Twenty-Eight Swimmers Set for Olympic Trials – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swim & Dive
June 21, 2012
READ: By land or water, Elliott a success
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Twenty-eight current, former or incoming Ohio State men’s swimmers will invade the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb., June 25-July 2 to compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials. The 28 swimmers mark the largest contingent of qualifiers at the trials in program history.
“It is fantastic that we have such a young group of men who have the opportunity to experience one of the fastest and most memorable swimming competitions in the world,” head coach Bill Wadley said. “We believe the USA Olympic trials are the fastest meet in the world outside of the Olympics and will provide our team with some invaluable experiences.”
Overall, Ohio State’s contingent of 36 swimmers – 15 female, 21 male – at the trials represents the largest group of swimmers from one team along with Stanford (36) followed by SwimMAC (35) and the University of Arizona (33). In all, 1,831 qualifiers (901 female, 930 male) will be invited to the meet next week.
Highlighting the record-setting group of OSU men’s swimmers at the 2012 Trials are former Buckeye Elliott Keefer and rising redshirt junior Tim Phillips. Keefer, who was a three-year NCAA qualifier during his Buckeye career with five All-America mentions, swam for Team USA and placed 18th in the preliminary heats of the 200 breaststroke at the 2011 FINA world championships last summer in Shanghai, China. Phillips, a native of Vienna, W.V., won three gold medals at the World University Games last summer as part of team USA.
“We believe Tim and Elliott are at a level that they have an opportunity to do something great and could very well be in a position to swim in the finals and potentially earn an Olympic berth,” Wadley said.
Jason Schnur, Andrew Elliott and Lincoln Fahrbach also have excellent shots at moving past the preliminaries of the elite competition. The 2012 Big Ten Champion in the 50 freestyle, Schnur finished third in the event at the NCAA Championships last March. Elliott, a 2012 Big Ten Medal of Honor Winner, concluded his OSU career as a three-time Big Ten champion, winning the 200 backstroke in both 20011 and 2012 and claiming the 100 backstroke title in 2010. Fahrbach, a native of Fremont, Ohio, earned honorable mention All-America honors in the 200 medley, 800 free relay, 200 free relay and 400 medley relay at the 2012 NCAA Championships.
“We have so much to be grateful for and are very excited for our Olympic trials experience,” Wadley said.
At the end of the 2008 Olympic Trials, 38 world records had been set – nine in Omaha. U.S. swimmers also set 21 American and 17 U.S. Open records in the pool at 2008 Trials. The results of the trials will provide up to 26 men and 26 women the highest athletic honor – representing the U.S. at the 2012 Olympic Games. Each of the top two swimmers in every event, plus four more in the 100m and 200m, will punch their tickets to London.
All but the fastest heats of preliminaries will be webcast live June 25-July 1 beginning at 10 a.m. CT. The fastest 2-4 heats of preliminaries will be broadcast on tape delay by NBC Sports. Click here for the full TV schedule.
The Ohio State 28 to the U.S. Olympic Trials includes:
|
Current Team Members |
Class |
Hometown |
Event (s) |
|
So. |
Louisville, Ky. |
200 breast (2:20.32) |
|
|
Jr. |
Lincoln, Neb. |
200 fly (2:03.57) |
|
|
So. |
Toledo, Ohio |
100 free (51.08), 200 free (1:52.49) |
|
|
So. |
Powell, Ohio |
200 breast (2:20.01) |
|
|
Gr. |
Granger, Ind. |
100 back (55.55), 200 back (2:02.41) |
|
|
Gr. |
Fremont, Ohio |
100 free (51.11), 200 free (2:05.84) |
|
|
Gr. |
Springfield, Ohio |
400 free (3:55.01) |
|
|
Sr. |
Houston, Texas |
100 free (50.51), 200 free (1:52.24) |
|
|
Sr. |
West Chester, Ohio |
200 breast (2:20.33) |
|
|
So. |
Lake Oswego, Oregon |
100 back, 200 back (2:03.40) |
|
|
So. |
Strongsville, Ohio |
100 free (51.11) |
|
|
Jr. |
Cincinnati, Ohio |
400 free (3:58.97), 1,500 free (15:46.60) |
|
|
Gr. |
Fishers, Ind. |
200 IM (2:06.55) |
|
|
RJr. |
Vienna, W.Va. |
100 fly (51.69), 50 free (23.31) |
|
|
Gr. |
Potomac, Md. |
200 free (1:52.36) |
|
|
Sr. |
Cincinnati, Ohio |
50 free (22.83), 100 free (50.49) |
|
|
Jr. |
Dublin, Ohio |
200 free (1:52.88) |
|
|
Gr. |
Mason, Ohio |
100 fly (54.82) |
|
|
So. |
Newburgh, Ind. |
100 breast (1:03.66) |
|
|
Dak Stone |
Jr. |
Birnamwood, Wis. |
100 breast (1:04.29), 200 breast (2:19.42) |
|
Jr. |
Canfield, Ohio |
100 fly (2:05.78) |
|
|
So. |
Ottawa Hills, Ohio |
200 back (2:03.04) |
|
|
So. |
Morrow, Ohio |
200 back (2:01.33) |
|
Incoming Freshmen |
Club |
Event (s) |
|
Andrew Brower |
Cincinnati Marlins |
100 breast (1:04.50) |
|
Josh Fleagle |
|
50 free (23.46 ) 100 free (51.40) |
|
D.J. MacDonald |
Greater Toledo Aquatic Club |
100 breast (2:20.42) |
|
Andrew Yunker |
Flint “Y” Falcons |
200 fly (2:03.00) |
|
Former Team Members |
Club |
Event (s) |
|
Swim MAC |
100 breast (1:02.26), 200 breast (2:12.09) |
The venue for this year’s trials at the CenturyLink center is an arena where the competition pool has been constructed on a temporary basis. A warm-up pool has been constructed in the adjacent Omaha Convention Center as well. Here are some additional facts about the 2012 Olympic Trials, with some information from the official U.S. Olympic Team Trials website and other information based on news articles by the Omaha World-Herald.
- More than 1,500 athletes will compete at the 2012 Trials in Omaha.
- Since the 2008 Olympic Trials, the venue has undergone a name change from the Qwest Center Omaha to CenturyLink Center.
- In 2008, the arena seated slightly over 13,000. Construction of the pool required losing the first 10 permanent rows of seating. In 2012, the first nine rows will be removed, so seating will be slightly more, roughly 13,200.
- Attendance was more than 160,000 for the 15 total sessions in 2008, breaking the previous Trials record in Long Beach by more than 40,000.
- The competition pool is a 50-meter, 10-lane pool, but only eight will be used for competition. The warm-up pool has eight, 50-meter lanes and five 25-meter lanes.
- There will be two million gallons of water (one million each in the competition and warm-up pools) sitting on the floor of the Century Link Center for 2012 Trials. These two million gallons of water are equivalent to 13 million glasses of water. The combined weight of both pools is 7 million pounds.
- The construction will include more than two miles of piping and hoses, and there are more than 50,000 mechanical parts required for the assembly process. Over 34,000 nuts, 34,000 bolts and 34,000 washers are included in the construction of each pool. Pool components have traveled over 5,000 miles from Castiglione, Italy.
- At the end of the 2008 Olympic Trials, 38 world records had been set in Myrtha Pools – nine in Omaha. U.S. swimmers also set 21 American and 17 U.S. Open records in the pool at 2008 Trials.
- For the first time at Olympic Trials, Myrtha is introducing Track-Start, the newest starting block model to facilitate the swimmer’s take-off and optimize competition performance. The block is composed of a special patented Omega platform that is compatible with the Omega Timing System and licensed to Myrtha Pools.
