Session 1 Prelims Recap

Just a few bullet thoughts about this morning's preliminary session in Omaha

Men's 400 IM

The favorites, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, looked like they were taking a bath coming home in their respective swims. Robert Margalis had a strong swim at 4:15 but doesn't look as if he will threaten the leaders. The biggest surprise was Pat Mellors, a year removed from his strong 4:12 swim that led him to take a year off from school to train specifically for this meet. Pat ended up with a time of 4:24.

Women's 100 Fly

Looking at the psyche sheet, the women's 100 fly was an event with little seperation at the top. This morning two swimmers, Elaine Breeden and Christine Magnuson, created that seperation with times of 57.84 and 58.02 respectively. Both young swimmers look to rest control of the event from Rachel Komisarz. If they do so it would represent new blood in an event that has been dominated for a ten year period by older female swimmers like Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Komisarz.

Men's 400 Free

If you take the preliminary swims at face value, there is little to be gleaned from this morning's results. The contenders are tightly packed going into the finals, with the biggest surprise being Chad La Tourrette seeding ahead of Klete Keller for tonight's finals. Yet among the top four no one eased up quite to the extent that Erik Vendt did when he posted a 29.33 for his final 50.

Women's 400 IM

Passing of the guard? Sure, Katie Hoff has long since surpassed Kaitlin Sandeno in this event. Yet, 6 months out many would have still considered her a likely member of the team while few could have guessed that tonights number two seed would be Elizabeth Beisel. Beisel's swim evoked the biggest cheers from the crowd this morning as she turned at the 200 under Stephanie Rice's world record pace.

Men's 100 Breast

Brendan Hansen looks like a lock- surprised? One would assume that Mark Gangloff, close behind at 1:00.10, should come next. There are swimmers who could challenge Gangloff's perch. First among them is 2004 bridesmaid Eric Shanteau, who has the potential to bring Gangloff back in the second 50. Also intriguing is the presence of Nick Ferrif, who came into the meet just a shade under the cut at 1:04.12 and now finds himself swimming in the semi-final after going 1:01.98 this morning

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Aussie posted June 29 at 9:15pm. Phelps, Lochte both under Phelps' 400IM old record. 4.05 is smokin'! Hoff broke 400IM record too, 4.31.2, about 0.4 under Rice's time a few months ago. Hansen did 59.2, very solid semi swim. Beijing will be awesome!