Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Last month, Texas’s Daniel Krueger dealt with the disappointment of missing the U.S. Olympic Trials semifinals in the 100 free.
This month, he found redemption with a career-best 48.46.
Krueger, an NCAA standout in short course yards for the Longhorns, entered Olympic Trials as a notable dark horse candidate after a 48.55 best time in the summer of 2019. Over the year following that 2019 swim, Krueger dropped his short course yards personal best from 41.4 to 41.2, looking like an NCAA title contender before the season was shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
At Trials in 2021, Krueger went just 49.24, slipping into a tie for 17th. That left him without a second shot at the swim.
But this week at the Summer Southern Sectionals, Krueger found a way to a best time, going 48.46 to win over top teammate Maxime Rooney. Krueger’s time this week would have tied him for 6th in the U.S. Olympic Trials final. The 22-year-old Krueger should be a top candidate to make the U.S. 4×100 free relay over the next Olympic cycle.
I remember when SwimSwam predicted the sky for Maxime Rooney.
Carson Foster just swam a 4:08.46 in 4IM at the same meet. Would have been 1st at trials
Came here to post this and you were all over it already. Super impressive, really wish he could have popped that at trials.
Hopefully he figured something out in this race
nobody wants to talk about Freeman’s 3:47.0 400 a few weeks ago? Would’ve been 2nd at trials and first big long course time drop in a while for him. Seems like a breakthrough to me.
that sadly wouldn’t have been a fina a cut though