Caroline Burckle Earns Olympic Berth in 200 Freestyle Finals Wednesday
Thursday, July 3, 2008 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Caroline Burckle (Louisville, Ky.) will represent the Orange and Blue in Beijing after swimming a lifetime best time in finals of the 200-meter freestyle (1:57.93) to finish fourth overall at day four of the U.S. Olympic Trials at the Qwest Center in Omaha Wednesday.
Burckle went a lifetime best time in finals of the 200 free for the third time in the 2008 Olympic Trials, first in prelims (1:59.09), next in the semifinal event (1:58.50) and again during finals (1:57.93), shaving off significant time each outing. The top six women in the 200 free qualified to represent Team USA in Beijing. Burckle, who also swam in the 2004 Olympic Trials, will be making her Olympic debut at the 2008 Games in China.
Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) finished preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle race in ninth place (48.88) Wednesday morning to advance to the semifinal round in the evening session. Heated eighth going into semifinals after second-seed Michael Phelps scratched from the event, Lochte returned a 48.65 (fifth place) performance to qualify for the top-eight final Thursday.
Daniel Penniman (Pensacola, Fla.), a 2007-08 Gator senior, joined Lochte in 100-meter free action, racing to a career-best time of 50.40, a 42nd-place finish in prelims, surpassing his previous best time of 51.62. UF teammates Tim Hughes (Winter Park, Fla.) and Jos Smith (Milledgeville, Ga.) ironically engaged in a four-way tie with trials competitors Scott Sorge and Eric McGinnis for 82nd place with a 51.33 finish. Only Smith and Sorge were in the same heat of the 100 free prelims. The mark was a career-best time for both Gators.
After setting a career-best mark in the 200 fly on day three of competition Tuesday, Clark Burckle (Louisville, Ky.) was the second Gator, including Lochte, to secure a spot in finals of his respective event Wednesday. Burckle earned a ticket to the semifinal round of the 200-meter breaststroke after topping his career-best time by two-and-a-half seconds (2:12.86) in prelims, then turning in a 2:13.05 semifinals swim. Burckle will be heated eighth going into the eight-man final Thursday. Kyle Deery (Daytona Beach, Fla.) additionally swam preliminaries of the 200 breast, clocking in at a personal best time of 2:17.18, good for 22nd place.
Rounding out the competition for the Gators on day four were current UF swimmers Sarah Sykes (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Lindsay Woodward (Assonet, Mass.), who represented Florida in the 200-meter butterfly prelims. Both Sykes (2:16.85) and Woodward (2:17.33) bettered their personal best times placing 61st and 70th, respectively.
As the U.S. Olympic Trials continue Thursday, track all preliminary and final action with the following line-up as Gator legend Dara Torres takes to the pool in preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle Thursday morning.
Thursday, July 3 Prelims, 12 p.m. (ET), NBCOlympics.com
100 Free – women
200 Back – men
200 Breast – women
200 IM – men
Thursday, July 3 Finals, 7:45 p.m. (ET), USA
200 Breast – men – FINAL
100 Free – women – semifinal
200 Back – men - semifinal
200 Fly – women – FINAL
100 Free – men – FINAL
200 Breast – women – semifinal
200 IM – men – semifinal
-UF-
