Big morning swim from Liam Bell. Drop 1+ seconds in the 100m breaststroke to qualify for the semi-finals in 6th place. He's going to need to find at least another .5s to be in the mix if he does qualify for the finals by being top 8 tonight. He was pretty long on his finish, which might be .1s or so. Luke Rodarte also qualified in the same event T8. He may have only spent 1 year at Cal, but that's a .5s PB for him from last summer.
Otherwise, the only other swimmers with any tie to Cal earning second swims after the first morning session were Aaron and Alex Shackell. Obviously, with Aaron, I wish him only the best after deciding to move on from Cal after 1 semester. He was just off his best time, but he's going to need to be at least 1s faster to get under the Olympic qualifying time (2 Americans have to get under this time in order for Team USA to send 2 swimmers) and realistically probably closer to 2s faster to potentially earn the spot. There's also no semi-final for the 400m freestyle so tonight's the night. As for his younger sister Alex, she has the incredibly difficult challenge of being the newcomer trying to take on Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, Regan Smith, and Claire Curzan. She's not even 16 and finished 4th this morning. Her time this morning already shaved time off her PB, but it's probably not going to be enough for her to breakthrough in this event. It's not her best event, but it's sure a good one to help shake off the cobwebs and get some of the racing jitters off.
Just to be consistent with what I had done before, I think I would have to list Aaron Schakell on the list of "Calympians" even though he left after just one semester and is about to join Texas. Schakell qualified for Paris by winning the 400 Free on Saturday night.
This would also be one of a few potential discrepancies between our record and what Cal Athletics put out since they made no mention of his Olympic qualifying (and Texas Athletics did).
Big morning swim from Liam Bell. Drop 1+ seconds in the 100m breaststroke to qualify for the semi-finals in 6th place. He's going to need to find at least another .5s to be in the mix if he does qualify for the finals by being top 8 tonight. He was pretty long on his finish, which might be .1s or so. Luke Rodarte also qualified in the same event T8. He may have only spent 1 year at Cal, but that's a .5s PB for him from last summer.
Otherwise, the only other swimmers with any tie to Cal earning second swims after the first morning session were Aaron and Alex Shackell. Obviously, with Aaron, I wish him only the best after deciding to move on from Cal after 1 semester. He was just off his best time, but he's going to need to be at least 1s faster to get under the Olympic qualifying time (2 Americans have to get under this time in order for Team USA to send 2 swimmers) and realistically probably closer to 2s faster to potentially earn the spot. There's also no semi-final for the 400m freestyle so tonight's the night. As for his younger sister Alex, she has the incredibly difficult challenge of being the newcomer trying to take on Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, Regan Smith, and Claire Curzan. She's not even 16 and finished 4th this morning. Her time this morning already shaved time off her PB, but it's probably not going to be enough for her to breakthrough in this event. It's not her best event, but it's sure a good one to help shake off the cobwebs and get some of the racing jitters off.
Thanks, Christopher, for this comprehensive rundown of the Cal-affiliated competitors in each event. Go Bears!
Just to be consistent with what I had done before, I think I would have to list Aaron Schakell on the list of "Calympians" even though he left after just one semester and is about to join Texas. Schakell qualified for Paris by winning the 400 Free on Saturday night.
This would also be one of a few potential discrepancies between our record and what Cal Athletics put out since they made no mention of his Olympic qualifying (and Texas Athletics did).
Ryan Murphy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bzVjeY0Q28