Headed into day 3 of the 2011 USA Swimming National Championships, we’ve seen a big dropoff in the number of scratches. In fact, we will only expect to see two scratches from a top-10 seed on the morning session.

Scratches:
Tyler McGill (50 free)
Ariana Kukors (400 IM)
Ryan Lochte (100 fly) – he told reporters that if he had known how hard it would be to race back-to-back meets thousands of miles apart, he “wouldn’t have wasted his time coming here.”

Still Swimming
Jessica Hardy/Micah Lawrence/Annie Chandler/Ashley Wanland (100 breaststroke)
Tyler McGill/Tim Phillips/Chris Brady/Ricky Berens/Ryan Lochte/David Nolan (100 fly)
Jessica Hardy/Missy Franklin/Amanda Weir/Kara Lynn Joyce/Liz Pelton (50 free)
Nathan Adrian/Cullen Jones/Garrett Weber-Gale/Josh Schneider/Jason Lezak/Nicholas Brunelli/Scot Robison/Jimmy Feigen (50 free)
Elizabeth Beisel/Julia Smit/Teresa Crippen/Haley Anderson/Jasmine Tosky (400 IM)

There’s quite a few good races on day 3, but the one I’m really looking forward to is the men’s 50 free. The American men are badly in need of young talent to bring some depth to their pool of sprinters. Today will be a great opportunity to find some of that young talent, including a pair of teenagers seeded faster than 23 seconds (Brent Murray from SwimAtlanta-22.78, Charlie Moore from FLEET in Houston-22.97). Seth Stubblefield, 18, out of the Dallas area, who has already started swimming with Cal, is on the verge of dipping under that 23-second barrier as well.

Other young sprinters who will likely be deciding over the next year or so whether or not to persue professional careers after college, and thus needing good swims, are Michael Richards of Minnesota, Josh Daniels of Cal, and Adam Small of Tucson Ford (WUG swimmer in this event), and their success at this meet will likely be a huge factor in those decisions.

There willl also be a sizable group of Auburn Tigers, one of the best sprint programs in the world right now, competing, with Drew Modrov and Kohlton Norys (WUG relay swimmer) each entered in the seeded-heats in prelims (aka top-24 seeds).

And then, of course, there’s the top-guns: Nathan Adrian, who had just an average World Championship meet and came home without an individual medal; Cullen Jones, who failed to make semifinals in either the 50 free or 50 fly in Shanghai; Jason Lezak, who failed to semifinal in his only individual race the 100 free in Shanghai; and Garrett Weber-Gale, who in two relay appearances had one great race and one mediocre race at Worlds. All four of those swimmers will be looking for bounceback swims.

Texas Longhorn Jimmy Feigen and Tucson Ford’s Matt Grevers will also be looking for big swims to make it back to finals after both were heartbroken at last year’s Nationals (Grevers by failing to make the Worlds team, and Feigen who lost his spot in the finals of this race after the Josh-Schneider-missed-race-DQ-appeal controversy). Feigen will be swimming the 100 and the 400 free relay at the World University Games.