Rising Arizona State sophomore Leo Roden sent his Sun Devil teammates into a frenzy earlier this week when he earned a last-minute Olympic Trials cut in the 50-meter freestyle, right before the qualifying window closed on Tuesday.
Roden ripped a personal-best 22.53 swimming alone in a timed final, taking a few tenths off his previous-best 22.88 from last month and dipping under the Olympic Trials cut of 22.79. Check out the race video below for the celebration at the end:
Roden has seen massive improvement in the 50 free since arriving in Tempe, dropping more than a second over the past couple months off his 23.78 from last July.
The Georgia native began his impressive progression with a 23.31 at the Pro Swim Series in April. He broke 23 seconds for the first time with a 22.88 at the Sun Devil Open last month. At the PSC Summer Invitational from May 31 through June 3, he posted a 23.05 in the final for 2nd place behind Xander Skinner (22.94) before blasting a lifetime best in a timed final.
Roden didn’t swim at the 2024 Pac-12 Championships or NCAAs in his first season at ASU, which saw the Sun Devils capture their first national title in program history. All signs point to the 19-year-old freestyler staying at ASU under head coach Herbie Behm, a sprint specialist, instead of following former coach Bob Bowman to Texas. Both the Sun Devils (Big 12) and Longhorns (SEC) will be competing in new conferences next season.
The 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials will take place from June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This program is really impressive… suspect and hope they will do well without Bob, no shade on him.
Pool was actually 30 minute drive from Tempe. 20+ teammates made the drive on a Monday evening to cheer him on. Awesome team culture!
Here is an excerpt of a Comment responding to the last article posted on the 2024 Sun Devil Open (6/15-17/24):
“Leo Roden had an(sic) excellent meet; 50 free dropped PB from :23.31 to :22.88, just 0.09 off Trials. He
advanced his 100 free from :51.31 to :50.47, 0.48 off Trials. It will come, Leo.” (Emphasis added.)
Didn’t know it would come quite so quickly. Congratulations to Leo and his excited supporters.
Congrats Leo!
ASU culture >
And what Herbie Behm does with sprinters!!! Can’t wait to get the new freshmen sprinters in the program…
This rocks! Enjoy trials!
I love this video! The chaos at the end, when the person holding the camera loses focus because of the excitement, the mobbing of the swimmer, the cheering….This is what it’s all about!