Zoe Skirboll Adds Olympic Trial Cut With 56.2 in Long Course 100 Free

16-year-old Zoe Skirboll of Racer X Aquatics added a third U.S. Olympic Trials cut this week, going 56.28 in the 100-meter freestyle.

Skirboll swam at the ISCA December Senior Classic in Chatham, Virginia. The meet featured both long course and short course sessions, stretching from Thursday to Sunday last weekend. The meet was hosted at the Onishi-Davenport Aquatics Center.

• Full short course meet results are available on the Meet Mobile app under “2020 ISCA December Senior Classic.”
• Full long course meet results available here

Skirboll came into the meet with Olympic Trials cuts notched in the 50 free and 100 breast. But she had a target painted on the 100 free cut as well, coming in just three tenths off the cut with her swim from 2019’s Summer Nationals.

Skirboll won the individual 100 free, but couldn’t quite make the cut, going 56.95. (The Olympic Trial cut is 56.29). So Skirboll went after it again on the opening split of her 200 free. She rocketed out eight tenths of a second faster than she was in the individual 100, touching at 56.28 for her split and shaving just .01 under the Trials cut.

The high school junior and Virginia commit had a dominating weekend of wins. She took the 100-meter fly (1:01.44), finishing just two tenths off her lifetime-best and is about eight tenths from the Trials cut. In the short course yards sessions, she won the 100 fly (54.90), 100 breast (1:02.08), 100 free (50.23), 200 free (1:48.13), 200 fly (2:00.66), 50 free (23.13) and 400 IM (4:20.22). The 200 free, 200 fly, and 400 IM times were lifetime-bests.

Other notable swims from the ISCA meet:

• Amanda Witkus went 2:16.65 to win the 200 long course meter fly. That’s a time drop of two tenths of a second for the 16-year-old from Greenwood Swimming.
• 15-year-old Ellery Ottem of Mako Aquatics tied with Skirboll for the 50-meter free win (26.52) and was second in the 100-meter free (57.29).
• Annapolis Swim Club 16-year-old Joseph Hayburn won both the 100-meter and 200-meter backstrokes, going 58.17 and 2:05.41, respectively. The latter was a one-second drop.