The 2021 TYR Pro Swim Series continued Friday evening, posting some of the fastest swims in the world this year. Ryan Murphy’s 200-meter backstroke time of 1:56.06 highlighted the men’s competition on the night, while a come-from-behind win by Melanie Margalis in the 400m Individual Medley was one of the standout performances from the women’s races.

The night got underway with the 200m freestyle, which saw Katie Ledecky tally her third win in as many days, going 1:56.62 for the win. In the men’s event, Andrew Seliskar brought outside smoke from lane one, going 1:47.01 to beat the field by over a full second.

“I knew I wanted to utilize that outside lane,” Seliskar said. “I had a little bit of clean water on my right since no one was there, so I just tried to hold rhythm, especially from the 50 to the 150, that middle part is important, so it was a good swim.”

The women’s 200m backstroke followed, showcasing some of the nation’s best talent between Kathleen Baker, Regan Smith and Lisa Bratton, who would finish in 1-2-3 order, respectively. Baker’s 2:07.54 swim gave her the second 200m backstroke win of her TYR Pro Swim Series career.

In the men’s event, Murphy’s aforementioned 1:56.06 set a new top time in the world in 2021.

“I don’t really come into these in-season meets with time goals, I come in with strategy goals,” Murphy said after his swim. “I think I hit the strategy that time.”

Margalis continued the run of impressive swims on the night with a massive comeback effort in the 400m I.M., where she found herself behind first place by over four seconds at the midway point in the race. The I.M. veteran turned on the burners in the breaststroke and freestyle leg, going 38.38, 31.68 and 30.57 on her last three 50m splits to capture the win in nearly a second and a half.

“I’m really happy with that back half,” Margalis said. “I just really wanted to get back in there and race, I knew this swim would be a big learning lesson for me since it was my first one of the season. I think I learned a lot from this swim, I obviously don’t want to be coming from behind like that, so I think I will learn from that swim moving forward.”

While Margalis stood out in the women’s event, 2016 Olympian Chase Kalisz had a strong showing of his own, going 4:16.53 to touch first.

The night concluded with the 100m butterfly, which was claimed by Regan Smith in 57.88 and Tom Shields in 52.25. The wins marked Smith’s first competition win since March 2020 and Shields’ first competition win since May of 2017.

The Bill Walker pool in San Antonio has now played host to all seven nights of TYR Pro Swim Series racing in 2021, hosting hundreds of athletes while enforcing on-deck social distancing, air filtration devices, on-site COVID-19 testing, temperature checks and more.