Leon Marchand Among College Swimmers Joining Ledecky and Co. at TYR Pro Swim Series Westmont
Fresh off a dominant performance at the NCAA Men’s Championships where he swam the fastest yards times in history in the 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 breaststroke, Leon Marchand will make his 2023 long course racing debut at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Ill., next weekend alongside a handful of other top collegians plus the majority of U.S. professional swimmers.
Marchand will be one of seven individual gold medalists from last year’s World Championships racing in Westmont, joining Americans Katie Ledecky, Ryan Murphy, Bobby Finke, Lilly King, Regan Smith and Nic Fink. The meet will run from Wednesday, April 12 through Saturday, April 15.
Click here to view the full psych sheet for Westmont.
Marchand will race both individual medley events as well as the 200 breast and 200 butterfly. In the 400 IM, he will again face off with Americans Carson Foster and Chase Kalisz, who joined him on the medal podium at last year’s World Championships, and Shaine Casas will join Marchand in the 200 IM after posting the second-fastest time in the world last year, his 1:55.26 sitting just two hundredths behind Marchand’s 1:55.24.
Ledecky’s lineup for Westmont includes the 800 freestyle, 400 IM, 400 free, 200 IM and 100 free, with the 200 and 1500-meter freestyle races off her program this time. Ledecky swam the fastest time in history in the 1650-yard freestyle last month. Murphy leads the way in all three backstroke events, with Casas and Hunter Armstrong (50 and 100 only) joining him in the races. Murphy also is scheduled to contest the 50 and 100 fly. King and Fink will race their usual breaststroke slates, and Finke has the 400, 800 and 1500 free along with the 400 IM and 200 back.
Smith will be in all three backstroke events as well as the 100 and 200 fly. The women’s 200 back could be one of the most intriguing races of the week as Smith races against 2022 World Championships runnerup Phoebe Bacon for the first time since last April’s International Team Trials, where Bacon and Rhyan White grabbed the two spots on the World Championships team and denied the then-world-record holder (Smith) a chance to race the event in Budapest. But since then, Smith has been resurgent in the 200 back, with multiple 2:05 efforts this season.
The women’s sprint events will feature Abbey Weitzeil, off to a strong start in 2023 after missing the Worlds team in 2022, along with Simone Manuel, Erika Brown and Natalie Hinds. The collection of pros on the psych sheet includes Kieran Smith, Leah Smith, Michael Andrew, Annie Lazor, Olivia Smoliga and Jay Litherland. High-school age standouts Erin Gemmell and Leah Hayes, a native of the Chicago area, are also listed to compete.
The college swimmers making their first long course appearances since NCAAs include athletes from the top three teams at the recent men’s championships: Destin Lasco, Gabriel Jett, Bjorn Seeliger, Hugo Gonzalez and Jack Alexy are among those from the two-time champion California Golden Bears while Grant House and Hubert Kos join Marchand from the Arizona State contingent.
Texas will send both women and men to the meet, with Carson Foster, Luke Hobson, Lydia Jacoby, Anna Elendt, Kelly Pash, Emma Sticklen and Erica Sullivan all entered. Other top women returning from the college ranks to 50-meter swimming include Wisconsin’s Bacon and NC State’s Katharine Berkoff.
Full meet information from USA Swimming is available here.