The second session of long course time trials following the U.S. Winter Nationals saw several nice swims, headed by a 200 back from Western Kentucky’s Nadine Laemmler and a 200 fly from Schroeder YMCA’s Hannah Saiz.
Laemmler, who impressed with a lifetime-best 100 back in the first session, did the same in the second with a 2:13.62 in the 200 back, which is the best time she’s registered with USA Swimming by almost a second. Laemmler is in her sophomore season and hails from Germany.
Meanwhile Saiz, a former Kenyon College standout, nearly hit a lifetime-best in the 200 fly, going 2:12.45. That’s just .06 off her best, set last summer, and easily got under the Olympic Trial cut, though Saiz had already qualified with her best time from earlier in the year.
Other notable swims from session 2:
- Louisville’s Nolan Tesone made his Olympic Trial cut in the 200 back by just .08 – that’s his best swim in the event since 2012, and nearly his lifetime-best of 2:03.40, which he set at the Olympic Trials
- Russian Purdue freshman Marat Amaltdinov had a nice 200 breast time of 2:13.67 and beat all other entrants by five seconds. That’s still well off what he was this past summer, though, when he broke 2:10 at the Russian Cup. Could that mean we could see some huge post-season drops from Amaltdinov in short course, where he’s been 54.15 and 1:54.46 already this year? Keep an eye on the freshman moving forward.
- Louisville’s Andee Cottrell wasn’t as fast as she was in her breakout Summer Nationals performance, but she still went 2:32.04 to win the 200 breast by a longshot. That’s two seconds under Olympic Trial cuts and the third-best swim of her career, behind prelims and finals of U.S. Nationals last summer.
- The 50 frees were strong for both genders. On the women’s side, 25-year-old Katilyn Johnson of the Lake Erie Silver Dolphins made her Olympic Trial cut with a lifetime-best 25.93, her first time under 26 seconds. Johnson was a standout for Division II Clarion University, but missed the 2012 Trials by just .19 seconds, but in 2016, she’ll finally get her Trials experience. Also hitting a Trials cut in that event was Kelsi Worrell in 25.96. Though she had qualified at Summer Nationals by just .08, this time improves on that one and is just a tenth off a lifetime-best.
- In the men’s 50 free, Auburn alum Drew Modrov, SwimMAC pro Eric Knight and Denver’s Kyle Robrock were all under the mark. Modrov (who went 22.97) and Robrock (23.29) were already into Trials, but Knight’s lifetime-best 23.11 qualifies him to swim the event in Omaha.
- Louisville’s Matthias Lindenbauer was just a tick off his lifetime-best in the 200 free, but was still a quick 1:50.99.
Full results on Meet Mobile under “2014 USA Swimming Long Course Time Trials.” Our recap of session 1 is here.
