The second night of the 2021 Toyota U.S. Open kicked off with yet another signature win from distance powerhouse Katie Ledecky, who took the 400-meter freestyle in 4:00.51, good for her second U.S. Open meet record in as many days. Finishing second (in 4:10.12) behind Ledecky was Erin Gemmell of Nation’s Capital, who is the daughter of Ledecky’s age-group coach Bruce Gemmell.

“It’s awesome,” Ledecky said of finishing alongside Gemmell. “It’s actually her birthday today too. It’s always fun to be next to her and to go 1-2 with her. She’s someone I’ve known since she was 7 or 8, so it’s pretty awesome.”

Trey Freeman captured the men’s 400-meter freestyle title in 3:49.06, giving Florida Gators swimmers their fourth-consecutive first-place finish to open the competition. 

The second event of the session was the 200m individual medley, which had titles claimed by Leah Smith (2:11.67) and U.S. National Junior Team member Baylor Nelson (1:59.86). For Smith, this is her first win after making the switch to train at Longhorn Aquatics.

“It’s [training at Texas] been awesome,” Smith said. “I love Carol [Capitani] and Mitch [Dalton] and the team. They’re just really special to me. It’s been great at this meet too ‘cause my whole team is at the Minnesota invite, so we’re swimming [apart] but being really supportive of each other and it’s just been really awesome to have a fresh start there.”

For Nelson, a SwimMAC Carolina product, his 1:59.86 made him ninth all time in the 17-18 age group.

“I’m really happy [with my swim],” he said. “Just going into it, I was focused on what I needed to do. I was proud of my training and just trusted my training going into that. With what we’ve been through this season I knew I could do it and so I just wanted to swim my own race and that was that.”

The final race of the evening was the 50m freestyle, which featured first-place finishes from Mallory Comerford and Bruno Fratus in 25.24 and 22.36, respectively.

“I’m really happy,” Comerford said. “This past year was really, really hard for me so it’s really nice to swim a race that I’m really proud of and there’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of tears to get to this point, so I’m just having fun honestly. It felt really great to do it with my teammate and have her right there with me.”

The 2021 Toyota U.S. Open continues Friday with prelims beginning at 10 a.m. ET and finals at 7 p.m. ET. Prelims can be streamed at www.usaswimming.org/watch, while Olympic Channel will host the night’s finals. Additional information on the competition can be found at https://www.usaswimming.org/event/2021/12/01/default-calendar/toyota-u.s.-open.