The last time Alex Meyer on American soil was when the conditions were rough in Fort Lauderdale. During that rough water, the Harvard graduate battled all kinds of ocean chop to win the 2011 World Championships qualifier. Early in today’s USA Swimming Championship 10 km race on Castaic Lake, the wind kicked up surface chop in the tranquil lake and gave Meyer the conditions that he is well-suited for.

After a relatively slow pace in the early chaotic part of the race when the field bunched up on one another, Meyer then took off early in the second half with Sean Ryan and Andrew Gemmell. As the winds continued to whip up the lake, the trio made the race a 3-man swim-off for the two available spots on the USA Swimming team for the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona.

The experienced podium finishers played their cards just right relative to the inexperienced field. They caught everyone by surprise and zoomed past the feeding station to open up an insurmountable lead over the 37-man pack. “They opened up a huge lead on us,” said fifth-place Joey Pedraza. “I fed on the third lap and just tried to catch up. Jordan [Wilimovsky] and I left the second pack and we took off to chase Alex and the other guys. I felt like my pace was smooth the whole time, but we got tired when we started chasing the top three.”

Now fully recovered from his broken clavicle that hampered him during the Olympic year, Meyer is ready to make a run to return to the top of the world’s elite, a position he last reigned as the 2010 world 25 km champion.

The final results:

1. Alex Meyer 1:54:58.94
2. Sean Ryan 1:55:01.25
3. Andrew Gemmell 1:55:11.13
4. Jordan Wilimovsky 1:56:06.47
5. Joey Pedraza 1:56:09.66
6. Chip Peterson 1:57:02.31
7. Ryan Feeley 1:57:16.31
8. Sam Petersen 1:57:36.93
9. Arthur Frayler 1:58:16.00
10. David Heron 1:58:48.09
11. Daniel O’Connor 1:59:28.07
12. Drew Ledwith 1:59:42.16
13. Luke Trimmer 1:59:50.07
14. Janardan Burns 2:01:06.36
15. Christoph Grimmett-Norris 2:01:36.03
16. Riley Mita 2:01:44.27
17. Steve Sholdra 2:02:05.19
18. Nicholas DeVito 2:02:26.33
19. Scott Simmer 2:02:30.34
20. Bryan Draganosky 2:02:41.66
21. Shawn Parkhurst 2:05:42.73
22. Bryce Bevier 2:06:01.22
23. Scott Clausen 2:06:13.68
24. Nick Norman 2:06:37.19
25. Dirk Bell 2:07:38.44
26. Bradley Phillips 2:09:00.46
27. Bobby Yribarren 2:09:13.38
28. Matt Roe 2:09:13.73
29. Travis Morrin 2:09:31.79
30. Alex Nickell 2:12:47.46
31. Brandon Johnson 2:16:02.15
32. Noah Martin 2:19:35.94
33. Brendan Casey DNF
34. Brennan Jacobsen DNF
35. Ryan Kao DNS
36. Kyle Kemp OTL
37. Cory Mayfield DNF
38. Ben Miller DNS

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