U.S. International Team Trials: 400 IM Showdown, Dressel in 100 Freestyle Among Top Men’s Races
This week’s U.S. International Team Trials in Greensboro, N.C., might be missing some of the drama of a typical qualification meet. In the men’s breaststroke events, for instance, Olympian Andrew Wilson has retired, and others possible contenders including newcomer Matt Fallon are absent from the competition. Other events, such as anything Caeleb Dressel competes in, will have an obvious favorite for the top spot. But with spots on the World Championships team on the line, that means we will undoubtedly see some hotly-contested battles to determine the pecking order in the United States for 2022 and for the start of the shortened leadup to the Paris Olympics.
We have already previewed the top women’s races set for this week, so here is what we should expect to stand out on the men’s side:
100 Freestyle
Caeleb Dressel — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
He is the two-time world champion and the Olympic gold medalist, not to mention the only man to swim under 47 seconds in the 100 free since full-body polyurethane suits were banned at the end of 2009. Caeleb Dressel is the man in the 100 free, and his path to a third consecutive world title appears relatively clear with his fellow medal-winners from the Tokyo Olympics, Kyle Chalmers and Kliment Kolesnikov, both slated to miss Worlds. Dressel will not need to be in top form this week to qualify for Worlds in his usual slate of events. But this will be his Day One race, the chance to show where he stands heading into a busy week of racing, and to see what kind of show he can put on in a week when qualification is the main goal.
More importantly, though, will be how the Americans stack up behind Dressel. The U.S. has not lost the men’s 400 free relay since Dressel’s debut at the 2016 Olympics, but for the first time in a decade-and-a-half, a qualification meet will not feature Nathan Adrian behind the blocks for the blue-ribband event. In Tokyo, Zach Apple stepped up as a anchor swimmer for both the 400 free and medley relays, and he was brilliant on both occasions.
Olympian Blake Pieroni is out of action this year, but Bowe Becker returns from the Tokyo finals squad, and Brooks Curry showed massive improvements this college season after earning a surprise Olympic bid last year. 2016 Olympian Ryan Held just missed the Tokyo team thanks to a little-known rule allowing no more than 12 relay-only swimmers to qualify for the Games, but he is back after winning two individual silver medals at the Short Course World Championships.
Will there be any surprising names, veterans or youngsters emerging from the college scene, that can also get in on the World Championships relay action. Remember, this meet is prelims-finals only with no semifinals, so any swimmer earning top-eight finish in prelims will put themselves in position to make a relay bid at night if they can beat two other swimmers.
400 IM
At a quiet Sectionals meet in Austin, Texas, late last July, Carson Foster blasted a mark of 4:08.46 in the 400 IM, and that time made him the fastest swimmer in the world. Less than 48 hours later, American swimmers Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland finished first and second, respectively, in the 400 IM final at the Tokyo Olympics — the fourth U.S. 1-2 finish in the last six Games — but no one in Tokyo swam faster than Foster had. Now, Foster gets his chance to earn a spot the top U.S. international squad for the first time.
Foster did compete at the Short Course World Championships in December, and he earned a silver medal in the 200 IM and a bronze in the 400 IM, and he finished his sophomore season racing for the University of Texas at last month’s NCAA Championships. Foster posted some quick swims in prelims, but he struggled to match those times in finals. In the 400-yard IM, Hugo Gonzalez and Leon Marchand finished well ahead of the 20-year-old from Cincinnati.
Returning to long course this week in Greensboro, Foster is the top seed in the 400 IM. Kalisz is entered in the race, but it’s not clear if he plans to swim this one. He has not raced a long course 400 IM since Tokyo. Litherland and Bobby Finke will be in the field, and both are known for sensational finishing splits on the freestyle leg. Litherland has come from behind to qualify for the Olympic team in the 400 IM at two straight Olympic Trials, running down Ryan Lochte in 2016 before pulling the same comeback on Foster last year.
400 Freestyle
Kieran Smith — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The 400 free has not been a very deep event for the U.S. over the past decade. In fact, only one swimmer cleared the “A” cut for the Tokyo Games during the Olympic Trials final last year. But that setback paved the way for one of the most exciting moments of the eight-day meet in Omaha when runnerup Jake Mitchell swam a time trial by himself at the end of an evening session and chopped more than two seconds off his best time to earn a spot on the Olympic team. Mitchell later qualified for the Olympic final in this event.
The headliner here is, of course, Kieran Smith, who swam an excellent race in the Tokyo final to stick with a more-accomplished field and score a bronze medal. Smith is coming off a difficult meet at the NCAA Championships when he fell to fifth place in the 500-yard free (where he is the fastest swimmer in history) before taking fourth in two other individual events. Smith will not need to return to the 3:43-range in order to win in Greensboro, but a time that quick would be necessary for a medal run at the World Championships.
The second spot behind Smith is completely open. Mitchell is missing this meet after he did not score at the NCAA Championships and then announced a transfer from Michigan to Florida. So who takes it? Trey Freeman is the only swimmer in the field aside from Smith seeded under 3:48, while NC State’s Ross Dant placed a close third in the 400 free at Olympic Trials, finishing just 0.13 behind Mitchell. Carson Foster is throwing his hat into the ring here, and so is Bobby Finke, the Olympic champion in the 800 and 1500 free. Also worth watching is Texas freshman Luke Hobson, who was a revelation this college season and ended up finishing third in the 500-yard free at NCAAs.
Georgia’s Jake Magahey, the NCAA runnerup in the 500 free and the NCAA champion in 2021, is not entered in the meet. Magahey has yet to translate his success in the short course pool to the 50-meter distance.
100 Backstroke
There is something special about the U.S. men and the 100 backstroke. On numerous occasions, the third-place finisher at Olympic Trials would have been a medal contender at the Olympics: Ryan Lochte (and Randall Bal) in 2008, David Plummer in 2012 and defending gold medalist Matt Grevers in 2016. Meanwhile, the unlucky third-place man in 2021 was Shaine Casas, and he went on to capture the short course world title in the 100 backstroke in December.
Casas moved his training base to Austin, Texas, this spring, and he has continued his strong run of success with impressive swims on the TYR Pro Swim Series. In Greensboro, he will compete against Ryan Murphy, the Olympic champion in the 100 back in 2016 and the bronze medalist last year, as well as surprising Olympic Trials runnerup Hunter Armstrong, who has swum as fast as 52.48 and recently completed a strong junior season at Ohio State.
Veteran Justin Ress also enters with a sub-53 seed time, and also keep an eye on 16-year-old Daniel Diehl. Diehl dropped his best time by more than a second last month to 53.65, and while he may be a year away from really contending on the national level, that is rare backstroke speed indicative of massive future potential.
