Tucson Ford Aquatics swimmer Matt Grevers finished in first place in both the preliminary and semifinal rounds in the 100 backstroke on Tuesday to give him the top seed going into Wednesday night’s finals at the Olympic Trials.
The top two finishers in Wednesday’s competition will advance to the Olympic Games in London.
“In my races now I’m feeling pretty good, pretty comfortable,” Grevers said. “Hopefully, tomorrow I will come out and do something special.”
Out of the three Ford/Zona swimmers that qualified for the men’s 100 breast, Kevin Cordes missed the two top spots by .43 seconds in 1:00.58 race that put him in third place. Clark Burckle and Marcus Titus finished seventh and eighth.
Christine Magnuson was the fourth swimmer for Ford/Zona to compete in a Tuesday night final and finished sixth in the 100 fly at 58.60.
In addition to Grevers, six other Ford/Zona swimmers competed in semifinal action.
Annie Chandler and Ellyn Baumgardner finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 100 breast to qualify for Wednesday night’s final. Amanda Beard finished 10th and failed to advance.
Adam Ritter posted a 13th place finish in the 200 free, Sarah Denninghoff finished 15th in the 100 back, and Mitchell Friedemann finished 13th in the 100 back.
“I’m really happy with how the day went,” Arizona head coach Eric Hansen said. “Grevers is about to do something special. We had 11 swimmers out tonight and three coming back tomorrow night. There are just so many positives that came out of today.”
