Jul 3, 2008

Breeden fastest 200 fly qualifier

From Daily News Dispatches

OMAHA, Neb. - As the 2008 USA Olympic Swimming Trials reached its halfway point, Stanford's Elaine Breeden continued to make a strong push for a trip to Beijing with a stellar performance in the 200-meter butterfly semifinals. After finishing second in the finals of the 100 fly, Breeden's time of 2:07.33 was the fastest by .70-seconds of the eight qualifiers for tonight's 200-meter final.

In other events, Julia Smit captured her second third-place finish at the trials when she swam a 1:56.73 in the 200-meter freestyle - just .85-seconds off the second-place time and a spot on the Olympic team.

In addition to Breeden's 200 fly final tonight, other Cardinal swimmers slated to be in action today are: Kate Dwelley, Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Madeline Rovira and Smit in the 100 free prelims, along with Kerry Kraemer, Tara Kirk and Elizabeth Smith in the 200 breaststroke prelims.



On the men's side

Stanford's Ben Wildman-Tobriner led the Cardinal men's swimmers into the halfway point of the trials, qualifying for tonight's 100-meter freestyle final with a time of 48.71 seconds. The longer 100-meter distance is a precursor for Wildman-Tobriner to Friday's 50-meter free, which he enters as the top seed with a 21.80-second qualifying time - just four-hundredths of a second off Gary Hall Jr.'s American record of 21.76.

Stanford also received solid efforts in Wednesday's 200 breaststroke semifinals, as Chris Ash finished ninth with a time of 2:13.16 (just .11 shy of qualifying for the finals). Paul Zaich touched the wall in a time of 2:14.17, which was good for 11th place.

Today will see Stanford's Eugene Godsoe, Peter Marshall and Hongzhe Sun compete in the 200 backstroke prelims, while Nate Cass, Josh Charnin-Aker and Scott Lathrope will hit the Qwest Center pool for the 200 individual medley prelims.