If the purpose of hosting an invite in long course meters is to pick up Olympic Trials cuts, teams at the Ohio State Invitational are not wasting the opportunity. The first prelim session landed twenty swims below the OT standard between men and women, and have set the stage for an exciting final tonight.
The women’s 400 freestyle was the deepest field with eight swimmers achieving the trials cut, led by Florida’s Amelia Maughan in 4:14.20. Florida landed four swimmers in the A-final, and Kentucky landed three, leaving only three other spots to be claimed in the 10-lane finals field. The men’s 400 also landed five swimmers under the Trials standard, with four 3:57’s set to duke it out tonight. The Gators had three of those four, with Austin Manganiello going into the final with the top seed and Jan Switkowski and Paul Werner tied for the third position. They are split by the Buckeye’s Joey Long who touched in 3:57.86, just .05 ahead of their 3:57.91.
The women’s 200 IM had three under the OT cut, led by Kentucky’s Ann Davies at 2:18.09. Wildcat teammate Danielle Galyer will enter finals in the third seed just behind her at 2:81.61, with Meg Bailey from Ohio State between them at 2:18.36.
The men’s IM had two surpassing the Trials standard with Florida freshman Alex Lebed over a second ahead of the pack at 2:03.68, followed by Ching Lim representing the Buckeyes at 2:04.89.
The men’s and women’s 50 free prelim both featured one Trials qualifier, with both of them entering the final well ahead of the rest of the field. Ohio State took the top three seeds for the women, led by Zhesi Li at 25.56. Florida’s Caleb Dressel claimed the top seed for the men at 22.81.
Zhesi Li .