FLORIDA SWIMMERS COMPETE AT DAY 1 OF OLYMPIC TRIALS
Thursday, July 8, 2004 | Women's Swimming & Diving
LONG BEACH, CA—Numerous University of Florida men's and women's swimmers opened the 2004 U.S. and Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials yesterday with a total of 11 swimmers competing to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
The men's team had five current and former swimmers begin preliminary competition with three advancing into the finals. Swimming in the U.S. Olympic Trials, Ryan Lochte finished second in the 400 IM prelims, and advanced to the finals with a time of 4:17.45. Lochte would turn in a fourth place finish in the finals in a time of 4:18.46. Former Gator, Eric Donnelly, also competed in the 400 IM with Lochte and turned in a seventh place time of 4:24.57 in the preliminaries, to also advance him into the finals of the event. Donnelly finished right behind Lochte in fifth place in a time of 4:21.91 in the finals.
Also competing in the U.S. Olympic Swimming trials were Max Jaben and Scott Kaufmann. Jaben and Kaufman both competed in the 400 freestyle preliminaries and turned in 11th and 16th place finishes respectively. Jaben touched the wall in 3:56.31 while Kaufmann finished in 3:59.30.
Representing the Gators in the Canadian Swimming Trials is Adam Sioui who competed in his first of four events yesterday. Sioui posted a fifth place time of 1:50.69 in the 200 freestyle preliminaries which was good enough to place him in the "A" Final. In the final, Sioui posted a 1:50.34 and finished in seventh place.
For the women, six swimmers competed in the 400 IM prelims at the U.S. Olympic trials. Taking 13th in the event was former Gator and 11-time All-American Sara McLarty with a time of 4:50.85. Following with a time of 4:51.97 was Gainesville native Ashley Carusone who secured a 16th place finish.
In 17th and 18th place were Katie McCann (4:52.18) and Leah Retrum (4:52.55), respectively. Both women received All-SEC honors last season and will be back in the fall to compete for the Gators. Also in the 400 IM prelims was Brittany Johnson who clocked in at 4:56.12 for a 24th-place finish. Earning All-American status in 2003 as a junior was Meredith Green who finished the preliminaries clocking 5:01.88. Green will be back this fall to continue her collegiate career.
Scheduled to compete today in the Olympic Swimming Trials are Brian Hartley in the 100 backstroke, Lochte in the 200 freestyle and Sioui in the 200 butterfly. Scheduled to compete for the women are Maureen Farrell in the 100 backstroke, Katie Ball in the 400 freestyle, Leah Retrum in the 400 freestyle and former Gator Sara McLarty also in the 400 freestyle.
The U.S. and Canadian Olympic trials will continue today and end with final heats on July 14 and July 10. Results from these trials can be found at www.usaswimming.org and www.swimming.ca. For more information about Gator athletes, visit www.gatorzone.com for daily updates.
