If you think that my first post this week will cover the meets this weekend and who seems to be improving their chances going into Omaha, I have just one thing to tell you. You know me too well! It seems crazy that there was this much fast swimming this weekend, just three weeks from the big one, yet there was. If you missed or had trouble keeping up, here's a little cheat sheet for a couple swimmers who are trending upward after this weekend.
Allison Schmitt: Allison decided to contest the 200 free in Omaha, and among some pretty good performances, this one stood out. Coming into 2008, Allison was on the outside looking in for a potential individual swim in Beijing. Her best time in 2007 was a 1:59.36 at the Japan International Meet. While that time put her in relay contention, it was still well off the pace of Natalie Coughlin, Katie Hoff or even Kate Zeigler. In 2008, Schmitt has been steamrolling since the Missouri Grand Prix. At that meet she posted a solid 1:59.72 in the 200 free. At the Toyota Grand Prix at OSU, she would improve her season best to 1:59.37. At Santa Clara, she broke through with a best time in 1:58.23. Finally, this past weekend in Omaha she was 1:57.48. That time will most likely seed her fourth, just a tenth behind Coughlin should Natalie try the 200 in Omaha. Schmitt is also very young for a middle distance freestyler at just 17. She should be one to watch in Nebraska.
Garrett Weber-Gale: Ok, I know that this past weekend wasn't the fastest meet for Weber-Gale. Yet what I noticed is that all of a sudden 48 in the 100 freestyle is becoming the norm for him. Weber-Gale's big meet in all the Olympic lead up was at the All-American meet in Austin. There he established himself as a favorite in both the 50 (21.93) and the 100 (48.50). This past weekend he was just 22.19/48.91 at the Texas Senior Circuit event. It may seem hard to believe, but Weber-Gale had never been 48 going into this year. And while it seems like he's been around forever, partly due to making the team in 2004, he's just 22 years old, young for a male sprinter. There was a lot of hype surrounding Weber-Gale coming out of high school after he nearly broke Joe Hudepohl's then high school 100 free record with a 43.49 in 2003. Fans anticipated he would keep surging to the top of the heap in American sprinting. Progress, to the contrary, has come slow and steady. From 2004 to 2008, he would go from 49.6 to 49.0 in the 100 free [url=http://www.vibramfivefingersoutlets.com/]Vibram Five Finger[/url]
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, chipping away year by year. Finally the breakthrough came at the All-American meet, and Weber Gale proved this past weekend that his March performances were no fluke.Lastly, I think Nathan Adrian deserves some credit for continuing to progress in the right direction this past weekend. Adrian, like Weber-Gale, garnered attention for sprinting very well at a young age. This weekend he swam 22.01/49.0 at the Omaha test event. His bests from 2007 were 22.76/50.01. He is even younger than Weber-Gale. In fact, if anyone knows whether there has ever been a 19 year old who was 49.0 in the 100 free, I'd be interested. Ian Thorpe could be a possibility but I am having trouble remembering any others. When I posed the question a couple months ago as to whether the French men should be considered the favorites in the 4x100 relay in Beijing, I set off a wave of panic in my office at Penn. We were worried about the state of American sprinting. After this weekend, there's a lot less to worry about.
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