The US finished off the Arena Pro Swim Series event in Charlotte with several wins on Sunday. The US got off to a good start when Leah Smith won the 800m with Ashley Twichell finishing second and Lindsay Vrooman making it a clean sweep.

It was a 1-2 finish for Americans in the 200m individual medley as Caitlin Leverenz and Karlee Bispo finished atop the standings. The same was true on the men’s side where Ryan Lochte and Connor Dwyer took the top two spots. The first event not won by the US on Sunday was the 200m backstroke where Canada’s Dominique Bouchard took top honors but the US did grab the next two spots through Erin Voss and Clara Smiddy. On the men’s side it was the same story with Serbia’s Arkady Vyatchanin topping the Americans, Tyler Clary and Carter Griffin.

Lilly King won the women’s 50m breaststroke with Katie Meili following her to the line 0.07 seconds later. The US won again with Cody Miller 0.11 seconds ahead of Canadian Jason Block. Nic Eriksson finished third for the US but 0.32 seconds behind second. The US only grabbed one medal in the final women’s event but Dana Vollmer finished behind Canadians Penny Oleksiak and Chantal Van Landeghem so it was a bronze. Canada grabbed the top spot in the men’s event through Santo Condorelli with Jimmy Feigen finishing with a silver for the US. In the final event of the day Connor Jaeger won his second 1500m freestyle event of the year to go along with two silvers. Zane Grothe grabbed a silver medal to wrap up the event for the US.

The final two Arena Pro Swim Series events are in Santa Clara, California and Indianapolis, Indiana both running June 3rd through the 5th.

Previous Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update

After losing just one event on Friday in Charlotte the US didn’t have quite as strong a win rate but still brought home plenty of golds in the Arena Pro Swim Series event. It started off in the women’s 200m butterfly. Cammile Adams won the event for the fourth time in four tries this year with Jen Marrkand in second. Hannah Saiz grabbed her second medal of the year, a bronze, to make it a 1-2-3 American finish. On the men’s side Colombia’s Jonathan Gomez won with Tyler Clary in second. Zach Harting gave the US two in the top three. In the women’s 50m freestyle Canada’s Chantal Van Landeghem held off Madison Kennedy by 0.1 seconds. Kennedy had won the last two events but now has won two golds and two silvers in the last four events. The US did win the men’s event as Anthony Ervin won for the first time this year. Canada’s Santo Condorelli was 0.17 seconds back with Josh Schneider just 0.01 seconds further back in bronze.

The women’s 100m backstroke was the first event where the US finished outside of the top two. Canada’s Kylie Massey and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry held off Ali DeLoof. The US also failed to win on the men’s side where Serbia’s Arkady Vyatchanin took first but Ryan Lochte was second best and Bryce Bohman was third. In the 200m breaststroke Canada’s Kierra Smith ruined a 1-2-3 US finish as Anne Lazor and Lilly King finished first and third. The only American in the men’s 200m breaststroke top three was Cody Miller, and he won the event. Mexico’s Mauro Castillo Luna came in second.

In the women’s 50m butterfly Dana Vollmer grabbed the top spot by 0.1 seconds over Canada’s Penny Oleksiak. The order was reversed on the men’s side with Santo Condorelli in first and Matthew Josa and Tim Phillips in second and third just 0.02 seconds apart. In the longest race of the day, the women’s 400m freestyle, Leah Smith won for the first time this season after two silvers and Lindsay Vrooman and Gillian Ryan made it as 1-2-3 American finish. The same was true on the men’s side where Connor Dwyer grabbed his third win over the year with Zane Grothe and Connor Jaeger finishing behind him.

Sunday will feature five events. Here are some of the American favorites:
Women’s 800m Freestyle: Lindsay Vrooman – a silver in Orlando
Women’s 200m Individual Medley: Caitlin Levernz – gold in Minneapolis
Men’s 200m Individual Medley: Ryan Lochte – silver in Austin, Connor Dwyer – silver and bronze this season
Women’s 200m Backstroke: No previous US medalists from this season
Men’s 200m Backstroke: No previous US medalists from this season
Women’s 50m Breaststroke: Has not been held this season
Men’s 50m Breaststroke: Has not been held this season
Women’s 100m Freestyle: Dana Vollmer – bronze in Mesa
Men’s 100m Freestyle: Jimmy Feigen – bronze in Austin and Mesa
Men’s 1500m Freestyle: Connor Jaeger – a gold and two silvers this year

Previous Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update

The second day of the Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series event didn’t see a clean American sweep but it came very very close. Leah Smith opened things with a win in the 200m freestyle by 0.42, her first medal of the season, with Canadian Taylor Ruck in second. Lindsay Vrooman was the second best American in fourth. On the men’s side Connor Dwyer has now won all four of the races he’s entered this season. This one was over a second and a half quicker than Zane Grothe.

In the 100m breaststroke Lilly King got the win with Katie Meili finishing outside of first for the first time this season in second place. Cody Miller scored his first win of the season on the men’s side after he had finished second to open the season in Minneapolis. Sam Tierney surprisingly ended up 16th after three top four finishes to start the year including a win. Mexican Miguel De Lara Ojeda was second. In the 50m backstroke, the first contest of the event this year, Ali Deloof beat Canadian Kylie Masse to the line by 0.08 with Clara Smiddy in fourth. Bryce Bohman won the men’s event by 0.15 seconds over Vietnam’s Paul Le while Bob Glover came in third.

The 100m butterfly race between Kelsi Worrell and Dana Vollmer went to Vollmer. Vollmer’s winning margin was around a second but Worrell got beat to the line by 15-year-old Penny Oleksiak of Canada. The men’s 100m butterfly race was where the US failed to win for the first time. Instead it was Canadian Santo Condorelli who beat Tim Phillips. The second place finish was the best of the season for Phillips topping a third place finish in Austin. Matthew Josa was third for the US as Condorelli won by 0.3 seconds and Josa was 0.6 seconds behind Phillips.

Finally in the 400m individual medley Cammile Adams won for the first time after three top five finishes earlier in the year. China’s Rose Bi was second by over eight seconds with Lindsey Clary finishing third. Ryan Lochte made it two wins in two tries on the men’s side with Ecuador’s Tom Peribonio two seconds back. Michael Weiss finished third almost three seconds behind Peribonio.

Saturday will feature six events. Here are some of the American favorites:
Women’s 200m Butterfly: Cammile Adams – three golds in three tries, Hannah Saiz – silver in Minneapolis
Men’s 200m Butterfly: No previous US medalists from this season
Women’s 50m Freestyle: Madison Kennedy – two golds and a silver this season. Dana Vollmer – silver in Mesa
Men’s 50m Freestyle: Anthony Ervin – silver in Mesa, Jimmy Feigen – bronze in Austin, Cullen Jones – bronze in Mesa
Women’s 100m Backstroke: No previous US medalists from this season
Men’s 100m Backstroke: Ryan Lochte – silver in Mesa
Women’s 200m Breaststroke: Haley Spencer – silver in Minneapolis
Men’s 200m Breaststroke: Cody Miller – two bronzes
Women’s 50m Butterfly: Has not been held this season
Men’s 50m Butterfly: Has not been held this season
Women’s 400m Freestyle: Leah Smith – two silvers this year, Lindsay Vrooman – a silver in Orlando
Men’s 400m Freestyle: Connor Dwyer – two golds and a silver this year, Zane Grothe – a silver in Orlando, and Connor Jaeger – a bronze in Minneapolis.

Previous Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update

On the first night of the Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series event Americans won both of the events contested. In the opening women’s 1500m freestyle it was Ashley Twichell holding off Chilean Kristel Kobrich to win with Gillian Ryan in third. Americans went 1-2 in the men’s 800m with Connor Jaeger about 2.5 seconds ahead of Zane Grothe.

Five events will be held on Friday with men’s and women’s versions of each event. The 200m freestyle will feature Connor Dwyer, three for three in going for gold in that event this year. The women’s 100m breaststroke has several Americans who have had success this year, Katie Meili victorious twice in two tries and Andee Cottrell who was third in the season opening Minneapolis event. The men’s side is set to feature Sam Tierney and Cody Miller, the duo that went 1-2 in Minneapolis. Tierney was also third in Austin. The 50m backstroke is being held for the first time this year.

The 100m butterfly featuring an interesting battle between Kelsi Worrell and Dana Vollmer. They have gone head-to-head twice so far this season and each won one and finished runner-up in the other. Vollmer also raced one other time and finished second in Austin. The men’s race will feature Tom Phillips, third place in Austin, and none of the winners of the first four races this season. Finally in the 400m individual medley Cammile Adams had a second place finish in Mesa and a big name is on the men’s side, Ryan Lochte who won in his only entry in Austin.

Previous Charlotte Arena Pro Swim Series Coverage:
Preview

The fifth Arena Pro Swim Series event is this weekend in Charlotte. There will be a couple of events getting things underway on Thursday before the main competition begins Friday. The women have a 1500m freestyle race while the men have an 800m freestyle race. These races have not been held at other events so this is the first time we’ll see it this year.

Previous Arena Pro Swim Series Coverage:
Mesa Recap

The stars were out for the US on Saturday in Mesa as some of the biggest names in swimming took first place in their races at the Arena Pro Swim Series. Katie Ledecky will be as big a star as anyone this summer in Rio and she made it three wins in three tries in the women’s 800m freestyle. Danish swimmer Lotte Friis was second while Cierra Runge had her first top four finish in third.

Maya DiRado won the women’s 200m individual medley for the second straight time while Ella Eastin was second in her first race of the season while Melanie Margalis finally didn’t finish second. Unfortunately she didn’t move in the direction she hoped to. Michael Phelps made it three-for-three on the men’s side with Chase Kalisz finishing in the top four for the first time in second. David Nolan’s first appearance of the year resulted in a third place finish.

Maya DiRado won her second event of the day in the women’s 200m backstroke while Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was second and Kaitlin Harty finished third in her first apperance.  The men’s side saw Ryan Lochte grab his first win of the year with Omar Pinzon of Colombia in second and Connor Green with his first top-five finish of the year in third.

The women’s 100m freestyle saw Simone Manuel win her third race in three tries this year. Abbey Weitzeil has also been really strong and her second place finish makes it three top-three finishes in three tries. Finally Dana Vollmer was third in her first appearance in this event. Nathan Adrian won for the fourth straight time in the men’s 100m freestyle with Cristian Quintero of Venezuela in second and Jimmy Feigen finishing in third for the second time this season.

Finally in the men’s 1500m freestyle Jordan Wilimovsky won in his first appearance of the season and made it four winners in four events. Michael McBroom added a second place finish to his first from Minneapolis while Ous Mellouli of Tunisia now has three third place finishes in three tries.

The fifth of seven events will be next month in Charlotte starting on May 12th.

It was a clean sweep for the US on the second day of the Arena Pro Swim Series in Mesa, Arizona as Americans took first place in all ten of the races.

Cammile Adams won the 200m butterfly for the third time in three tries this year while Cassidy Bayer improved on her second place finish from Austin and Maya DiRado, who won the event in Orlando, was third. On the men’s side Michael Phelps got his first win in the event this year after a second place finish in his first try. Pace Clark and Jonathan Gomez took part for the first time and went two-three.

In the women’s 50m freestyle Madison Kennedy, won for the second straight meet while Abbey Weitzeil made it two thirds in three tries. Dana Vollmer was in between them and had her best finish of the year after a tenth in her first try in Austin. Nathan Adrian made it four-for-four with Anthony Ervin and Cullen Jones notching their first top five finishes of the year.

In the 100m backstroke Maya DiRado had her first finish in the top four this year winning the event but the Americans didn’t sweep the medals as Hungarian Katinka Hosszu and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe rounded out the top there. On the men’s side David Plummer won for the second time this year while Ryan Lochte had his best finish so far in second. Arkady Vyatchanin of Serbia was third.

The 200m breaststroke saw some new blood at the top as Breeja Larson won after placing eighth in her previous appearance and Canadian Ashley McGregor topped her previous sixth as she was runner-up. Hilde Luthersdottir of Iceland had her second straight third place finish. BJ Johnson won the men’s event, his first top three finish of the year, while Nic Fink has now placed second in all four races but to three different swimmers. Mexico’s Miguel De Lara Ojeda finished third.

Finally in the 400m freestyle Katie Ledecky made it three wins in three tries while Cierra Runge had her first top three finish in second place. Denmark’s Lotte Friis was third, her third straight top four finish. Connor Dwyer failed to make it three-for-three in the men’s 400m freestyle as he finished second to Michael McBroom who won after a second in his first appearance. Clark Smith was third in his first competition of the year.

The swimming wraps up tomorrow as the final eight events are held. The women’s 800m freestyle will feature Katie Ledecky who is two-for-two in this event (she seems to win a lot) and Becca Mann who was runner-up to Ledecky on both of those occasions.

Maya DiRado won the women’s 200m individual medley in her first appearance in Orlando and will be looking to make it two straight. Melanie Margalis on the other hand has come in second in all three contests this year and will hope to win for the first time. Michael Phelps won the first two times he entered the men’s 200m individual medley so he will be the favorite again this weekend.

DiRado has also won the women’s 200m backstroke this year and came in second in her other appearance. The men’s 200m backstroke features no competitors who have finished in the top four so far this year but Ryan Lochte will be in the field.

The women’s 100m freestyle features an exciting field. Simone Manuel won both of the races she entered so far this year while both Abbey Weitzeil and Allison Schmitt have a second and third so far. Katie Ledecky will be trying to complete the top four cycle after taking second, third, and fourth in the first three events this season. Nathan Adrian has won the first three men’s 100m races and will be looking to continue his dominance. Jimmy Feigen is also in the field having placed third in his only appearance so far in Austin.

Finally in the men’s 1500m freestyle Michael McBroom was the winner in Minneapolis to start the year and will look to get his second win in the event.

The first day of the Arena Pro Swim Series in Mesa, Arizona saw Americans take first place in the majority of the contests.

In the women’s 200m freestyle Katie Ledecky continued her winning ways making it four out of four in the series so far. Allison Schmitt had her top finish of the year in second place as the top two were well out in front of the rest of the field. Over on the men’s side similar dominance was shown by Connor Dwyer who made it three for three and finished a second a half ahead of everyone else. Ryan Lochte finished third as Venezuelan Cristian Quintero slipped between the two Americans.

Over in the women’s 100m breaststroke Katie Meili won her second in two tries this year with Jamaican Alia Atkinson and Molly Hannis both within a half second of her. The men’s 100m breaststroke had one of the best finishes of the day as Andrew Wilson, Youssef El Kamash of Egypt, Miguel De Lara Ojeda of Mexico, and Azad Al-Barazi of Syria, all finished within 0.07 seconds. El Kamash got the win with De Lara Ojeda in second and Wilson the top American in third.

Dana Vollmer, having finished twice so far this year, finally won the women’s 100m butterfly while Kelsi Worrell was runner-up a third of a second back and Cassidy Bayer almost two seconds back in third. On the men’s side Seth Stubblefield, who had yet to register a top ten finish in two attempts this year, won the event with Jack Conger, ninth in his only appearance so far, in second. Giles Smith was third and now has finished at every top-five spot except for second in the first four races of the year.

Finally in the women’s 400m medley Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won for the second time this year while Cammile Adams added a second place finish to her two previous top-five finishes and Ella Eastin in her first appearance was third. On the men’s side Sean Grieshop, sixth in his only previous appearance, won by over three seconds with Tunisian Ous Mellouli in second and Gunnar Bentz with a third place finish in his first race.

Friday features races in the 200m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 200m breaststroke, and 400m freestyle. Preliminaries in the morning, finals in the evening.

Cammile Adams has won both of her attempts at the 200m butterfly and also in the field is Cassidy Bayer who was third in her only attempt so far and Maya DiRado who won the event in Orlando. On the men’s side Michael Phelps will race, second in his only entry so far this season, as will Andrew Seliskar, third in Austin, and Chase Kalisz who won in both Minneapolis and Orlando.

Top contenders in the women’s 50m freestyle include Madison Kennedy, first in Orlando and second in Austin, and Simone Manuel, who was second in both of her races so far this season. On the men’s side Nathan Adrian has won each of the first three events of the series and will look to make it four-for-four while Jimmy Feigen, third in his only appearance, is also in the field.

In the 100m backstroke Missy Franklin, who has won two of the three events so far, will go head-to-head against the only one to beat her so far this year, Katinka Hosszu of Hungary. On the men’s side David Plummer, who won in Minneapolis and came in third in Austin, is the only of the first three winners to compete this weekend perhaps making him a favorite.

Three Americans with good finishes so far this year will all compete in the 200m breaststroke Laura Sogar was the winner in Austin while Molly Hannis finished right behind her. Haley Spencer finished second in Minneapolis. This will be only the second competition for all three. On the men’s side Nic Fink has finished second in all three events so far but just might get his first win as the winners from the first the first three races are not competing.

Finally in the 400m freestyle there are a lot of good swimmers in the field but it’s clearly headlined by Katie Ledecky, who won the two events she raced in so far this year. Also competing is Lotte Friis who won the other and was fourth in her other attempt. Connor Dwyer is two-for-two winning the men’s 400m freestyle but Michael McBroom, who was second in his only competition so far, will provide competition.

Stop four of seven on the Arena Pro Swim Series is this weekend in Mesa, Arizona. Things start on Thursday with the men’s and women’s events in the 200m freestyle, the 100m breaststroke, the 100m butterfly, and the 400m medley.

Headlining the women’s 200m freestyle is Katie Ledecky, who has the won the first three races of the series, Missy Franklin, who has two seconds and a third, and Allison Schmitt who finished third in both of the races she took part in.

In the men’s 200m freestyle Connor Dwyer has won both of the races he entered so far this season while Ryan Lochte and Townley Haas came in second in their only races. Michael Phelps has a tenth and fourth place finish to show after his first two races of the year.

Over in the women’s 100m breaststroke the top American contenders include Katie Meili, who won the event in Austin, Micah Lawrence, who came in second in Minneapolis, Andee Cottrell, who was third in Minneapolis, and Molly Hannis, who has a second and third in her two races this year.

The men’s 100m breaststroke doesn’t feature many of the top finishers so far this season but one of the top contenders will be Andrew Wilson who won this event in Austin.

Both Kelsi Worrell, first in Minneapolis, and Dana Vollmer, second in Minneapolis and Austin, are strong contenders in the women’s 100m butterfly while in the mens 100m butterfly Giles Smith has three top five finishes including a win in Minneapolis.

Finally in the women’s 400m medely Becca Mann has notched two runner-ups and a third place finish to start the year while Tyler Clary has a fourth and a second in his two events so far this year.

The preliminaries are in the morning with the final in the evening and then we’ll know the eight event winners from the first day of the Mesa stop of the Arena Pro Swim Series.