Josh Prenot – A Man of Many Caps, Just Not His Own

Cal junior Josh Prenot has quietly put himself in great position to qualify for the 2014 Pan Pacs team this weekend. With 3rd-place finishes in both the 200 breaststroke on Thursday (2:10.43) and the 400 IM on Friday (4:14.85), Prenot will have to wait to see where the numbers break, but the odds are presently in his favor.

If he does make the Pan Pacs roster, hopefully someone can get him some new caps before the trip to the Pan Pac Championships. This week in Irvine, he’s been borrowing for his races, and in the 400 IM he actually wore two different swimmers’ caps.

In prelims, he was wearing a Team USA cap that read “Smith,” which we can only presume belongs to Giles Smith (as ubiquitous as the last name “Smith” is, he’s the only recent National Teamer that we can think of with it).

Then, in finals, where Prenot really needed to step up against not only a very good field, but a field that was swimming very well, he turned to Cal teammate Adam Hinshaw for the boost.

Maybe this is a response to @SWIMHALEY’s caps. Maybe Prenot kept ripping his caps on the way to the blocks. Maybe, he just wanted to confuse SwimSwam’s readers every time we use his picture with someone else’s name on the cap. Maybe he’s got a personal vendetta against meet announcers Sam Kendricks and Michael Poropat, and wanted to throw them for a loop (they were unphased). Any which way, the strategy has come up with some good results, a second-straight spot on the National Team, and perhaps a free trip to Australia. Why stop now?

In prelims of the men’s 400 IM at the 2014 U.S. National Championships, Josh Prenot was Giles Smith. (Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

In finals of the 400 IM, Josh Prenot was Adam Hinshaw. (Photo Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)