UF Swimmers Accumulate Five Career Best Swims on Day Four of U.S. Open
Saturday, August 2, 2008 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Kyle Coan (Plantation, Fla.), Laurabeth Guenthner (Wellington, Fla.), Stephanie Proud (Durham, England), Kelsy Smith (Cary, N.C.) and Rex Tullius (Port Orange, Fla.) led the charge for UF on day four of the U.S. Open with career-best swims in their respective events. The Gators will wrap up the five-day competition Saturday at the Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.
In 200-meter freestyle action, Proud recorded a 2:02.21 (14th) to return for the B final of the event Friday evening where she shaved off a tenth of a second to clock in at 2:02.17 (14th). Sarah Peterson (Franklin, Tenn.), Guenthner and Jenne Ballatore (Gainesville, Fla.) finished 31st (2:03.91), 35th (2:04.15) and 43rd (2:04.64), respectively. Guenthner?s time was a career-best by nearly three seconds, her previous best time being 2:07.55.
Coan and Logan Storie (Corvallis, Ore.) led the Gator men in the 200 free, Coan producing a 22nd (1:52.73) prelims time, good for the C final event where he dropped an additional second to tap in at a career-best 1:51.52, good for 21st place. Storie came in at 1:53.19, good for a 26th prelims finish.
In day four 100-meter breaststroke action, Clark Burckle (Louisville, Ky.) was the lone Florida representation, clocking a 1:02.82 (8th) finals swim after recording a 1:02.94 (8th) morning prelimary swim.
Proud achieved her second career-best performance of the day in the 100-meter backstroke, tapping in at 1:03.06 (15th), which qualified her for the B final of the event, which she scratched before the evening finals event. Smith additionally captured a career-best mark finishing 29th with a time of 1:03.99. Peterson also swam the 100-back, her second event of the day, touching at 1:04.97, a 46th-place finish.
Tullius rallied for the men in the 100-meter back, racing to a near-career best mark in preliminaries with a 55.55, good for sixth place and a trip to the A evening final and returned in the evening showdown to shatter his morning time with a career best 55.25 fourth-place finish.
The highest placing athlete in each event at the U.S. Open, who will be enrolled as a full-time university student through Jan. 1 2009, will be invited to the World University Games Team. The 2009 World University Games will be held from July 2-7, 2009, in Belgrade, Serbia. Additional qualifying procedures can be found online at www.usaswimming.org.
Saturday preliminaries and finals will continue from Minneapolis at 9 a.m. (CST) with the 200 IM, 50 free, women 1500 free, men 800 free and both the men and women 4x100 medley relays. Finals are slated to begin at 6 p.m. (CST).
Follow the final day of the 2008 U.S. Open from the Minnesota Aquatic Center live by visiting http://www.starswimming.org/results/usaswimming/index.htm or visit www.GatorZone.com for a recap following the final day of action.
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