PHOENIX, Arizona, May 12. ON today's Race Day Swimming World correspondent David Rieder analyzes the races on the fourth and final night of finals at the Arena Grand Prix in Charlotte, North Carolina, known as the Charlotte UltraSwim.
The night kicked off with an exciting 800 freestyle race between Mission Viejo's Chloe Sutton and Gator Andreina Pinto. It took a powerfully timed surge in the final 15 meters, but Sutton negative split her swim by three seconds to hold off Pinto for Sutton's second win of the meet.
Although Ryan Lochte was leading in the front half of the race in the men's 200 IM, he got caught in the second half, instead slipping to third behind NBAC's Chase Kalisz and Bolles' Joseph Schooling. Kalisz completed a medley sweep with a near lifetime best in the finale by smoking the rest of the field on the breaststroke leg. It was a similar story in the men's 200 backstroke, with Lochte slipping to third once again behind Murphy and Jack Conger.
The distance freestyles this evening proved to have some of the most exciting races of the night. Following a head-to-head battle between Chloe Sutton and Andreina Pinto, Michigan's Connor Jaeger held off a surging Michael McBroom of Texas for his third title this meet and a sweep of the distance events.
Be sure to visit the Grand Prix landing page for video interviews, recaps and previews from Charlotte!
