Sunday, January 17, 2021
January TYR Pro Swim Series Produces Personal Bests and Close Finishes on Night Three
The 2021 January TYR Pro Swim Series continued on Saturday, seeing multiple fast swims and tight finishes at both the Richmond and San Antonio sites.
The night was headlined once again by Regan Smith, who came away from her night’s double with wins in the 200-meter butterfly and 100m backstroke.
“It felt great,” Smith said about winning her two events on the night. “I’m not sure if I have ever been able to do that in one night at a [TYR] Pro Series before, so it means a lot to me. It shows all the hard work that I’ve been putting into fly and back. It’s exciting and it feels good.”
A handful of other U.S. National Team members came out victorious, including an impressive 21.98 swim in the 50m freestyle from David Curtiss. While the swim earned him the first TYR Pro Swim Series victory of his young career, he posted an even faster swim in the morning’s prelims, going 21.87 for a new personal best.
“It has been 11 months since I competed in a meet of this caliber,” Curtiss said. “So it’s refreshing to be back to competing.”
Both Emily Escobedo and Nic Fink completed sweeps in the meet’s breaststroke events following their wins tonight in the 200m breaststroke and yesterday’s victories in the 100m event. Escobedo’s win came over two full seconds ahead of the field, while Fink touched first by just two one-hundredths of a second.
“Swimming breaststroke long course is my favorite,” Escobedo said. “I hope these meets continue through the spring and into the summer.”
“I guess you could say I’m hitting my stride,” Fink said. “I came here to race. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a 3-day meet with long course prelims and finals.”
In the highly-anticipated men’s 100m backstroke, Justin Ress’ 53.37 performance earned him the top spot over elite talents Ryan Murphy and Shaine Casas, who finished second and third respectively.
“These split-location meets can be a positive,” Ress said. “It forces you to focus on only what you can control. Circumstances don’t matter, you just have to figure out a way to swim your fastest no matter what.”
Rounding out the night was the 400m freestyle, which saw Ashley Twichell go 4:09.78 for the win and the fourth-fastest swim of her decorated career. In the men’s event, Kieran Smith went 3:49.37, also good for the fourth-fastest swim of his career.
“I was really happy with tonight’s race,” Twichell explained after her race. “This was the best I have felt in a race since COVID started. I felt a lot more like myself.”
“I’m not completely satisfied with it, but it wasn’t bad,” Smith said. “I want to take that next step and swim a really good time in season and be more aggressive with the race. I feel like I’m not taking enough risks in the first 200, I was like 55.50 in the first 100, which is pretty slow for me, so next time I’ll take it out a little more aggressively.”
Also tallying wins on the night was Aiden Hayes in the 200m butterfly (1:58.33) and Catie DeLoof in the 50m freestyle (24.80), giving Hayes a new personal best and DeLoof the second-best performance of their respective careers.
The 2021 January TYR Pro Swim Series concludes Sunday, with prelims beginning at 11 a.m. ET and finals beginning at 7 p.m.