Phillips 66 National Championships 2015: Swimming Results from Sunday
Another day, another gold medal at the 2015 Phillips 66 National Championships for Michael Phelps.
Phelps had already captured first place in the men's 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly in successive days. On Sunday, he made it a perfect 3-of-3 in San Antonio, Texas, after beating out the competition in the 200-meter medley.
The 30-year-old was one of five winners during the evening sessions. You can view the top three finishers in Sunday's finals below:
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| Men's Freestyle 100 meters | Caeleb Dressel (48.78) | Jack Conger (49.05) | William Copeland (49.09) |
| Women's Butterfly 200 meters | Hali Flickinger (2:07.59) | Cassidy Bayer (2:08.03) | Christina Bechtel (2:09.20) |
| Men's Medley 200 meters | Michael Phelps (1:54.75) | Will Licon (1:58.43) | Travis Mahoney (1:59.41) |
| Women's Backstroke 200 meters | Claire Adams (2:09.44) | Danielle Galyer (2:09.75) | Hali Flickinger (2:10.60) |
| Men's Freestyle 4x200 meters | Wisconsin Aquatics (7:23.37) | California Aquatics (7:25.38) | Nova of Virginia Aquatics Inc. (7:25.78) |
All eyes were on the 18-time Olympic gold medalist after he qualified for the 200-meter medley finals. He was downright dominant on Friday and Saturday in the butterfly, and Sunday was an opportunity for him to further cement the fact he remains a major threat for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Those hoping to see a dramatic finish in the 200-meter medley were in for a disappointing result. Phelps opened up a massive lead after 100 meters, and the gap only widened during the back half of the race. He looked on a world-record pace but lost a bit of time during the freestyle.
Still, Phelps finished nearly four seconds ahead of Will Licon at one minute, 54.75 seconds. USA Swimming posted a full replay of the race:
You can bet at least a small piece of Phelps was motivated by Chad le Clos' comments at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. Le Clos told Eurosport that Phelps "can keep quiet now" after the world champion ran a 50.56-second 100-meter butterfly (h/t NBC OlympicTalk's Nick Zaccardi).
Phelps then bettered that time by 0.02 seconds Saturday.
"There are a lot of things I could say. But I won't," Phelps told the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "I'm going to let what I do in the pool do my talking."
Although fans have every reason to get excited about Phelps' performance in San Antonio, Swimming World brought up a very good point of discussion:
Would Phelps have swam this well when matched up against the best competition in the world?
He won't get the chance to do that until next summer, but he couldn't have done much more at the U.S. championships to show he's still got it.
In Sunday's other action, Caeleb Dressel won the men's 100-meter freestyle with a time of 48.78 seconds. Jack Conger was slowly making up ground on Dressel during the final 50 meters but ran out of pool before he could work his way into first.
Dressel's time broke the record for the 17- to 18-year-old age group, per Swim Swam Live.
Hali Flickinger was victorious in the women's 200-meter butterfly. She didn't have a great start and trailed Cassidy Bayer by the 100-meter mark. Then, Flickinger dug down deep during the final 100 meters, overtaking Bayer and opening up some breathing room in first. She wound up winning by a rather comfortable 0.44 seconds.
Courtney Weaver, one of Flickinger's teammates on the Georgia swim team, congratulated the 21-year-old on a job well done:
Flickinger wasn't quite so successful in the women's 200-meter backstroke. She never really got into a groove and finished in third place.
Claire Adams took home the gold with a final time of 2:09.44, the second of her two wins in the backstroke in San Antonio.
The Phillips 66 National Championships will conclude with eight events scheduled for the evening session.
Phelps will be looking to cap off his trip to Texas with a gold in the men's 200-meter breaststroke.
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