TSC Power Picks: Coughlin to Win 100 Back, Grevers To Overcome Phelps

While the top=ranked flier, Camille Adams, is not in attendance for this Grand Prix, Elaine Breeden, Kim Vandenberg and Allison Schmitt will be vying for position against Hungarian National Team member Zsuzsanna Jakabos. However, taking a top 5 placement in this event will be Madison Wright who has swam 2:13.39 this season (approximately a second behind Celina Li's best time this season); she'll have a good performance and will be trying to piece race technique in with speed as she gears up to trials.

I am going to reach deep on this dark horse pick and select Lindsey McKnight who is seeded with a yards time of 2:00.96 (which converts to a slow 2:17 mid). However, I am thinking that she will be able to place in the top 12 as well as hit an Olympic qualifying time.

With Phelps being the true favorite in this event (even though he's only been able to pull off a 1:56.12 this season), he is coming off of intense training sessions of 14k at altitude and three-a-day sessions and has historically shown that after intense training camps that he performs well.

Aside from Phelps, look for Chase Kalisz to have a great race and improve on his seed time here. Dylla will touch just in front of Kalisz with Kremer and Prenot holding a bit more space in between their finishes.

The dark horse is Zsombor ACS who is a Hungarian National Team member and going for an Olympic cut time. Expect to see him step it up in this race.

As one of the top performers in the 50 free this season, Christine Magnuson is the most likely to take home a first place finish especially everyone else in the field has been swimming a bit slower than their seed times. With that said, look for Annie Chandler and Cierra Runge to make her way into the top 5.

The dark horse for the 50 free is a bit tougher than most, but we have picked Elizabeth Jordan who is seeded with a yards time of 23.43 and will be attempting to hit her Olympics qualifying time.

Moving into the men's side of the 50 free, the field gets extremely tight, but the key swimmer to watch is Jason Lezak. With Lezak, seeded second, being 10 years older than the first and third seeds (Krisztian Takas and Masayuki Kishida, respectively), will his age be a factor in the race or will the veteran be able to pull out a top three placement?

The dark horse of the 50 free isn't really a dark horse at all, but someone who is seeded as a yards time…Austin Staab. Staab will come out strong, but I'm unsure as to how high he'll make it up the rankings in this meet. I do, however, think that he'll be in the top 12 at the end of the day.

With the recent news that Maggie Meyer will not be at the Grand Prix, Natalie Coughlin will surely take home the first place victory in the women's 100m back. That said, it would have been a great duel for first place as Coughlin and Meyer have posted similar personal bests for the season with Madison White nearly a second off for her season's personal best.

The dark horse for the women's 100m back is seeded all the way at 23, but I can see her moving into the top 10; Morgan Scroggy.

David Plummer. Matt Grevers. Michael Phelps. If I have to say any more than those three names and you're not wanting to watch this race right now, you're in the wrong place! Phelps is, by far, the most heralded athlete in that bunch while Grevers has the best time for this season in the event, and Plummer gave Phelps a serious run for his money at the Minnesota Grand Prix. The only way that it could be a better race is if Nick Thoman, Ryan Lochte and a few other prolific swimmers were to join in.

As for the dark horse, I have to go with Masayuki Kishida who is going to be focusing on an Olympic cut time, but will miss out on top placement.

With Chloe Sutton sitting this meet out, the field will be led by the North Baltimore trio of Allison Schmitt, Gillian Ryan and Camryne Morris. While they won't necessarily finish in a 1-2-3 fashion, I am expecting to see great swims out of these three (Allison Schmitt especially).

The dark horse for this event is 17 year old Hali Flickinger who needs to start putting some races together in preparation for trials. So far this year, she has been between a 4:19 and 4:24; that margin should be narrowed and we could see a great swim out of her.

Glaesner and Patton will have a tough battle for first in this event with Basson and Verraszto dueling for third/fourth. DeJong is currently seeded at 8, but has shown (this season) that he can contend with the other top five swimmers listed. Look for Glaesner to barely hold on to a first place finish with it coming down to the last 50 length and a similar result for Basson and Verraszto.

The dark horse for this event is Mark Papp (Hungarian National Team) who won't place in the top 10, but will have a good performance as he aims for a cut time (like his fellow teammates).

Andrea Kropp will most likely dominate for the 200 breaststroke with a time around 2:27 high and Tyler coming in second around a 2:29 low. Liz Smith will look to improve on her season's personal best time of 2:30.25 and stay up with Tyler while Sztankovics and Zhu battle it out for fourth/fifth.

Our dark horse pick is Celina Li who posted a season best of 2:49.97 back in September. I'd look for her to swim closer to her 2:35 seed time and move into the top 10 of the pack.

Versfeld and Kitajima will duel for first and second position throughout this race while Kitajima will come out on top by a very slim margin. Alexandrov will get into the wall with a safe third while Burckle and Molnar face off for the fourth/fifth placement. Overall, this will be a great race to watch to see Kitajima, Versfeld and Alexandrov perform.

The dark horse for the 200 breast, while not really seeded as a dark horse (since he's at 8 right now) is Chase Kalisz. I'm curious to see how Kalisz is able to put together a race and potentially contend for a top 5 placement here.