USA Swimming Arena Pro Swim Series Recap

By Peter Cheng

Cronkite Special to AZLatinos.com

This past weekend, the Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa, Ariz. hosted the fourth stop on the USA Swimming Arena Pro Swim Series. This Olympic qualifying event featured several of the biggest names in swimming, including Olympic veterans Nathan Adrian, Michael Phelps, and Katie Ledeky – among others; but it was Maya DiRado’s strong performance (and Friday night’s strong winds) that stole the show.

Depending on the event, swimmers felt they were either helped or hindered by the 20 mph winds that blew through Mesa on Friday night. Adrian, 27, of Bremerton, Wash., was particularly affected.

“There’s several of us that were like, dude if the wind catches my cap wrong it’ll start howling in my ear and I wont hear the take-your-mark or the (starting) beep,” Adrian said. Multiple time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps concurred, saying that the winds were so strong that he felt like he was swimming backwards during some points in his race.

Despite Mother Nature’s hindrances, Saturday’s three top finishers in the woman’s 50-meter freestyle event all set personal best times – considering swimmers in this event had the advantage of not taking a return lap into the wind.

The woman’s 50-meter winner, Madison Kennedy, 29, of Avon, Conn., not only set a personal best, but also swam the fastest time of any woman in this event for 2016.  Her 24.45-second finish was the third fastest time in US woman’s history. “The reason I dropped all that time was the wind,” Kennedy said.

Fortunately the weather calmed down for Saturday’s finals, and it was the tournament’s only two-event winner, Maya DiRado, 23, of Santa Rosa, Calif., who shined like the sun. “Maya was the swimmer of the meet. Maya is amazing… the style of her swimming is the style of her personality. She’s just humble and beautiful, but she’s tough as nails,” said David Marsh, Team USA women’s swimming coach.

DiRado won both the 200-meter individual medley and the 200-meter backstroke, with times of 2:11.09 and 2:08.61 respectively.

Other notable winners included: Michael Phelps in the men’s 200-meter individual medley (1:57.9), Katie Ledecky in the woman’s 800-meter freestyle (8:13.00), Ryan Lochte in the men’s 200-meter backstroke (2:01.04), and Nathan Adrian in the men’s 100-meter freestyle.

Adrian picked up 10 points in Mesa, and Ledecky 15 to remain at the top of the Arena Pro Swim Series leaderboard with 40 and 55 points respectively. Three events remain on the tour, and the top scoring male and female competitors will earn a $10,000 bonus at the end of the season.