Indiana Distance Specialists Hafnaoui, Denigan Absent from Ohio State Invite

Two of Indiana’s distance specialists were absent from the Ohio State Invite, which kicked off this morning with a long course prelims session. The 400 free, 200 IM, and 50 free were contested this morning. Finals will be in yards, adding in the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay to bookend the session.

Olympic and World Champion Ahmed Hafnaoui’s future with Indiana remains unclear. After swimming two dual meets with the Hoosiers, he is now training with TST in California. In an October dual meet with Kentucky, Hafnaoui clocked 3:56.41 in the 400 free, which would have been good for 6th in this morning’s prelim session. He holds a best time of 3:40.70 from his silver-medal worthy performance in Fukuoka last summer and is the 5th fastest all-time performer in the event.

Without Hafnaoui, Indiana still placed four athletes in the top 10 of the 400 free. Junior Jackson Carlile leads the pack at 5th (3:56.16), just 0.25 ahead of Hafnaoui’s season best.

US Open Water National Teamer Mariah Denigan was also absent, though she continues to train in Bloomington according to social media posts.

Indiana head coach Ray Looze says that Denigan is taking the fall semester off to focus on open water training and will rejoin the team for Big Tens and NCAAs – her only two planned meets of the collegiate season. Last season, she placed 7th in the 1650, setting her personal best in the process (15:52.18). She made her first Worlds appearance last summer, placing 15th in the 10km race.

Denigan’s best time in the 400 free stands at 4:11.18. The Indiaina women had a strong showing this morning, with junior teammate Anna Peplowski dropping nearly seven seconds from her best time (4:12.80) to lead prelims.