Seven swimmers represent Badgers at Trials
July 02, 2008 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Former Wisconsin swimming standout Tim Liebhold led the way for a group of seven athletes with ties to the Badgers' aquatics program competing Wednesday, finishing 24th in the preliminaries of the men's 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Liebhold, a four-time All-American during his career at Wisconsin, was one of five current, past or future UW swimmers to compete in the 100 free prelims and clocked in at 49.95 seconds to register the 24th-fastest time of the morning session at the Qwest Center.
Three of the others cut at least a half-second off their seed times, led by junior-to-be Phil Davies' 49th-place effort. Davies, who entered with a seed time of 51.09 seconds, clocked in at 50.50 to finish among the top half of the field in the 100 free prelims. Former Badger Adam Mania was 55th on the final rundown with a time of 50.66, while senior-to-be Kyle Sorensen logged the 59th-fastest time at 50.75 ' an impressive improvement of .79 seconds over his seed time entering the Trials.
Incoming UW freshman Weston Lagerhausen finished in the 96th spot with a time of 51.55 seconds.
Jen Illescas, who will be a senior at the UW this fall, was 54th-fastest in the women 's 200 butterfly with a time of 2:16.39, while Badger alumnus Kevin Zakrzewski took 61st in the men's 200 breaststroke in 2:25.19.
Seven swimmers with Badger ties will compete in the morning session Thursday at the Trials, including former Olympians Carly Piper and Adam Mania, as well as Liebhold, who is seeded seventh for the men's 200-meter individual medley.
Complete results from the U.S. Olympic Trials are available at www.usaswimming.org .
