Former Auburn Tiger Eric Shanteau qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 100m breast Tuesday night, placing second in the final with a time of 1:00.54. He finished behind Brendan Hanson, who won with a time of 59.68. Shanteau was seeded fourth in this event, so it was a bit of a pleasant surprise for him to make it into the top two. Mark Gangloff swam to a fifth place finish in 1:00.74. Gangloff and Shanteau will both compete in the 200m breaststroke for another chance to represent the U.S.
Tuesday night also included the semifinals for the 100m back. Three Tigers competed in the event, and rising senior Kyle Owens qualified for the final. Owens finished in a personal best time of 54.18 to place seventh. He is the first current Auburn swimmer to make a final in this year's trials. Former Auburn swimmer Micah Lawrence also qualified for the women's 100m breast final with a sixth place finish in 1:08.36.
Wednesday morning's competition included preliminaries in which seven Tigers swam in the women's 200m free, men's 200m fly and women's 200m IM. Zane Grothe continued to take huge strides in his swimming as he swam a personal best time of 2:01.43s in the 200 fly. Grothe is doing the best swimming of his life right now, and he still has two events left - the 100m free and his best event, the 1500m free. Grothe is seeded 25th in the 1500m, and with the way he is swimming, it's possible for him jump into the semifinals and final. The prelims for the 100m, which includes several Tigers, are on Thursday and the prelims for the 1500m are on Sunday.
Tune into to NBC tonight at 7 CDT to watch Owens and Lawrence 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 @AuburnSwimming via Twitter.