2021 U.S. Olympic Trials Wave II: Rio Olympian Gunnar Bentz Scratches 400 IM

2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS

Day 1 Finals Heat Sheets

Entering the first finals session, there was only one scratch to report, Gunnar Bentz‘s No. 6 seed in the men’s 400 IM. Bentz swam 4:16.61 to qualify into the top 8 final, which was three seconds under his entry time of 4:19.98. Leading the men’s 400 IM race include 19-year-old Carson Foster (4:10.50) and Rio Olympians Chase Kalisz (4:10.61) and Jay Litherland (4:13.28).

Bentz’s scratch bumped in Michael Daly, who originally placed 9th by 0.05s at 4:17.65 behind now No. 7 finals seed Sam Stewart (4:17.60). Daly entered the meet with the 17th-fastest seed at 4:19.58.

During the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Bentz swam a pair of 4:13s, which placed 4th in both prelims and finals. Bentz also placed 4th in the 200 fly (1:56.46) and 200 IM (1:59.36) finals that year. Bentz qualified for the Olympic team in the 200 free, where his 5th place time of 1:47.33 got him a spot on the prelims 800 free relay in Rio.

Bentz has two more events left on his schedule: the 200 fly and 200 IM. He is the No. 8 seed in the 200 fly at 1:56.20 while he currently sits in No. 17 at 2:00.28.

Full Day 1 Finals Scratch Report

  • Men’s 400 IM: No. 6 Gunnar Bentz
  • Women’s 100 Fly: 
  • Men’s 400 Free:
  • Women’s 400 IM:
  • Men’s 100 Breast:

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Mark Nedza
2 years ago

Looking forward to his 200 fly. Go Dawgs!

We Are
2 years ago

Exciting for Daly and PSU. That was a great swim this morning.

Marmot
2 years ago

His fly does look like it’s on point. He’s probably got a great chance in the 200 butterfly.

mds
2 years ago

Amazing. Gunnar makes the team in the 200 Free in 2016 but isn’t even entered in that event in 2021. According to SWIMS database his fastest 200 in the qual period was 1:50.6

X Glide
2 years ago

Smart. I liked how that first 100 looked. Bodes well for the 2 fly

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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