Santa Clara Grand Prix - June 12 Finals - 100m Fly & 200m Back

100m Fly

Ryan placed 2nd in the 100 Fly with a time of 52.84, his personal best in this event by .02! It's also exactly 1 second faster than the 53.84 he swam at the Missouri Grand Prix, the last time he swam this event. Ryan should be happy with this result.

Masayuki Kishida, who also came in first in the 100 fly in Missouri, won with a time of 52.43. Ricky Berens came in third with a time of 53.00.

I'm so happy for Ryan that he came in 2nd and swam a personal best time.

200 back

Because this is Ryan's best event, it is always nerve-wracking to watch him swim it. Tonight was no different. He was in 2nd place the entire race until the last 50 when he had a fantastic turn and shot out ahead of Ashley Delaney of Australia. As Rowdy Gains said about Ashley Delaney in the last lap, "It was like he was standing still." Ryan won with a time of 1:56.83, almost 2 seconds faster than Delaney.

Ryan said in the interview after the race that his coach wanted him to swim the last 50 in the same time he swam in Beijing. Obviously, I had to check to see if he did this....

Tonight's time in the last 50: 28.33

Beijing time in the last 50: 28.88

He actually went .55 faster than in Beijing. This is awesome. It suggests that Ryan was holding back in this event and could have gone much faster. I'm so much more excited for U.S. nationals now.

ETA: Links to videos for both races on www.swimnetwork.com:

200 back: http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090613/santa_clara_men_s_200m_back_a_final-16706.html

100 fly: http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090613/santa_clara_men_s_100m_fly_a_final-16694.html

Santa Clara Grand Prix - June 12 Prelims - 100 Fly & 200 Back

100m Fly

Ryan finished fourth in the prelims of the 100m fly with a time of 53.62. Not bad considering he was seeded 8th before the meet.

The top 3 finishers were Jason Dunford with a time of 53.25, Tyler McGill with a time of 53.46 and Albert Subirats with a time of 53.55. Also making the A final was Ricky Berens with a time of 53.68 and Matt Grevers with a time of 53.97.

All of these times were very close. It's going to be an exciting final.

200m Back

Ryan also finished fourth in the prelims of the 200m back with a time of 2:02.99. This is more than 9 seconds slower than his fastest time. I know he can go a lot faster in this event.

Finishing 1st was David Russell with a time of 2:01.31, 2nd was Ashley Delaney of Australia with a time of 2:01.50 and 3rd was Matt Hawes with a time of 2:02.52. Also making the A final were Eugene Godsoe, Rex Tullius (Ryan's training partner at UF) and Brian Johns of Canada.

I'm thinking the final will be all about Ashley Delaney and Ryan. It's going to be exciting.

The photo, from www.swimstars.org shows Ryan yesterday after he received his gold medal for the 400IM.

Santa Clara Grand Prix - June 11 Finals - 400IM and 100 breast

400IM Finals

First the good news....Ryan finished 1st in the 400 IM in a very exciting race. Here's a link to the video on swimnetwork.com. http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090612/santa_clara_men_s_400m_im_a_final-16671.html Robert Margalis came in 2nd. Ryan's time was 4:18.62 and Margalis' time was 4:18.84. It was very close at the end.

It was an exciting race, but the times weren't that great. 4:18 doesn't make the top 25 times in the world this year.

100 Breast Finals

Ryan won the B final in the 100 breast, but was disqualified. Here's the link to the video from swimnetwork.com. http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090612/santa_clara_men_s_100m_breast_b_final-16654.html As usual, I can't get it to embed. The video does not say why Ryan was DQ'd and I have not yet been able to figure out the reason.

In his post-race interview following the 400IM, Ryan said he is not swimming the 50 free tomorrow. Good move! He needs to conserve energy for the 200 back and 100 fly.

One other interesting note....Ryan was wearing an old fashioned speedo in the 400IM final and everyone else was wearing a fast suit. I love it.

Prelims of 100 breast and 400IM at Santa Clara Grand Prix

Today at the Santa Clara Grand Prix Ryan swam in the prelims for the 100 breast and the 400 IM. He was seeded 11th in the 100 breast and 1st in the 400IM. The meet setup has 9 swimmers in each heat. Thus, the swimmers with the top 9 times in prelims make the A finals, the next 9 make the B finals and the next 9 make the C finals.

100 Breast Prelim

Ryan finished 10th in the 100 breast with a time of 1:04.49, qualifying for the B final. Ryan missed the A final by only .04. Not bad for an event not considered one of his best.

400 IM Prelim

Ryan finished 3rd in the 400Im with a time of 4:23.79, qualifying for the A final. Robert Margalis was the top qualifyer with a time of 4:23.50 and Jordan Hartney of Canada qualified 2nd with a time of 4:23.66.

Results can be found here: http://competitive.santaclaraswimclub.org/Meets/2009International/Results/

Santa Clara Grand Prix - June 11-14, 2009 Psych Sheet

Ryan has entered in a mind-boggling 8 events at the Santa Clara Grand Prix. The question is whether he will actually swim in all of them. I won't be surprised if he scratches several events or only swims in the prelims. Here is his schedule:

100 Breast - Event 4 (Friday)
Ryan is seeded 11th with a time of 1:02.39.

400 IM - Event 8 (Friday)
Ryan is seeded 1st with a time of 4:06.08. Ryan's main competition in this event is Robert Margalis and Ryan's UF training partners Bradley Ally and Clark Burckle.

100 Fly - Event 14 (Saturday)
Ryan is seeded 8th with a time of 52.86.

200 Back - Event 18 (Saturday)
Ryan is seeded 1st with a time of 1:53.94. Other swimmers entered in this event are Hayden Stoeckel and Ashley Delaney of Australia. I'm really looking forward to seeing where Ryan is at in his best event. Hope he swims it and doesn't scratch.

50 Free - Event 20 (Saturday)
Ryan is seeded 37th with a time of 23.51. It's interesting that Ryan's fastest 50m underwater time (on his back!) is about a second faster.

100 Free - Event 26 (Sunday)
Ryan is seeded 6th with a time of 48.65. This event should be an indicator of whether Ryan is fast enough to make the 4 x 100 free relay. Other U.S. swimmers in this event are Michael Phelps, Matt Grevers and Nathan Adrian. It would be nice if Ryan could finish in the top 3.

200 IM - Event 28 (Sunday)
Ryan is seeded 1st with a time of 1:55.22. Ryan's main competition in this event is Alley, his training partner at UF. He should win easily.

100 Back - Event 30 (Sunday)
Ryan is seeded 5th with a time of 53.37. Lots of big names in this event: Phelps, Grevers, Ben Hesen, Peter Marshall, Stoeckel and Delaney. This is probably the premier event of the whole meet.

The sheer number of events Ryan has entered, and his high ranking in most of them, demonstrates not only his versatility but also that he is committed to swimming a large event schedule at U.S. Nationals.

The psych sheet can be found here:
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/e9a40c29-28d1-41e8-a02c-2c453eaaae43/Psych.pdf

U.S. Nationals - Start in exactly one month!!

Here is the schedule of events that Ryan may swim:

Tuesday - July 7, 2009

400 IM (prelims and finals) - Event 6

Wednesday - July 8, 2009

200 free (prelims and finals) - Event 9

100 back (prelims and finals) - Event 10

Thursday - July 9, 2009

nothing

Friday - July 10, 2009

100 free (prelims and finals) - Event 20

200 IM (prelims and finals) - Event 22

Saturday - July 11, 2009

200 back (prelims and finals) - Event 27

Ryan can potentially qualify in 6 individual events, but I think it will likely be 5, with him qualifying either in the 200 free or the 100 back but not both. It's really too bad that Ryan will likely have double events on Wednesday and Friday and nothing on Thursday. At least the day off in the middle will allow him to rest up for the 2nd half of the meet.

I really hope Ryan swims the 400 IM. I still think he and Tyler Clary can go 1-2 at the world championships, particularly since Laci Cseh has not swam this event all year.

Thanks to Caroline for finding the picture at http://jerryenglehart.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/getting-up-to-speed/

Laci Cseh and Ryosuke Irie results June 5-7

Ryosuke Irie and Laszlo Cseh recently competed in meets in Japan and Croatia and had good results. It's interesting to see where they are at in their training given that the world championships in Rome are only 7 weeks away.

Laci Cseh competed in a meet this weekend in Zagreb, Croatia. He won several events, including the 200m IM in a time of 2:01.31. Cseh also won the 200m fly and 200m free, with a time of 1:48.95. I could not find any results for the 400IM for this meet and am unsure if Cseh swam it.

Ryosuke Irie competed at the Japan Open and won the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke events. His time in the 200 back was 1:54.09, a very fast time but not close to the 1:52.86 he swam last month in Australia which, if ratified, broke Ryan Lochte's WR. For this weekend's swim, Irie was not wearing the Descente suit he wore when swimming the 1:52 as the suit was not approved by FINA.

Irie swam a 53.31 in the 100m back.

Irie said he was tired due to his training cycle, but was nevertheless disappointed in his times. We'll have to wait for Rome to find out if Irie can break the WRs in the 100 and 200 back while wearing an approved suit.

sources: http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/ and http://www.swimnews.com/