Monday night in Omaha, one current and two former Auburn swimmers competed in the semifinals of their respective events. Rising Junior Olivia Scott swam in the women's 100 fly, where she finished 10th with a near best time of 58.99s. Scott was 0.25s shy of making the finals but the trials are not over for her yet; she swam in the prelims of the 100m backstroke this morning and she has the 100m freestyle on Friday.
Former Auburn Tigers Mark Gangloff and Eric Shanteau qualified for the finals by finishing third and fourth in the 100m breaststroke semifinal with times of 1:00.20s and 1:00.27s, respectively. Brendan Hanson swam the best time of the night at 59.71s. The winner of this event will likely swim a sub 60 time tonight. Mark Gangloff is capable of this as he set an American record with a time of 59.60s back in 2009. Hanson is good, but both Gangloff and Shanteau could give him a run for his money in the finals Tuesday night.
Tuesday morning's preliminary action included the women's 100 back, men's 200 free, women's 100 breast, men's 100 back, and the women's 400 free. There were plenty of Auburn swimmers in the water Tuesday morning and a few of them will be returning Tuesday night for semifinals. Zane Grothe swam in the men's 200 free and finished with a personal best time of 1:50.82s to win his heat. He was seeded 82nd heading into the prelim and finished 35th. Once again, Grothe just continues to improve his times in all of his events!
Former Tiger Micah Lawrence qualified for the women's 100 breast semifinals by placing 9th with a time 1:08.36s. Lawrence was seeded 5th going into prelims with a time that is several seconds faster than her prelim time. Usually swimmers conserve their energy in prelims in order to perform at their peak during the finals, so expect her time to drop Tuesday night.
One former and two current Auburn swimmers qualified for Tuesday night's semifinal in the men's 100 back. Current swimmers Kyle Owens and Max Murphy finished 7th and 13th with times of 54.32s and 55.26s, respectively. Former Tiger Kohlton Norys also qualified by finishing 16th with a time of 55.49s. Super star Ryan Lochte qualified for the semifinal, but he scratched, presumably to concentrate on other events. This moves everyone up a spot and opens up the competition for a dark horse to make a move. Remember, the top eight swimmers advance to the finals.
Tune into to NBC at 7 CDT to catch these Auburn swimmers compete in their respective finals. You can find the meet schedule and heat sheets at USASwimming.org and you can also follow live updates from @AUSwimming via Twitter.