Sandra Freeman Earns First Olympic Trials Cut at Mt Hood Sectionals

Our recap of last night’s finals are right here.

Tonight’s finals of the Mt. Hood Western Sectionals featured only four individual events, the 200 free and 400 IM for men and women, as well as the 200 free relays.

Boulder Swimming’s Sandra Freeman earned herself a new Olympic Trials cut in the women’s 400 IM tonight, winning the event with a new personal best time of 4:53.95, which cleared the qualification standard of 4:54.99 by over a full second. This is Freeman’s first OT cut ever, and her lifetime best coming into this meet was a 4:55.95– she lopped two full seconds off of that. The 400 IM is by far her best event, and it looks as though she’s back on an improvement curve after failing to notch a best time for almost two full years. The sixteen-year-old was a 4:58.19 back in July of 2013, and didn’t better that time until the 4:55.95 from last month.

Dylan Bunch might be better known for his distance freestyle prowess; he finished 7th in the mile at the 2015 NCAA Championships, and holds University of Denver school records in both the 500 and 1650 free. Tonight, however, he found himself on top of the men’s 400 IM field with a winning time of 4:28.88, the only swimmer to break 4:30. What’s interesting about this swim is the fact that Bunch had never been under 4:47.0 in this race until he swam a 4:33.83 at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara this past June. Today was his first time under 4:30, after cruising to a 4:37.39 this morning, though Bunch is a bit off of the Trials cut of 4:27.49.

In the 200 freestyle, event winners Eryn Eddy (Loveland Swim Club) on the women’s side and Ryan McCoy (Phoenix Swim Club) on the men’s side were just off of Trials cuts, too. Eddy won in 2:03.30, 1.01 seconds back of the qualifying standard, though she already has the cut with the 2:00.78 she swam at Junior Nationals last summer. With her times thus far in the meet off of her bests, she looks to be focusing her taper on a National meet later this summer. Meanwhile, McCoy clocked a 1:52.14 to win the men’s 200 free, just missing out on the OT cut of 1:51.89. He’ll likely try to go for that mark at Nationals in August.

Scottsdale Aquatics Club won a hotly contested race in the women’s 200 free relay, finishing in 1:46.22 over The Dolphins (1:46.26). Both relays had an anchor leg split under 26 seconds– for Scottsdale it was Taylor Ruck (25.49) and for The Dolphins it was Sierra Sexton (25.82).

Phoenix Swim Club won the men’s relay in 1:34.63 over the Denver Hilltoppers (1:35.13). The most impressive split came from yesterday’s 100 free winner Kyle Robrock, who rocked a 22.59 on the end of the Hilltoppers’ relay to try to overcome the Phoenix lead.

FULL RESULTS HERE