Antoniuk Swims 1500 at Trials

Cal Poly swimmer Konrad Antoniuk competed in the preliminaries of the 1500-meter freestyle this morning at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb.

Antoniuk finished the longest event contested at the Trials in 16 minutes, 11.47 seconds.

The electrical engineering junior-to-be, who was competing for the Canyons Aquatics Club, finished  80th in a field of 90 of best distance freestylers in the nations.

The top qualifier in the prelims was Andrew Gemmel, 21, who finished in 14:57.29. The top eight finishers in prelims will swim the final of the 1500, also known as the mile, Monday night. The first and second place finishers will qualify for the Olympic Team.

Complete 1500 freestyle results. 

Prenot and Stevens Hit the Water Again

Santa Maria Swim Club swimmer Joshua Prenot and Puma Aquatics swimmer Zachary Stevens competed in the 200-meter breaststroke today at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb.

Prenot finished in a lifetime best 2 minutes, 13.00 seconds. He placed ninth in the preliminary session, which means he will advance to the semifinal round for the event (the top 16 advance). The 18-year-old UC Berkeley freshman-to-be will be in the second semifinal heat tonight and will be in lane two.

In the lane next to Prenot (three) will be Brendan Hansen, who won the bronze medal in the 20-meter breaststroke at the 2004 Athens Games. Hansen punched his ticket to London on Tuesday night by winning the 100-meter breaststroke.

Prenot will also swim the 200-meter individual medley on Friday. He is seeded 18th with a time of 2:02.24.

Stevens, 16, also had a personal best time in the event. He finished in 2:19.52, which was 46 one-hundredths of a second faster than his entry time. Stevens finished 63rd after being ranked 104th going into the event.

Prenot and Zimmer Swim at Trials

Santa Maria Swim Club swimmers Joshua Prenot and Meghan Zimmer both competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials today in Omaha, Neb.

Zimmer, who swims for San Diego State University, hit the water in the first heat of Wednesday’s preliminary session. She finished the 200-meter freestyle in 2 minutes, 6.36 seconds. Although she was nearly three seconds slower than her seed-time, the 22-year-old moved up from 114th place going into the event to 92nd.

Prenot, who is competing in a total of five events over the course of the eight-day meet, swam in the 200-meter butterfly. His time of 2:01.64 earned him 37th place.

Prenot, 18, will next swim in the 200 breaststroke on Thursday. Puma Aquatics swimmer Zachary Stevens will also compete in the event.

 

Stevens, Prenot, Kick of Olympic Trials

Puma Aquatics swimmer Zachary Stevens and Santa Maria Swim Club swimmer Joshua Prenot both competed on the first day of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb.

Prenot, 18, hit the water first in the 400-meter individual medley. Prenot finished in 4 minutes, 22.53 seconds. He finished in 13th place.

The top eight finishers in the preliminaries of the 400 individual medley will compete again in finals tonight. The top two finishers in finals make the U.S. Olympic team. Defending Olympic champion and world record holder Michael Phelps is set to race Ryan Lochte, who is the defending World Champion. Also considered a serious contender in the event is Tyler Clary of Fullerton.

Prenot, who will attend UC Berkeley this fall, also swam the 100 breaststroke. His time of 1:02.89 earned him a 34th place finish in prelims.

Stevens, 16, competed in the 100 breaststroke as well. He finished in 1:04.26, two one-hundredths of a second faster than his entry time. The Arroyo Grande high school junior-to-be placed 72nd in prelims.

The top 16 finishers of the 100 breaststroke will compete in a semifinal tonight. The top eight in semifinals will advance to final, which will be held Tuesday night.

The other events that will be contested tonight are the women’s 100 butterfly semifinal, the men’s 400 freestyle final, and the women’s 400 individual medley final. Tonight’s events will be aired on NBC.

For complete results, click here.

Olympic Trials Broadcast Information

Below is the broadcast schedule for Olympic Trials as posted by USA Swimming.

Click here to view the USA Swimming Olympic Trials home page.

Olympic Trials Broadcasts All but the fastest heats of preliminaries will be webcast live at http://usaswimming.org The fastest three heats of preliminaries will be broadcast each day on NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus). They will be taped and air as follows: June 25 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. (all times are ET) June 26 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. June 27 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. June 28 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. June 29 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. June 30 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. July 1 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. The NBC shows (finals) will air: 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. – Eastern 7:00 – 8:00 pm. – Central 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Mountain (delayed one hour) 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. – Pacific (delayed three hours) This is for June 25 – July 1.  On July 2, the show is only 30 minutes from 8:00 – 8:30 p.m. (ET).

Local Swimmers to Compete at U.S. Swimming Trials

Puma swimmer Zachary Stevens prepares for a race at the 2011 Junior Nationals, where he qualified for Olympic Trials.

Three swimmers from the San Luis Obispo area will compete in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb. The Trials begin on Monday, June 25, and will run through Monday July 2.

Puma Aquatics swimmer Zachary Stevens is slated to compete in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststrokes. Stevens, 16, is ranked 98th in the 100 breaststroke and 103 in the 200. Stevens just completed his sophomore year at Arroyo Grande High School, and placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke at the CIF SS Division II finals.

Stevens qualified for the Trials meet last August at the 2011 Junior Nationals in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Santa Maria Swim Club will be represented by two athletes in Omaha. Joshua Prenot is entered in five events. He will compete in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, in which he is ranked 35th and 18th, respectively. He is also seeded 18th in the 200 individual medley, and he is seeded 27th in the 200 butterfly.

Prenot, 18, is positioned best in the 400 individual medley, in which he is ranked 10th with a time of 4 minutes, 18.44 seconds. The top eight in each event advance to finals.

Prenot is set to attend UC Berkeley next fall.

The other Santa Maria swimmer is Meghan Zimmer. Zimmer, 22, will swim the 200 freestyle. She is seeded 114th in the event.

For complete psych sheets for the Trials, click here.

For the broadcast schedule of the trials, click here.

Pac-7 League Championships Begin this Week

A heat of the boy's 100-yard butterfly swims during the 2010 Pac-7 League Championship meet, the last time the meet was held at Arroyo Grande High School.

The Pac-7 League Championship meet for swimming and diving will begin late this week at Arroyo Grande High School.

The prelim session for the boys will take place this Friday, starting at 1 p.m.

The girls prelim session will be on Saturday and will start at 10 a.m.

The diving portion of the meet will be held on Tuesday, May 1 starting at 1 p.m.

Finals for both boys and girls will take place on Wednesday, May 2. It will also start at 1 p.m. The top 16 swimmers in the prelim session for each event will compete in the finals portion of the meet.

Going into the meet, on the boy’s side, San Luis Obispo enters the meet with a 6-0 Pac-7 record. They are trailed by Righetti High School (5-1) and Arroyo Grande (4-2).

The Arroyo Grande girls are undefeated with a 6-0 league record. San Luis Obispo is right behind with a 5-1 record.

Also participating in the meet will be Atascadero, Paso Robles, St. Joseph’s, and Pioneer Valley.

Local Swimmers Sign Letters of Intent

Arroyo Grande High School swimmers Mia Schachter and Sonny Fierro made their future plans offical during Wednesday’s National Signing Day.

Schachter accepted a full scholarship to attend Tulane University in New Orleans, while Fierro committed to swim for the Cal Poly Mustangs.

Schachter is a four-time CIF Division II finalist in individual events. She has also been a member of three relay teams that made CIF finals. She holds multiple Arroyo Grande school records, and was recognized as an All-American after last season in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke.

Schachter has represented the local Puma Aquatic Club at both Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals. Most recently, she competed in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2011 Winter Nationals Championships in Atlants, Ga.

Tulane University has a Division I swimming and diving team that competes in Conference USA. Schachter had offers from other Division I schools including UCLA, but chose to accept the full scholarship offered by the Green Wave.

Fierro is living on the Central Coast for the first time, having moved here from the Sacramento area at the beginning of this school year. Before he moved he swam for the Arden Hills swim team, but now trains with the Santa Maria Swim Club. He specializes in the mid to long distance freestyle events, and has swam at both Junior and Senior Nationals.  He recently swam the 400-meter freestyle at the 2011 Winter Nationals.

Fierro will join a Mustang team that is currently in its second season of competing as a member of the Pac-12 Conference.

2011 Winter Sectionals

The 2011 Winter Sectionals (or California-Nevada Winter Championships) are currently being held at the Golden West College pool.

The meet began Friday night and will last until Tuesday evening.

For psych sheets, click here.

For live result, click here.

For a live webcast of the meet, click here.

Winter Nationals Day 3

The the third and final day of the 2011 AT&T Winter Nationals Championship saw more swimmers from San Luis Obispo take to the water and compete against the best swimmers in the country.

Puma Aquatic swimmer Zachary Stevens swam the 200-meter breaststroke in 2 minutes, 23.61 seconds. San Luis Obispo Swim Club and former Cal Poly swimmer Zachary Cutts swam in the same event and posted a 2:25.32.

Also in the 200 breaststroke were Cal Poly swimmers Angels Haven and Kylie France. Haven, a junior, finished in a time of 2:39.35. She was followed by her senior teammate, who swam the event in 2:46.31.

Junior Katrina Anderson and senior Gloria Benefield swam the 200 backstroke in 2:20.06 and 2:20.07, respectively.

Belen Enguidanos, a freshman, competed in the 200 butterfly and posted a 2:18.01. She was followed by Benefield and France, who swam the event in 2:21.05 and 2:24.94, respectively.

Sophomore Rachel Cleak was the lone Mustang in the 100 freestyle, which she swam in 58.58.

The final Mustang to swim in Atlanta was distance swimmer Konrad Antoniuk. The sophomore swam the 1500 freestyle and hit a time of 16:15.60 to close out the weekend in Atlanta.

For complete results of the 2011 AT&T Winter National Championships, click here.