The sprinters again shined on day 2 prelims at the 2012 Swimvitational in the Olympic pool in Omaha, Nebraska.
In the women’s 50 free, Arizona’s Margo Geer in 25.45, which is just .03 from her lifetime best at last summer’s National Championships. If the 100 on Friday is any indicator, expect her to be even faster in the final.
Rhi Jeffrey was 2nd in 25.71, with Beckie Thompson 3rd in 26.10.
South Africa’s Roland Schoeman, trained in Phoenix, has been on fire at this meet after learning officially about his Olympic bid from Swimming South Africa earlier this week. He took the top seed in prelims in 22.19, just ahead of Japanese sprinter Masa Kishida in 22.38. Those two were well out ahead of the field, with Arizona’s Adam Small taking the 3rd seed in 22.97.
Darian Townsend topped the men’s 200 free in 1:51.24, followed by Arizona senior Peter Stacy in 1:51.54 – a huge best time for him.
Alyssa Anderson topped the women’s 200 free prelim in 2:01.68, after a great 100 free on Friday. This swim was done while waiting to find out about her sister Haley’s Olympic qualification in Portugal, and spurred on by that success, I think that Alyssa should be under two-minutes tonight.
Cory Chitwood and Matt Grevers set up a great, middle-of-the-pool battle in the men’s 200 back final. Grevers has better credentials than his training partner, but Chitwood is a 200 specialist and defending NCAA Champion in the race. The University of Denver’s William van Dehy was 3rd in 2:04.96 and Sean Lehane 4th in 2:04.98; those are both great times, but the two men from Tucson should pull away from those guys in the evening session.
