Katie Ledecky led all the way in winning the 200m freestyle Friday at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet, earning her third title in three days.
She touched in 1 minute, 56.62 seconds, adding the 200 free to her earlier wins in the 400m free and 1,500m free. She finished third in the 100m free on Thursday.
“I’m so happy where I’m at even though some of the times haven’t been there this week,” said Ledecky, who like many of the swimmers is competing in her first national meet in a year.
Ryan Lochte is bidding to make his fifth Olympic team at age 36. He finished eighth in the 200m free final. Andrew Seliskar won in 1:47.01; Lochte touched last in 1:50.27.
“It’s a good confidence boost knowing that I’m making the finals and being able to be somewhat in the race with these other guys,” Lochte said. “The more racing I do, the better I’m going to be.”
Lochte didn’t make it out of the 100 butterfly preliminaries, finishing 31st. He’s been in heavy training in Gainesville, Florida, which has left him “dead tired”. He missed making finals in the 100m breaststroke and 100m freestyle Thursday. He is expected to swim one more event Saturday.
Olympic champion Ryan Murphy won the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:56.06, the fastest time in the world this year.
Kathleen Baker won the 200m back in 2:07.54, the second-fastest time in the world this year. World-record holder Regan Smith was second at 2:08.80.
In the 400m individual medley, Chase Kalisz took the men’s race in 4:16.53, and Melanie Margalis won the women’s event in 4:37.81, second-quickest in the world this year.
Smith came back to win the 100m fly in 57.88, second-fastest in the world this year. Tom Shields, who at 29 was the oldest finalist, won the men’s race in 52.25.
