NCAA Swimmers Post Flood Of New Olympic Trials Cuts As End of Qualification Period Nears

2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

• June 15-23, 2024
• Lucas Oil Stadium — Indianapolis, IN
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The window for swimmers to punch their ticket to Indianapolis for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials is quickly closing. The qualification period ends on May 30, 2024, giving athletes just a few more days to hit their cuts.

As of our last check at the beginning of April, 796 athletes (354 women and 442 men) had qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials since the qualification period opened on November 30, 2022.

2024 US Olympic Trials Standards:

With the qualification period about the close, unsurprisingly there’s been a flurry of Last Chance Meets and swimmers hitting qualification standards. Given this last minute frenzy, we’ll save doing our final head count until after the window is firmly closed.

However, since our last check about six weeks ago, there have been plenty of swimmers who either picked up cuts in new events or improved on their cut times since the beginning of April.  Without further ado, here they are:

Note: Data from USA Swimming, pulled on May 22nd, 2024

Women

One of the major trends that runs through the events is NCAA swimmers translating gains they made in yards to long-course meters. One of the places that theme is clearest is in the 100 butterfly. It’s the event that picked up the most new qualifiers, headlined by Tennessee’s Josephine Fuller putting up the fastest time of the new qualifiers in the event (58.32). Fuller typically races IM/backstroke for the Vols but is getting the opportunity to expand her events now that we’re out of the NCAA structure.

The NCAA swimmers represented come from schools across the country; Michigan’s Katie Crom, ASU’s Erin Milligan, and GW’s Ava DeAngelis all earned their first cuts. One school’s repeated presence is Stanford–we saw many of their swimmers make big drops in yards this season and outperform expectations. Those drops have carried over as Aurora Roghair, Caroline Bricker, and Lucy Bell continued to drop time in multiple events. Natalie Mannion was only qualified in the 200 back but has since picked up cuts in the 200 and 400 free as well.

For the women, the 100 butterfly is the event that picked up the most new qualifiers. Many of the new qualifiers are NCAA swimmers translating gains they made in yards to the meters pool. That includes the likes of Tennessee’s Josephine Fuller, who typically races IM/backstroke for the Volunteers.

In addition to picking up the most new qualifiers, the women’s 100 fly also saw many of the country’s best improve their fastest time during the qualification period. Most notably, Torri Huske scared the world record in San Antonio with a 55.68, her fastest swim since 2022. Gretchen Walsh and Alex Shackell have also fired off new personal bests, promising a tight race in Indianapolis.

As the 2023 World Championships are included in the qualification period, many of the top contenders haven’t improved their fastest qualification times as they were swum while shaved and tapered. But we can also use the improved cut times as a way to track who might be rounding back into form. Olympians Simone Manuel and Paige Madden have improved on one of their cuts. Meanwhile, Anna Peplowski and Emma Weber are hoping to make a challenge for their first Olympic teams in the 200 free and 100 breast, respectively.

Men

The same themes from the women’s events also appear in the men’s. Plenty of NCAA swimmers have now reset after the end of the college season and turned their attention fully on long-course meters. After a “relatively injury free season” newly-minted NCAA champion and record holder Liam Bell hit the qualification standard in the 100 breaststroke. Keaton Jones improved two of his cuts (100/200 back) and picked up another event (100 freestyle). ASU’s Jack Wadsworth and Cam Peel both hit their first cuts, and their former teammate Owen McDonald picked up two new cuts (100/200 free) and improved on two more (100 back/200 IM).

Caeleb Dressel improved his season-best 100 freestyle and hit the standard for the 200 freestyle. And similar to Katie Ledecky picking up the 200 IM cut, fellow Bobby Finke earned an OT cut in an off event, picking up the standard in the 100 back. In addition, Finke improved his cut time in the 400 free (3:49.01), restarting the discussion about whether he could make the Olympic team in the event.

In addition to Dressel’s comeback, we’re also seeing Luca Urlando make steady progress this season. In the last six weeks, he swam a lifetime best 200 IM (1:59.96) for an OT cut there and also posted his fastest 200 fly in the qualifying period (1:55.63). Urlando will be trying to make his first Olympic team after two third-place finishes in 2021 and recovering from shoulder surgery.

In the “Improved Cut Times” section, a name to watch out for is Luke Whitlock. The Florida commit has put on a show this spring and is making a case for himself to be a roster threat in Indianapolis.