2024 Art Adamson Invitational
- November 20-22, 2024
- College Station, Texas
- 25 Yards (SCY)
- Prelims: 9:30 am CT/Finals: 5:30 pm CT
- Watch: SECN+ Network
- Live Results: “Art Adamson Invitational” on MeetMobile
The 2024 Art Adamson Invitational got underway this morning, with Texas A&M playing host to Air Force, Incarnate Word, TCU, Utah, and Washington State.
The first prelims session featured heats of the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, and 50 freestyle. Texas A&M controlled much of the morning, taking the top seed in four of the six events.
Top Seeds:
- Women’s 500 freestyle: Hayden Miller, Texas A&M — 4:40.78
- Men’s 500 freestyle: Nick Chirafisi, Utah — 4:21.71
- Women’s 200 IM: Olivia Theall, Texas A&M — 1:58.64
- Men’s 200 IM: Baylor Nelson, Texas A&M — 1:43.58
- Women’s 50 freestyle: Erin Palmer, Utah — 22.25
- Men’s 50 freestyle: Connor Foote, Texas A&M — 19.32
In the women’s 500 freestyle, junior Hayden Miller swam a season-best of 4:40.78, cruising to the morning’s top time. Even with finals remaining, Miller is already significantly faster than she was at this meet last season when she swam 4:43.22 as a sophomore transfer. In the first swim of her 500 freestyle/50 freestyle double, Chloe Stepanek took second place in 4:42.71, just .11 seconds from her lifetime best. Washington State’s Dori Hathazi broke 5:00 for the first time this season to qualify third overall (4:52.47).
The Utah Utes had a strong showing in the men’s 500 freestyle, taking the top two seeds and three of the top five. Sophomore Nick Chirafisi clocked a lifetime best of 4:21.71 to touch first overall. He shaved .34 seconds off his previous lifetime best of 4:22.05 from the 2024 PAC-12 Championships.
Chirafisi’s freshman teammate Jones Lambert clocked 4:22.81 to secure lane five for the final, trailing Chirafisi by 1.10 seconds. Lambert edged out Incarnate Word’s Panos Vlachogiannakos by two hundredths to qualify second overall.
Olivia Theall also took on a double on day one of the invite. In her first swim, she qualified first overall in the 200 IM, crushing her previous lifetime best of 1:59.63 with a 1:58.64. Theall swam her old standard at the 2022 Art Adamson Invitational.
The top three swimmers in the women’s 200 IM all broke the 2:00 mark. Behind Theall, Emily Lundgren swam a season-best 1:59.26 to move through to the final in second. Lungren’s been as fast as 1:58.67, which she swam at last season’s NCAA Championships. Theall’s teammate Giulia Goerigk rounded out the top three qualifiers with a 1:59.62.
The Texas A&M men have a couple of strengths that they know how to mine. Diving’s one, and their IM group is another. The Aggies rolled through the men’s 200 IM prelims, taking four of the top five spots. Baylor Nelson led the way with a 1:43.58, with Munzy Kabbara qualifying in second with a 1:44.78, more than a second behind Nelson’s pace.
Alex Sanchez (1:45.01) and Logan Brown (1:46.20) are the other two Aggies to qualify in the top five. TCU’s Geremia Freri is the lone non-Aggie in the top five qualifiers; the Italian international swimmer out-touched Brown by .08 hundredths to qualify fourth.
Erin Palmer gave Utah their second top seed of the morning. She swam a big lifetime best to get there, dropping from 22.41 at last year’s Art Adamson Invite to 22.25 this morning. She hit the wall .14 seconds ahead of Stepanek on the back half of her double. Stepanek has been as fast as 22.06. Both she and Theall qualified for the women’s 50 free ‘A’ final, as Theall also completed her double. Theall moved through in fifth seed after swimming 22.87.
Kaitlyn Owens chopped a tenth off her lifetime best, swimming 22.44 to qualify third, out-touching Washington State’s Darcy Revitt by a hundredth. Revitt is an international freshman from the UK, and her swim here took a half-second off her PB from earlier this season.
On the men’s side, Connor Foote sailed to the top time of the morning in the 50 freestyle. He had a breakthrough in this event last season, breaking 19 seconds for the first time. This morning, he touched in 19.32, taking over the top seed by over three-tenths ahead of teammate Ben Scholl. While Foote and School managed to edge out into clean water, third through fifth seed were bunched together this morning. Fabio Fasolo (19.86), Collin Fuchs (19.88), and Jadon Wuilliez (19.92) were separated by six-hundredths.
