2016 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials — Swimming
- June 30- July 2, 2016
- Preliminary Start 9:00am, Finals Start 5:00pm (Eastern Time)
- Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Charlotte, NC
- Event Details
- Psych Sheet
- Order of Events
- Thursday Prelim Results
- American Records
- IPC World Records and Rankings
- USOC Swimming Athlete Classification Guide
The opening preliminary session of the US Paralympic Trials this morning saw four new American Records and set the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center up for an exciting final session.
In the Men’s 200 meter freestyle, Garner Moss from IFLY dropped 7.61 seconds from his seed time to hit the wall at 2:20.14. That time erased Jesse Greve’s 2:21.31 S14 American Record set at the IPC World Championships in Glasgow. Greve finished second in the preliminary at 2:25.97, so watch out for a battle tonight in the final.
The men’s 400 meter freestyle saw Connor Gioffreda cut 9.15 from his personal best to land him within striking range of the American Record at 5:54.57. He will be chasing the 5:54.30 mark set by Zachary Shattuck in Bismark last year. Also in the 400 free, Robert Griswold touched at 4:37.87, which is only 1.61 behind the S6 American Record he set in Glasgow last July.
The women’s 100 breaststroke is loaded with notable swims. Leslie Cichoki crushed the SB14 American Record 1:32.58 she set last year, touching the wall at 1:30.77. Colleen Young, who recently signed with Fairfield University, touched in 1:18.39 to take the top seed for the SB13 class. That time is .81 behind her American Record 1:17.58, but ranks her 3rd in the world so far for 2016. The leader going into tonight’s final for SB4 is Bryce Ballinger who cut 17.36 from her seed time. That puts her in striking range of the 2:19.53 American Record set by Kara Sheridan at Athens in 2004. Keep an eye out for a great race tonight in the SB7 100 breast as well, with Elizabeth Marks entering the final only .28 behind her #1 world ranked time at 1:29.47. Next to her will be Jessica Long who owns the American Record in the event with her 1:28.53 from June of 2012.
American Record Holder for the SB7 men’s 100 breaststroke, Rudy Garcia-Tolson, will enter the final tonight with the second place seed as Austin Evans edged ahead in the prelim with 1:26.56 over Garcia-Tolson’s 1:28.29.
Dalton Herendeen lowered his American Record for SB8 from 1:14.70 to 1:14.59 this morning, but that was not even the most outstanding swim of the heat. Theron Drake held the SB11 record for this event since August of 2014 at 1:13.98. He absolutely crushed that time, splitting 33.51/37.34 to remove over three seconds from his personal best, touching at 1:10.85. That performance lands him over a second ahead of anyone else in the World for the event in 2016, and only .74 from the World Record 1:10.11 set by China’s Bozun Yang in 2003.
Day one finals begin tonight at 5pm EDT. Keep tuned in to SWIMSWAM for more coverage.