Ledecky cruises to easy win in 800m freestyle

Katie Ledecky (pic) cruised to a nearly 11-second victory in the 800m freestyle on the opening day of the US National Championships.

Ledecky was under her own world-record pace through the first 300m before dropping off and finishing in 8:11.98 on Wednesday.

She failed to crack the top 10 performances in the event, which all belong to her.

Leah Smith chased Ledecky all the way and touched second in 8:22.79.

Ledecky earned the 14th national title of her career and a spot in the event at next month’s Pan Pacific championships in Tokyo, site of the 2020 Olympics.

“It didn’t feel super sharp but it always takes me a little time to get into these meets,” Ledecky said.

“I know people are chasing me and that’s motivating.”

Defending world and Olympic champion Simone Manuel won the 100m freestyle in 52.54 seconds, setting a US Open record.

Mallory Comerford, fourth in last year’s world meet, took second in 53.09.

Margo Geer was third and Abbey Weitzeil was fourth to grab spots on the Pan Pacific team.

“I think there’s room for improvement,” said Manuel, newly signed to a suit endorsement deal with Tyr.

“I’ve been doing pretty good things in practice that I haven’t been doing before.”

Five-time Olympic champion Missy Franklin was relegated to the C final of the 100m freetyle, which she won in her first major meet since the 2016 Rio de Janiero Games.

She is coming back from two major shoulder surgeries and a struggle with depression.

In the men’s 100m freestyle, Blake Pieroni rallied to hold off 2012 Olympic champion Nathan Adrian.

Pieroni won in 48.08 and Adrian touched in 48.25.

Townley Haas was third and world champion Zach Apple was fourth to earn trips to Tokyo.

Defending world champion Caeleb Dressel barely made it into the final and finished sixth.

“It’s certainly not the best we’ve seen from Caeleb,” Adrian said, adding that he expects to see Dressel to drop more time.

In the women’s 200m butterfly, Hali Flickinger won in 2:06.14.

The 24-year-old Georgia swimmer broke Mary T. Meagher’s 37-year-old US Open record in the preliminaries with a time of 2:05.87.

Justin Wright rallied to win the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:54.63.

Jordan Wilimovsky, who is already on the Pan Pacific team in open water, earned a spot in the pool events by winning the 1,500m freestyle in 14:48.89. — AP