2024 U.S. Olympic Trials: Swims You Might Have Missed (Day 5)

2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

Did you feel it? After tonight’s session, we’ve officially passed the halfway point at this meet. As fatigue begins to set in, lets take some time to highlight those swimmers who are still firing on all cylinders on the fifth day.

I already spoiled some of the great swims of prelims in my overreaction, but luckily there were plenty more athletes who had great swims on day 4.

Maddy Huggins of Club Seminole had great swim in the women’s 200 breaststroke. The Florida State swimmer dropped over a second off her entry time to shoot up to 9th from 31st on the psych sheet (2:29.17). That was her first time under 2:30. She clocked another sub-2:30 swim at night, just a touch off her morning time to finish 12th overall (2:29.43).

Big jumps from seed was a theme of the morning. Martin Perecinsky was one of them in the men’s 200 backstroke. The Ohio State commit dropped nearly three seconds to dip under 2:00 for the first time in his career (1:58.24) to rise from 44th to 9th. He couldn’t quite back it up in semis, fading to 2:00.98, but was still under his entry time by a few hundredths of a second.

While we’re talking about the 200 back, Jay Litherland was a surprising entrant in the event. The Tokyo Olympian had a best time of 1:59.30 from 2016, and brought it all the way down to 1:57.59 by the end of semis and is 6th going into finals. While it’s unlikely he’ll make the roster, it’s impressive that Litherland has continued to improve after so long in the sport.

The women’s 200 fly was probably the quietest event of the morning, but Lucy Bell had the biggest drop to make her first semifinal. (She also made the 400 IM final.) Entered with a 2:10.53, the rising junior dropped all the way to 2:08.90 by the end of semis. She’s seeded 7th for tomorrow night, just ahead of freshman teammate Charlotte Hook.

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