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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, July 9. WHILE Nathan Adrian of California officially won the men’s 50 free title, Auburn’s Cesar Cielo won the open crown with a stellar B final race.
Adrian claimed the A final heat with a time of 21.52, breaking through the 22 second barrier for the first time as his previous best stood at a 22.00 from prelims. The time moved him into the top 10 all time in the world.
“I just try to swim fast and get to the wall first,” Adrian said. “To be honest, I was taking it a step at a time. Now, I am going to try to set goals for Rome at this point.”
Meanwhile, SwimMAC Carolina’s Cullen Jones and Longhorn’s Garrett Weber-Gale tied for second with matching 21.55s. The finish set up a swimoff for the second spot for the World Championships team will occur on Saturday.
The last time a swimoff for a World team spot occurred in the U.S. was 2001. Lindsay Benko and Maritza Correia had a swimoff for second place in the women’s 100 free. The pair tied for second with matching 55.51s behind Colleen Lanne’s 55.20. Benko, now USA Swimming National Team Managing Director Lindsay Mintenko, won the swimoff, 55.28 to 55.42.
“I’m glad I’m not having to get ready for a swimoff again,” Mintenko said when asked about the swimoff.
The last men’s 50 free swimoff for a U.S. national team occurred in 1994. According to the September 1994 issue of Swimming World Magazine:
Bill Pilzcuk. an Auburn senior the past season, and former Alabama swimmer Jon Olsen. an Olympian in the 100 free. tied for third in the 50 at 22.84 and swam off for the U.S. team berth vacated by Jager. Pilzcuk won. 22.62 to 22.72.
Tom Jager finished first in 22.33 in the selection race, while Gary Hall Jr. took second in 22.46. Jager, fully focused on an attempt to become the first man to qualify for four Olympics Games, elected to withdraw from the World team in the 50 free. The move opened up the swimoff between Pilzcuk and Olsen.
In an exciting B final, Cielo won in 21.14 to become the second-fastest swimmer of all time. That effort beat his Brazilian record of 21.30, and cleared the U.S. Open record of 21.47 set by Weber-Gale at the U.S. Olympic Trials last year.
Meanwhile, Auburn teammate Fred Bousquet finished second in 21.36, also under the previous U.S. Open record. Bousquet, however, still owns the world record with a 20.94 from April this year.
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