Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel Set to Headline Next Pro Series Stop; Morning Finals Planned
In two weeks, all eyes will turn from the college swimming to pro swimming world as the 2021 Pro Swim Series continues with its Mission Viejo stop. The meet will take place from April 8-11 at Marguerite Aquatics Center in Mission Viejo, California and will feature evening preliminaries and morning finals to mimic what will be seen at this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Katie Ledecky will swim the 200 freestyle instead of the 800 freestyle on the first day of the meet. The Olympic gold medalist will be the top seed at 1:54.59, but will be part of a loaded field that includes Allison Schmitt, Simone Manuel, Katie McLaughlin, Leah Smith and Hali Flickinger.
Ledecky is also scheduled to swim the 100 free, 400 free and 1500 free in Mission Viejo. She is seeded 13th in the 100 free and the top seed in the rest of her events. Caeleb Dressel is scheduled to swim the 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 free and 200 IM. He is the top seed in the sprints and the butterfly.
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Many of the top U.S. men’s swimmers, including Michael Andrew, Zach Apple, Nathan Adrian, Ryan Murphy, Matt Grevers, Ryan Lochte, Jordan Wilimovsky, Zane Grothe, Nic Fink, Andrew Seliskar and Andrew Wilson will compete in this stop of the Pro Swim Series, as well as international star Bruno Fratus.
On the women’s side, in addition to the stacked 200 free, swimmers scheduled to compete include U.S. stars Lilly King, Molly Hannis, Annie Lazor, Madisyn Cox, Olivia Smoliga, Kathleen Baker, Mallory Comerford, Melanie Magralis, Abbey Weitzeil and Kelsi Dahlia, plus international stars Beryl Gastaldello and Kasia Wasick.
Several NCAA Swimmers are slated to compete in the meet, switching to long course within weeks of competing at the NCAA Championships. Cal’s contingent, which includes Reece Whitley, Trenton Julian, Hugo Gonzalez, Sean Grieshop, Zach Yeadon and Destin Lasco, will be joined by Louisville’s Nicolas Albiero, Arizona’s Brooks Fail and more.
For the women, a number of recent NCAA champions, including Stanford’s Brooke Forde, Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon, Cal’s Isabel Ivey and Alabama’s Rhyann White and Kalia Antoniou are slated to compete in this edition of the Pro Swim Series.
