Men’s 100 Freestyle Semi-Finals a Sprinter’s Delight

By Duncan Scott

Long Beach, CA, July 10 – JASON Lezak set the bar a bit higher for American sprinters tonight. His :48.17 (:23.02) in the 100 Meter Freestyle surpassed the previous national record of :48.33 by the recently retired Anthony Ervin. Ervin set the former mark in winning World Championship Gold in 2001 in Fukuoka, Japan. Only world record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband, NED, has ever been faster.

Ian Crocker of Longhorn, the short-course world record holder in this event off his win for Texas at this spring’s NCAA meet, was second in Lezak’s heat and second overall at a pr :49.29 (:23.58). Longhorn also got Neil Walker 4th(:49.44[:23.47]), Nate Dusing 5th(:49.56[:23.61]) and 18-year-old Garrett Weber-Gale 7th (pr :49.68[:23.88]) into the final heat. These are coveted spots as normally the top 6 of 8 are eventually named to the American team. Coach Eddie Reese of Longhorn will busy.

Only three clubs had athletes qualify for the final as Novaquatics and California Aquatics each had two qualifiers.

Gabe Woodward joined Lezak in the final from Novaquatics with a breakout effort from lane one for 6th at :49:67 [:24.10] after squeezing into the semi-final 14th with a :50.54.

Gary Hall won semi-final one for California Aquatics, leading out in :23.22 and touching :3rd overall at 49.30, just .01 behind Crocker. Hall’s fellow Race Club member Sabir Muhammad wrapped up the last spot in the final for California Aquatics at a pr :49.70. Muhammad edged out Ryan Wochomurka, Auburn, by .01 for a spot in tomorrow’s final.

While Lezak’s dominant performance seemed to remove any question about America’s top 100 freestyle sprinter, Hall’s career long flair for the dramatic expressed itself in a way that may leave some doubt…for now. Hall was left flat-footed on the block, clearly last into the water by a substantial margin. His adrenaline rush brought him to the heat lead already by 15-20 meters, but he appeared to pay a price over the last portion of the race. SWIMINFO is still awaiting the final with great interest.

Weber-Gale was less than ½ second off the National Age Group record set by one Michael Phelps last summer at :49.19.

Two-time Olympian Scott Tucker, Novaquatics/Auburn, was 11th, ending his hopes for a third consecutive 4 x 100 Freestyle relay slot.

From official results:

USA Swimming-National Meets
2004 U. S. Olympic Team Trials – 7/7/2004 to 7/14/2004

Event 14 Men 100 LC Meter Freestyle
==================================================================
51.19 OLYM
52.19 NAT
52.99 OPEN
Name Age Team Prelims Semis
==================================================================
=== Semis ===

1 Lezak, Jason 28 Irvine Novaquati 48.79 48.17 OLYM
23.02 48.17 (25.15)
2 Crocker, Ian 21 Longhorn Aquatic 49.41 49.29 OLYM
23.58 49.29 (25.71)
3 Hall, Gary 29 California Aquat 49.38 49.30 OLYM
23.22 49.30 (26.08)
4 Walker, Neil 28 Longhorn Aquatic 49.65 49.44 OLYM
23.47 49.44 (25.97)
5 Dusing, Nate 25 Longhorn Aquatic 49.80 49.56 OLYM
23.61 49.56 (25.95)
6 Woodward, Gabriel 25 Irvine Novaquati 50.54 49.67 OLYM
24.10 49.67 (25.57)
7 Weber-Gale, Garrett 18 Longhorn Aquatic 49.82 49.68 OLYM
23.88 49.68 (25.80)
8 Muhammad, Sabir 28 California Aquat 50.49 49.70 OLYM
23.79 49.70 (25.91)
—————————————————————–
9 Wochomurka, Ryan 21 Auburn Aquatics/ 49.86 49.71 OLYM
23.71 49.71 (26.00)
10 Brunelli, Nicholas 22 Arizona State/Su 49.98 49.80 OLYM
23.81 49.80 (25.99)
—————————————————————–
11 Tucker, Scott 29 Irvine Novaquati 50.14 50.11 OLYM
23.70 50.11 (26.41)
12 Silkaitis, Terrence 20 Minnesota Aquati 50.88 50.15 OLYM
24.29 50.15 (25.86)
13 Rogers, Dale 21 Wisconsin Aquati 50.20 50.26 OLYM
23.83 50.26 (26.43)
14 Grevers, Matt 19 Northwestern U./ 50.18 50.30 OLYM
23.79 50.30 (26.51)
15 Jones, Bryan 25 Longhorn Aquatic 50.33 50.66 OLYM
24.16 50.66 (26.50)
16 Bal, Randall 23 Stanford Swimmin 50.58 50.82 OLYM
23.96 50.82 (26.86)

=== Preliminaries ===

16 Lochte, Ryan 19 Daytona Beach Sw 50.79
18 Wildman-Tobriner, Ben 19 Stanford Swimmin 50.89
19 Hannan, Tom 24 King 51.14
20 Von Schoff, Scott 25 Arizona State/Su 51.15
21 Busse, Greg 25 Irvine Novaquati 51.17
22 McGinnis, Matthew 18 Raleigh Swimming 51.29
23 Bubolz, Kyle 18 Waukesha Express 51.35
24 Sullivan, Christopher 21 Oakland Live Y'E 51.48
25 Verlatti, Ryan 17 Tacoma Swim Club 51.51
26 Schumacher, Bradley 30 Irvine Novaquati 51.54
27 Knepley, Mark 20 Boss / Harvard/H 51.59
28 Gustafson, Tyler 20 U. of Tennessee 51.77
29 Marshall, Matt 21 Wisconsin Aquati 51.81
30 Davis, Josh 31 Unattached 51.97
31 Brado, Matthew 24 Curl-Burke Swim 52.07
32 Schnell, Andrew 22 Stanford Swimmin 52.17
33 Schroeder, Jarod 30 New Trier Swim C 52.33
34 White, Noah 21 Naval Academy 52.35
35 McCrary, Christopher 22 Rec Plex Swim Te 53.34
— Anderson, Luke 22 Irvine Novaquati DQ
— Cramer, Jayme 21 Stanford Swimmin DQ

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