Ryan Lochte has the world chasing him in the 200-meter individual medley. The 28-year-old from Rochester, N.Y., holds the world record for the event and has three Olympic medals to show for the race.
He demonstrated the same dominance in the Phillips 66 National Championships and World Championship Trials on Saturday in Indianapolis. But it was three swimmers from North Baltimore Aquatic Club who were closest in pursuit.
Swimming ahead of his world-record pace for the first two lengths of the four-length race, Lochte took a sizable lead on his competitors, including Conor Dwyer, Bel Air's Chase Kalisz (Fallston) and Cockeysville's Austin Surhoff (St. Paul's).
Dwyer, a 24-year-old from Evanston, Ill., took second in the race, finishing in 1minute, 57.74 seconds. Kalisz, 19, who won the 400 IM on Thursday, finished third in 1:58.52. And Surhoff, 22, son of former Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff and former internationally ranked swimmer Polly (Winde) Surhoff, finished fourth with a 1:58.80 time.
With the second-place finish, Dwyer qualified for his second event at FINA Aquatics World Championships, scheduled for July 28 to Aug. 4 in Barcelona, Spain. He also qualified in the 200 freestyle. Each of the three teammates set personal bests for the event.
Katie Ledecky (Stone Ridge) of Bethesda trounced the field in the women's 1,500 freestyle. The 16-year-old swam the fastest women's 1,500 of the year and broke a meet record that had stood since 1988. The time of 15:47.15 was also a personal best for the gold medalist.
"I was really happy with it," Ledecky said. "It was a swim I was looking forward to all week. I just wanted to go out with a bang."
The closest swimmer came in more than 20 seconds later. Ledecky's win came after a conservative effort in the preliminary race, in which she secured the top seed in 16:04.58.
NBAC's Gillian Ryan came in fourth in 16:19.20.
In the women's 200 IM, NBAC fielded two swimmers in the "B" final.
Annie Zhu, 18, took 10th overall in the final and was second in the heat. Her teammate, Cierra Runge, 17, finished just more than a second later, taking the No. 14 spot. Zhu clocked in at 2:14.97, while Runge finished at 2:16.03.
In the "C" final, Mary Pelton, NBAC's youngest competitor at the championships at 15, finished 19th in 2:18.03. The third-place finish in the final was a more than 1.5-second improvement from her preliminary time. Stanford's Felicia Lee (Towson High) was disqualified.
Runge also finished 20th in the women's 50 freestyle. Her time was 25.99 seconds.
The NBAC women's team finished the competition in 10th of 69 groups represented, earning 100 points. The men's team finished 13th of 70.