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Blake Pieroni was swimming in lane six in the ‘A’ final of the men’s 100 free when he became a national champion. The Indiana swimmer upset sprint stalwart Nathan Adrian, current American Record holder and World Champion Caeleb Dressel, and many of his closest competitors from the NCAA circuit.
Watch the full race, courtesy of USA Swimming, below:
Read Swimming World’s original report below:
Swimming out of lane 6, Indiana’s Blake Pieroni was the first to the wall in the men’s 100 free with a 48.08 to take the win in a stacked field. Flipping fourth at the 50 in 23.17, Pieroni came home in a monstrous 24.91 to make a move down the stretch and get his hand on the wall first. That is Pieroni’s career best time, taking a little more than a tenth off of his old best of 48.23 from 2017.
In second was sprint powerhouse Nathan Adrian in 48.25, while the rest of the top-4 was rounded out by Townley Haas (48.30) and Zach Apple (48.34). Notably, Apple’s time from this morning (48.06) would have earned him the win tonight.
Ending up in fifth was Michael Chadwick, who flipped well ahead of the field at the 50 with a 22.73 before finishing in 48.44, while American record holder and World Champion Caeleb Dressel ended up sixth in 48.50. While that means he won’t qualify directly for this event, if he makes the team in another event he may have the opportunity to swim this event in Tokyo.
Rounding out the rest of the final was Maxine Rooney (48.56) and 2016 Olympian Ryan Held (48.65). Notably, Texas’ Tate Jackson won the B-final in 48.20, a time that would have finished second in the top-8, while Harvard’s Dean Farris also posted a strong swim for second in the B-final with 48.52.
Joe StottStott no dressel
Congratulations