Santa Clara Grand Prix - June 14 Prelims - 100 Free & 100 Back

The picture of Ryan's gold medal in the 200 back is from http://www.swimstars.org/

100 Free
Ryan's prelim time in the 100 free was 50.00, good enough for 3rd fastest. The A finals are going to be so exciting as times for all 9 qualifiers were so close together.

Here's the A final for tonight:

1 Hayden, Brent 49.34
2 Adrian, Nathan G 49.85
3 Lochte, Ryan S 50.00
4 Brown, Adam T 50.01
5 Burnett, Simon A 50.03
6 Walters, David W 50.04
7 Phelps, Michael F 50.07
8 Grevers, Matthew C 50.09
9 Monk, Kenrick 50.15

100 Back
The 100 back prelims were almost as close as the 100 free. Ryan swam a 55.46, which tied with Michael Phelps for 4th fastest qualifying time (they were in different heats). The A final looks like this:

1 Grevers, Matthew C 55.15
2 Russell, David P 55.43
3 Delaney, Ashley 55.44
4 Lochte, Ryan S 55.46
4 Phelps, Michael F 55.46
6 Barnea, Guy M 55.83
7 Hesen, Benedict E 56.04
8 Hawes, Matt 56.09
9 Wollach, Pascal D 56.44

Peter Marshall just missed out on thet A final with a time of 56.64. It's too bad. I wanted to see him compete against Ryan ever since he broke Ryan's SC world record last fall.

200 IM
Ryan scratched the 200 IM. At first I was disappointed, but then I reconsidered. He already knows where he's at in that event because he swam it at the Ultraswim. Now he'll be able to conserve energy for the 100 free and 100 back.

In other news, Laszlo Cseh swam at the Mare Nostrum meet in Monte Carlo this weekend, winning the 200 fly and the 200 IM. His time in the 200 IM was 2:00.31. It looks like Laci did not swim the 400 IM. I'm wondering if he has given up on that event like Michael Phelps. If he has, it makes him more dangerous in the 200 IM.

Also, Paul Biedermann of Germany swam a 1:44.88 in the 200 free. That's insane. Ryan's swam the 200 free faster than that in a relay but not from a flat start.

Thanks to http://www.swimnews.com/ for the Mare Nostrum information.