Olympics: Current and Former Auburn Swimmers on Display
As we prepare for the Summer Olympics in Rio that start on August 5, there are plenty of former and current Auburn Tigers that will be competing in the swimming and diving competitions.
The USA Swimming’s Olympic Trials began on June 26 with Auburn sending 23 current, former and incoming athletes to Omaha, Neb. for the event.
Here is a list of the male swimmers who are competing in the trials:
Zach Apple, Foster Ballard, Colin Bone, Tommy Brewer, Taylor Copeland, David Crossland, Kyle Darmody, Michael Duderstadt, Zane Grothe, Bryan Lee, Bryar Long, Russell Noletto and Grant Schenk.
Here is a list of the female swimmers who are competing in the trials:
Annie Boone, Ashton Ellzey, Erin Falconer, Micah Lawrence, Annie Lazor, Jessica Merritt, Ashley Neidigh, Bailey Nero, Aly Tetzlof and Zoe Thatcher.
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Zane Grothe advanced to the seminals in the 400m freestyle, while Micah Lawrence and Annie Lazor also advanced to the semifinals in the 100m breaststroke. Lawrence was on the US team for the 2012 Olympics for the 200m breaststroke.
Jessica Merritt will be swimming in the prelims for the women’s 200m freestyle on Tuesday, while Ashley Neidigh and Zoe Thatcher will be competing in the women’s 200m IM.
On Wednesday Zach Apple, Colin Bone, Kyle Darmody and Zane Grothe will compete in the men’s 100m freestyle. Bailey Nero will be in the women’s 200m butterfly, while Tommy Brewer, Michael Duderstadt and Bryar Long swim in the men’s 200m breaststroke prelims.
Thursday David Crossland will be in the men’s 200m backstroke, Micah Lawrence and Annie Lazor will be in the women’s 200m breaststroke, and Michael Duderstadt will be in the men’s 200m IM.
Then on Friday Zach Apple, Kyle Darmody and Michael Duderstadt will be in the men’s 50m freestyle, Ashley Neidigh will be in the women’s 800m freestyle, Foster Ballard and Liam McCloskey will be in the men’s 100m butterfly, while Annie Boone and Erin Falconer will be in the women’s 200m backstroke.
And finally on Saturday Ashton Ellzey and Aly Tetzloff will compete in the women’s 50m freestyle, while Zane Grothe and Grant Schenk compete in the 1500m freestyle.
Scott Lazeroff is also trying to earn a spot on the US Olympics team for diving. The top 18 divers will advance to the semifinals on Tuesday (June 28) at 6 p.m. CT on NBCSN, and then the top 12 will move on to the finals on Sunday airing on NBC.
You can keep up with results of each preliminary here.
All of the finals for each day will be televised on NBC starting at 7 p.m. CT if you would like to tune in to cheer on your Auburn Tigers in the Olympic trials.
Auburn has a great history of success in swimming and diving in the Olympics sending 13 USA Olympics swimmers to compete all-time, including three during the 2012 Olympics. Eight of those have gone on to win medals at the Olympics.
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There are already eight current and former Auburn athletes who have qualified to compete in swimming and diving competition in the Olympics for other countries. Current swimmers include Peter Holoda from Hungary, Ziv Kalontarov from Israel and Luis Martinez from Guatemala.
Former Auburn swimmers who have qualified for the Olympics from other countries include George Bovell from Trinidad & Tobago, Fred Bousquet from France, Marcelo Chierighini from Brazil, Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe and Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace from the Bahamas.
War Eagle!