Olympic dream lives for Liebhold
July 03, 2008 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Olympic aspirations are still very much alive for former University of Wisconsin standout Tim Liebhold after a fifth-place finish in the preliminaries of the men's 200-meter individual medley Thursday at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
Liebhold now will continue his swim for a spot on the two-man 200 IM team that will represent the U.S. in Beijing in tonight's semifinals at the Qwest Center. The evening session of the Olympic Trials begins at 6:45 p.m., with 200 IM semifinals slated as the night's final event. USA Network will air a portion of tonight's session live, from 7-8 p.m.
Liebhold, who entered the Trials seeded seventh in the event, cut .69 seconds off his seed time and easily made the field of 16 that will swim the semifinals. Ryan Lochte posted the prelims' best time in 1:59.49, with world record-holder Michael Phelps second-fastest at 1:59.70.
Senior-to-be Mike Hopkins came agonizingly close to qualifying for the semifinals of the men's 200-meter backstroke, finishing 17th. Hopkins cut 1.2 seconds off his previous career-best time by clocking in at 2 minutes, 1.21 seconds in the prelims, giving him the 17th-fastest time in a session that saw the top 16 finishers advance to Thursday evening's semifinals. Hopkins missed out on a qualifying spot by .12 seconds.
Aaron Piersol leads the field into the semifinal session after clocking the top time of 1:57.05.
Also in the 200 backstroke, former Badger Adam Mania finished with the 37th-fastest time by clocking in at 2:04.82, while senior-to-be Ben Bruce finished 43rd in 2:05.71.
Former UW star and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Carly Piper finished with the 39th overall time in the women's 100 freestyle by clocking a 56.17, while a pair of swimmers who will join the Wisconsin program in the fall competed in the 200 breaststroke.
Future Badger Megan Onstott trimmed nearly a full second off her seed time to rank 25th with a time of 2:32.60, with future teammate Ashley Wanland was disqualified from her heat.
Complete results, as well as start lists for Thursday's evening session, can be found at www.usaswimming.org .
