Jenny Connolly won five individual state titles at Harrison.
Michelle McKeehan competed in three events at the Olympic Trials.
Staff WriterRecent
Hoosier Crossroads Conference graduates Jenny Connolly of Harrison (West Lafayette) and Lindsay Rogers of Hamilton Southeastern each
took to the pool the first week of July at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., in
hopes of representing the United States at next month's Summer Olympics
in Beijing, China.
Both swimmers came away with Top 20 performances in Omaha, but unfortunately neither will be making the trip to Beijing.
Connolly
began her Olympic Trials competition June 29 by finishing
53rd in the 100-meter butterfly prelims with a time of 1:01.11. Since
only 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals, she then turned her
attention to her next event, the 100-meter backstroke, the following day.
Christine Magnuson won the 100 fly trials with a time of
:58.11. (The Top 2 finishers from the finals of each event earn a spot
on the Olympic Team.)
Connolly, though, performed much better in
the 100 back, qualifying for the semifinals by finishing
12th in the prelims with a time of 1:02.30. Then in the semifinals, the
University of Tennessee signee finished in 11th place with a time of
1:01.69. The Top 8 finishers qualified for the finals, which were to be
contested July 1. Natalie Coughlin set a new world
record in the event in the prelims with a time of :59.03.
(
Click here to read a story from the
Lafayette Journal & Courier with quotes from Connolly about competing in the Olympic swim trials.)
Rogers
also competed June 30 in the 100-meter breaststroke prelims and
finished 17th with a time of 1:09.95. The University of
Florida signee missed out on qualifying for the semifinals of the event
by two-tenths of a second. Rebecca Soni (1:06.87) is the top seed in the 100 breast finals, which were also
scheduled to take place July 1.
Michelle McKeehan, a recent graduate of Center Grove
and the owner of eight state championships, qualified for the
semifinals of the 100 breast with a prelim time of 1:09.67,
good enough for a 14th-place tie. The University of Georgia
signee then finished in a tie for 11th in the semifinals with a time of
1:08.97, missing qualifying for the finals by just over a tenth of a
second.
McKeehan then came back the next morning to
compete in the 200-meter individual medley, but she didn't make it past
the prelims after swimming a time of 2:19.59 and finishing tied for 64th.
McKeehan also competed in the prelims of the 200 meter-breaststoke July 3, finishing in 52nd place with a time of 2:35.40.
Kyle Whitaker, a junior-to-be at Chesterton, competed in
the prelims of the men's 200-meter individual medley July 3 and swam a
time of 2:04.09 to finish 24th. Whitaker has captured the
state title in the 200 IM at the state finals each
of the last two seasons.
Click here to view all of the results from the 2008 United States Olympic Swim Trials, courtesy of usaswimming.org.