{"id":589690,"date":"2024-06-22T10:51:40","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T17:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=589690"},"modified":"2024-06-22T10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T17:51:40","slug":"olympic-trials-day-8-prelims-bobby-finke-top-seed-in-1500-charlie-clark-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympic-trials-day-8-prelims-bobby-finke-top-seed-in-1500-charlie-clark-second\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Trials Day 8 Prelims: Bobby Finke Top Seed in 1500; Charlie Clark Second"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic Trials Day 8 Prelims: Bobby Finke Top Seed; Charlie Clark Second<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The newly qualified Olympian in the 800-meter freestyle, Luke Whitlock<\/strong>, was back route to another Trials final, in an attempt to add another event to his Olympic roster in Paris. Whitlock was challenged by NCAA qualifier, Charlie Clark <\/strong>and ultimately lost the battle of the prelim swim.<\/p>\n

Clark demonstrated a decent amount of closing speed coming home in a final time of 15:04.77 \u2013 which will be good for a third-place seed coming in the Sunday night final. Whitlock beat his seed time by posting a 15:07.36 and will be seeded fourth. Behind him, was William Mulgrew<\/strong> who swam a 15:144.88 for a fifth-place seed.<\/p>\n

Then there is Bobby Finke<\/strong>, who is the favorite to win the event. \u00a0During the race, his iconic showmanship was under control this morning, but he still held decently in front of his heat. David Johnston<\/strong> provided a solid challenge for Finke but ended up falling behind in the back half of the race.<\/p>\n

While making the race look easy, Finke was the only swimmer in the prelim heats to be under the 15-minute mark. He will be the top seed going into the final with a time of 14:59.04. Johnston finished with a best time that will earn him the second-place seed with a time of 15:02.42. Luke Ellis<\/strong> and Daniel Matheson<\/strong> also claimed their spots in the final while racing Finke, with times of 15:14.93 and 15:16.84. Their prelims swims will generate a sixth and seventh place seed for one final round of the mile.<\/p>\n

Carson Hick<\/strong> had the swim of a lifetime from the second heat of the event and dropping the better part of 10 seconds for a 15:17.36 to sneak into the final finals spot.<\/p>\n

Open water Olympian, Ivan Puskovitch,<\/strong> competed amongst the field as well to finish 14th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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