U.S. Nationals: Jake Mitchell, Erin Gemmell Lead the Way in 400 Freestyle Heats
In 2021, Jake Mitchell was one of the most unlikely qualifiers foLur the U.S. Olympic team. He finished second in the 400 freestyle final but did not hit the automatic qualifying standard for the Games, but a few days later, he dropped more than two seconds in a solo time trial to clinch his spot in Tokyo. Mitchell later qualified for the Olympic final in the event. But after a disappointing sophomore year NCAA Championships, Mitchell skipped April’s International Team Trials and chose to transfer to Florida. Now, he looks to again be one of the top 400 freestylers in the country.
Mitchell posted the top-qualifying mark in prelims at 3:49.90, about 4.5 seconds off his best time of 3:45.38. He will be at the center of a deep field of mid-distance swimmers in the final. The last heat of the event saw Kieran Smith, the Olympic bronze medalist in this event and now Mitchell’s training partner at Florida, finish in 3:50.48, just ahead of Swim Atlanta’s Jake Magahey (3:50.53) and The Swim Team’s David Johnston (3:50.58). Magahey was the NCAA champion in the 500-yard free in 2021 and the runnerup this year.
Luke Hobson will chase the 400 free title after winning the 200 free against a deep field Wednesday. Hobson, a sophomore-to-be at the University of Texas, qualified fifth in 3:51.10, while 1500 free winner Will Gallant of NC State took sixth in 3:51.38. Two other Olympians qualified for the outside lanes in the final: 800 and 1500 free gold medalist Bobby Finke (3:52.03) and Cal’s Patrick Callan (3:52.10).
Following an impressive second-place finish behind Katie Ledecky in the 200 free, Nation’s Capital’s Erin Gemmell will be in the hunt to win a national crown in Ledecky’s absence in the 400 freestyle. Gemmell considers the 400 free her second-best event behind the 200 free, and she showed some of that 200 speed in the early going as she went out in 58.49 over the first 100 meters, the fastest split in the field by more than a second-and-a-half. Gemmell slowed after that, but she held tough as three others in her heat, Alabama’s Kensey McMahon, Cavalier’s Claire Tuggle and Australia’s Maddy Gough, closed the gap.
Gemmell got to the wall in 4:08.69, with McMahon (4:09.39), Tuggle (4:09.51) and Gough (4:10.03) coming in just behind her. The top four qualifying times all came from the final. Gemmell dropped a little more than a second off her seed time, while Tuggle took off almost six seconds. Tuggle was third behind Ledecky and Gemmell in Wednesday’s 200 free.
Long Island’s Cavan Gormsen, the fourth-place finisher in the 200 free, qualified fifth here in 4:10.32, while Indiana’s Mariah Denigan (4:11.18), Scottsdale’s Sierra Schmidt (4:13.14) and Long Island’s Chloe Stepanek (4:14.37) also qualified for the final.
