U.S. Olympic Swim Trials Day 2 (June 14): W 100 Fly Final; 100 Back and M. 200 Free Prelim/Semi
Katie McLaughlin will race in 100 Fly final tonight. 100 Back prelim/semi and Men's 200 Free mean a busy day for the Cal Bears.
Day 1 of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials on Sunday came and went without too many great results for the Cal Bears. An ongoing power outage also prevented me from watching and writing about the finals (I really hope that is resolved by this afternoon). The primary result of note is that Cal alum Katie McLaughlin had earned a spot in tonight's (Monday night’s) Women’s 100 Fly Final, where she will need to really drop some time (like a second to low 56s) to challenge for the top-2 spot from her current No.5 seed with a time of 57.63s, a slight improvement after being 6th overall after the prelims.
On the other hand, some of the current Cal Bears did post some very encouraging results. Rising junior Rachel Klinker made the 100 Fly semifinal and finished 10th (58.39). Rising junior Jason Louser (4:18.77) finished 11th in 400 IM, besting recent alum Sean Grieshop (4:22.67, 16th).
I also would not necessarily read too much into the slow times for both rising senior Reece Whitley and Calympian alum Josh Prenot in 100 Breast. Both of them are much better in 200 Breast, anyhow.
On to Monday’s action:
Backstroke on the schedule means that some of the more prominent Calympians will be in action today. Both Calympians Ryan Murphy and Kathleen Baker should be able to qualify for Tuesday night’s final by posting top-8 times today, but they could be joined by some fellow Cal Bears there. A couple of potential 1st-time Calympians in recent graduates Andrew Seliskar and Trenton Julian could also make some major strides in men’s 200 Free (which has 6 Olympic berths available).
Depending on my power situation at home, I may or may not be able to update this post with results like I had intended.
Monday, June 14 Schedule of Events (and Results)
Monday, June 14
Morning session 8 AM PT LIVESTREAM
Women’s 100 backstroke preliminaries
Cal Bears: Ayla Spitz (Heat 3), Isabel Ivey (Heat 6), Amy Bilquist (Heat 7), Isabelle Stadden (Heat 8), Kathleen Baker (Heat 8)
Qualified for semifinals:
6: Isabelle Stadden (59.53)
8: Amy Bilquist (1:00.12)
11: Kathleen Baker (1:00.46)
The rest:
22: Isabel Ivey (1:01.23)
43: Ayla Spitz (1:02.23)
Men’s 200 freestyle preliminaries
Cal Bears: Sean Grieshop (Heat 2), Zach Yeadon (Heat 2), Destin Lasco (Heat 3), Gabriel Jett (Heat 3), Dare Rose (Heat 4), Trenton Julian (Heat 5), Andrew Seliskar (Heat 7)
Qualified for semifinals:
5: Andrew Seliskar (1:47.07)
12: Trenton Julian (1:47.63)
The rest:
20: Gabriel Jett (1:48.85), winner of Heat 3, Cal commit with a cool name
29: Destin Lasco (1:49.69)
T37: Sean Grieshop (1:50.42)
41: Dare Rose (1:50.53)
50: Zack Yeadon (1:53.43)
Women’s 100 breaststroke preliminaries
Cal Bears: N/A
Men’s 100 backstroke preliminaries
Cal Bears: Destin Lasco (Heat 5), Daniel Carr (Heat 6), Bryce Mefford (Heat 7), Ryan Murphy (Heat 8)
Qualified:
1: Bryce Mefford (52.99), winner of Heat 7
3: Ryan Murphy (53.08)
12: Daniel Carr (54.18)
The rest:
17: Destin Lasco (54.53), winner of Heat 5
33: Jack Alexy (55.47), Cal commit (who I left out in the original update)
Really tough luck for Lasco here since 16th place was a time of 54.52. He was 0.01 second off a swim-off.
UPDATE: Lasco will race in tonight’s semifinal after a scratch!
Women’s 400 freestyle preliminaries
Cal Bears: N/A
Evening session 4:45 PM PT LIVESTREAM
Women’s 100 butterfly final
Katie McLaughlin (57.72) finished 5th behind Stanford commit Torri Huske (55.66) and 16-year-old Claire Curzan (56.43) who earned the two Team USA berths.
Men’s 200 freestyle semifinal
A slight fade at the end still got Andrew Seliskar (1:46.95) through to the final tomorrow night where there are likely 6 spots on Team USA available. Trenton Julian (1:47.50) finished 13th overall.
Women’s 100 breaststroke semifinal
Men’s 100 breaststroke final
Women’s 400 freestyle final
Men’s 100 backstroke semifinal
Ryan Murphy cruised to the final with the top semifinal time in men’s 100 Back. He will be joined by one of his Cal training partners in Bryce Mefford, who had the 5th overall time.
Women’s 100 backstroke semifinal
Isabelle Stadden will be the lone Cal Bears in the 100 Back final with the 4th best time (she was 3rd in her semifinal heat). It looked like Kathleen Baker had a good chance of joining her but she faded in the last 50m. Baker’s recent right foot injury, unfortunately, does appear to impact her swimming ability; we shall see if she can still power through to earn a spot in either 200 IM or 200 Back.
GO BEARS!