Athletes continued to crank out impressive times on Friday night at the January TYR Pro Swim Series. The meet continues through Sunday, with competition taking place in San Antonio, Texas and Richmond, Virginia.
Friday night’s finals session kicked off with the 200-meter freestyle, which was won by
Madisyn Cox and
Kieran Smith in 1:59.42 and 1:47.36, respectively. For Cox, her win came in a close finish, with less that half a second separating the top-three finishers.
“I’ve missed (racing) just so much,” Cox said. “It felt so good to just race. To win too, it was nice. It was a sign of hard work paying off.”
For Smith, this was his fifth-fastest 200m freestyle performance of his career.
“It felt great,” Smith said. “It’s been a while since we have done a long-course competition like this with prelims and finals. It’s good to have everyone back in the pool again.”
In the women’s 100m breaststroke,
Emily Escobedo charged her way to a 1:07.11 performance, good for first place and a new personal best.
“I’m really happy with it,” Escobedo said of her swim. “I had so much fun at ISL and I performed really well and learned so much there, so I was just hoping to bring that back into long course.”
Taking the title in the men’s event was
Nic Fink, who touched in 1:00.80. The time was the only swim under the 1:01 mark and edged out four other U.S. National Team members competing in San Antonio.
“It was a pretty loaded field, so I was pretty happy to get out and race these guys again,” Fink said. “I needed to build the first 50 a little quicker, I think a left a little bit in the tank on the first 50 this morning, so I wanted to be a little bit faster tonight when going out. I was able to make that a little sharper, I think, and then my back half was a little better too.”
The third event of the night, the 100m butterfly, was claimed by
Shaine Casas and
Regan Smith.
“I thought it was pretty good,” Casas said after his 51.94 showing. “I went a best time in the morning and pretty close to my best at night. Nothing crazy going on with that, but I felt like I had a little more in the tank, but it’s January so I’m fine.”
For Smith, she now has wins in back-to-back 100m butterfly events at TYR Pro Swim Series meets, as she also finished first at the TYR Pro Swim Series at Des Moines last March.
“It felt good,” Smith said following her 58.55 swim. “This is the first long-course meet we’ve had in a really long time. It feels really good to be back racing.”
Rounding out the night was the 400m Individual Medley, where Ally McHugh’s time of 4:41.90 was good for first.
“I’m really happy with it,” McHugh said. “I went out a lot more aggressively and went out really will in the butterfly and backstroke. It hurt a little bit on the back end because of that, but I think the front end and my time and my splits are good indicators of that. As we get further into the season, the back half will definitely be there, so if I can put all that together, I think tonight overall I’m happy with it.”
In the men’s event, Olympic silver medalist Chase Kalisz touched first in 4:17.26. This marked TYR Pro Swim Series win No. 41 for Kalisz’s career, moving him into third place for most TYR Pro Swim Series wins since 2010.
The TYR Pro Swim Series continues tomorrow, with finals kicking off at 7 p.m. ET. Live action from the meet will be broadcasted on Olympic Channel. For additional information, results and more, visit
www.usaswimming.org/event/2021/01/14/default-calendar/january-tyr-pro-swim-series.