Leah Smith competes in the women's 400-meter freestyle prelims at the TYR Pro Swim Series on April 14, 2018 in Mesa, Ariz.
Olympic silver medalist Chase Kalisz is cruising into the Phillips 66 National Championships in a powerful way.
Kalisz, the reigning world champion in both the 200- and 400-meter individual medley, won the men’s 200 IM (1:58.21) and 200 butterfly (1:56.90) on the final night of the TYR Pro Swim Series meet Sunday night in Columbus, Ohio. Those were the third and fourth victories of the meet for Kalisz, who is men’s points leader in the TYR Pro Swim Series.
He also ended the six-meet series undefeated in three events: the 200 fly, and 200 and 400 IMs.
The four-day meet in Columbus was the final preparation for many swimmers prior to the Phillips 66 National Championships, which begin July 25 in Irvine, California. Nationals are a part of the Team USA Summer Champions Series, presented by Xfinity, and are the final event that counts toward the Pro Swim Series standings.
Kalisz wasn’t the only standout in Columbus.
Michael Andrew powered to his third win of the weekend when he took first in the 100 breaststroke on Sunday. He outdueled Devon Nowicki by 0.21 seconds. Nowicki, who led Andrews at the halfway point of the race, had a personal best time of 1:00.00, but fell just short of Andrew’s 59.79. Andrew also won the 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle.
Zane Grothe completed a season sweep of the 800 freestyle, winning in 7:55.22. The freestyle specialist finished the season in second place behind Kalisz.
On the women’s side, two-time Olympic medalist Leah Smith got her third victory in as many nights, winning the women’s 800 freestyle in a season-best time of 8:25.05. The win gave her the lead in the Pro Swim Series standings with one point over Olympic relay gold medalist Melanie Margalis.
Kelsi (Worrell) Dahlia, a 2016 Olympic relay gold medalist, picked up her second win of the weekend in the women’s 200 butterfly, finishing in 2:09.23. She also won the 100 fly Friday.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lilly King completed her sweep of the breaststroke events, winning the 100-meter in 1:06.14. She won the 200 breast on Friday.
Asia Seidt had first- and second-place finishes in races separated by just 15 minutes. She finished runner-up to Ali Deloof in the women’s 100 backstroke, then won the 200 IM in 2:12.63.
Justin Ress finished second to Japan’s Ryosuke Irie in the 100 back, but still got into the top 10 in the world rankings with a season-best time of 53.30 seconds.
Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is sports editor of the Cape Cod Times and a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
