personal best of 1:55.22. I think he can do it. I think Tyler Clary pushes him and finishes 2nd.
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