Leon Marchand, Gretchen Walsh, NCAA Stars Return to Long Course at TYR Pro Swim Series San Antonio (Psych Sheet)
Many of the top collegiate swimmers who excelled at the women’s and men’s NCAA Championships last month will begin their Olympic racing season in earnest with top-level long course competition at the TYR Pro Swim Series in San Antonio, Texas. This meet will be the last full-national meet on USA Swimming’s circuit prior to Olympic Trials this June in Indianapolis.
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The top performers from both the women’s and men’s meets will be in San Antonio, with the University of Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh set to race the 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle, the long course versions of the four events in which she swam the fastest short course times ever this college season, while Arizona State star Leon Marchand will race long course for the first time in 2024 as he prepares for a home Olympics in Paris. Marchand will swim the 200 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 breaststroke and 200 IM. He is the reigning world champion in all except the 200 breast.
On the women’s side, Katie Ledecky will compete in her usual slate of freestyle events, with the 200 through 1500-meter races, plus the 200 IM, and she will race Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Haughey and NCAA champion Bella Sims in the 200 free. Haughey will also have to deal with the American sprint contingent of Walsh, Kate Douglass, Torri Huske, Abbey Weitzeil, Simone Manuel and others in the 100 free, and fresh off her first-ever international in breaststroke at the February World Championships, Haughey will race world-record holder Lilly King, Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby and fellow standouts Kaitlyn Dobler and Anna Elendt in the 100 breast.
Regan Smith, who shined at the last stop of the Pro Series in Westmont, Ill., highlights the 200 butterfly and both backstroke events, with NCAA champions Emma Sticklen (200 fly), Phoebe Bacon (200 back) and Katharine Berkoff (100 back) all racing their events as well as Claire Curzan in both backstroke events. Curzan and Smith will also factor into the 100 fly, expected to be one of the deepest events at the upcoming Olympic Trials. Huske, Walsh and Douglass round out the list of five swimmers with sub-57 best times.
In the IM events, world champions Douglass and Alex Walsh will head the field over 200 meters while Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant will try to build off her most successful collegiate season thus far.
For the men, Marchand will be the headliners while Caeleb Dressel is entered in the 50, 100 and 200 free plus 100 fly as he tries to build off a strong Westmont meet. Also out of the University of Florida pro group, freestylers Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith will be the top contenders in their events, with Smith among the many top 200 freestylers racing in San Antonio as they prepare to chase Olympic individual and relay spots. NCAA champion Luke Hobson, Drew Kibler, Carson Foster, Jake Mitchell and Blake Pieroni are among the standouts. Austrian Felix Aubock also figures into the mid-distance and distance freestyle races.
Speaking of relay spots, the very first men’s final of the meet will be the 100 free, with Dressel, Pieroni, Ryan Held, Chris Guiliano, Matt King, Macguire McDuff and Jonny Kulow among the Americans who will be in contention for top-six finishes at Olympic Trials.
It was a mixed meet at the Doha World Championships for Foster, but he will race a full slate in San Antonio as he prepares to go for his first Olympic team. Foster is entered in the 200 and 400 free, 200 back, 200 fly and both IM events. The 200 fly should be a compelling race with Marchand, Foster and Ilya Kharun all World Championship finalists, and the medley races feature some of the world’s best in Marchand, Foster and Chase Kalisz, with Finke and Jay Litherland in the 400 IM and teenage star Maximus Williamson racing the 200 IM.
200 backstroke world champion Hubert Kos will be in the field, setting up an interesting race against 50 back world champ Hunter Armstrong in the 100-meter distance. Nic Fink will be racing his usual breaststroke events, and Michael Andrew is entered in the 50 free, the 100-meter races of fly, back and breast as well as the 200 IM.
Find more meet information here.