Ledecky glides to 800 win

SANTA CLARA >> Katie Ledecky glided to another victory in the 800-meter freestyle Saturday night at the TYR Pro Series at Santa Clara.

The Stanford swimmer cruised in at 8 minutes 11.08 seconds — 15 seconds ahead of runnerup Leah Smith. It marked Ledecky’s second victory in the four-day meet that ends today at the George F. Haines International Swim Center.

Ledecky’s teammate, Simone Manuel, also finished Saturday’s program with a victory in a time of 53.85 seconds in the 100 freestyle. Manuel finished ahead of teammates Lia Neal and Ledecky, who took second and fourth.

Regan Smith, 16, showed great promise going 59.75 in the 100 backstroke to overtake Kylie Masse, the reigning world champion, by one-hundredth of a second. Masse, who holds the world record in the event, finished in 59.76.

The men’s 100 backstroke also was close as two-time Olympic champion Ryan Murphy of Cal won (53.26). Ryosuke Irie and fellow Cal teammate Jacob Pebley finished second and third.

“If you fast-forward a month from now, that’s what the Pan-Pac finals are going to look like,” Murphy said, referencing this summer’s Pan-Pacifics, the main international competition this year in August in Japan.

In an interesting twist, another Cal Olympian, Nathan Adrian, swam the second-fastest 100 freestyle overall from the consolation final. Adrian barely missed the championship final in morning preliminaries. Adrian touched in 48.99, which would have placed second in the final to Caeleb Dressel’s winning time of 48.96. Dressel said he was pleased with his time, adding he didn’t think he had ever been under 49 seconds this early in the season.

“The time is totally irrelevant right now,” Dressel said. “It’s just really hammering down on technique, technique within the race and strategy.”

In the women’s 200 butterfly, Cal’s Katie McLaughlin placed first in 2:10.40. Smith, expected to be a future U.S. star, took third in the butterfly after prevailing in the 100 backstroke.

In the men’s 800 free, Zane Grothe overtook distance champion Park Tae Hwan by two seconds in 7:55.14. In the women’s 100 breaststroke, Lilly King finished first in 1:05.61.

AT A GLANCE

At George F. Haines International Swim Center

Today: Prelims, 9 a.m.; Finals , 5 p.m.