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Men’s 100 Free (Ryan Held)
For someone who helped the United States to 400 freestyle relay gold at the 2016 Olympic Games, Ryan Held was frustrated last summer when he failed to nail down a berth on Team USA for this summer’s World Championships. Rather than allow the experience to knock him down, Held has clearly been motivated. Breaking his own U.S. Open and meet record from prelims, Held captured the national title in the 100 freestyle with a time of 47.39. That effort would have placed third at the World Champs and will send Held into the Olympic year with confidence.
He is third in the world for 2019 behind Caeleb Dressel and Kyle Chalmers.
Held needed that sterling performance, as he was pushed to the wall by Maxime Rooney, who touched second in 47.61, and Tate Jackson, who grabbed third place in 47.88. A former standout for the University of Florida, Rooney transferred to the University of Texas and his work with coach Eddie Reese is clearly paying dividends. Along with Held, Rooeny also clocked sub-48 during the morning session. Rooney moved up to fifth in the world for 2019 while Jackson moved up to 10th. The Americans now have six of the ten fastest times in the world this year.
How much is Rooney benefiting from his move to Austin? Well, considering the second through fifth-place finishers were from Texas reveals the intensity of training sessions. Behind Jackson in fourth was Dean Farris (48.07) while Daniel Krueger was fifth in 48.55.
In sixth was Jack Conger (48.64), with seventh occupied by Robert Howard (48.71) and eighth going to Bowe Becker (49.00).
2019 World Rankings:
- 46.96, Caeleb Dressel, USA
- 47.08, Kyle Chalmers, AUS
- 47.39, Ryan Held, USA
- 47.43, Vladislav Grinev, RUS
- 47.61, Maxime Rooney, USA
- 47.68, Marcelo Chierighini, BRA
- 47.79, Zach Apple, USA
- 47.87, Blake Pieroni, USA
- 47.87, Duncan Scott, GBR
- 47.88, Tate Jackson, USA
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