Five former Auburn swimmers advance in first session of Olympic Trials

By: Special to the News | Opelika Auburn News
Published: June 29, 2008

OMAHA, Neb — Five former Auburn swimmers advanced following the opening preliminary session of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials on Sunday.

The Olympic Trials, taking place at the Qwest Center in Omaha, will run through July 6.

Margaret Hoelzer, Julie Stupp, Mark Gangloff, Eric Shanteau and Jon Roberts led a group of 21 current, former and future Auburn swimmers in the opening-day preliminaries.

Hoelzer, an Olympian in 2004, was the first to advance to the evening session, finishing fifth in the 100m butterfly prelim with a time of 58.67 to make it to the semifinals. She was followed by Margo McCawley (36th, 1:00.71), Auburn signee Kelsey Winters (44th, 1:00.97), Emily Kukors (46th, 1:01.01), Melanie Roberts (51st, 1:01.10) and Melissa Marik (81st, 1:02.04).

Former Tiger Stupp was next to advance, making the finals in the 400m IM by finishing seventh in the prelim with a 4:42.92. Despite going out in one of the fastest butterfly legs of the morning, Ava Ohlgren missed the cut to the finals as she finished 12th in the prelim with a 4:45.44. Also competing in the 400m IM were Erica Meissner (36th, 4:52.32) and Blakeley Bunch (67th, 4:58.26).

More Tigers advanced to semifinals in the final event of the session as Gangloff, Shanteau and Roberts all finished in the top eight in the 100m breaststroke. Gangloff led the way by finishing second with a 1:00.10, but was followed close by former teammate Shanteau, who was third with a 1:00.91. Shanteau's current training partner, Brendan Hansen, won the preliminary with a 59.84.

Also swimming in the 100m breast were Michael Silva (37th, 1:03.44), Adam Klein (39th, 1:03.76), Jon HIett (42nd, 1:03.90) and James Wike (43rd, 1:03.97).

Auburn also had swimmers in the two other events in the morning session. Andrew Mitchell started off the day for the Tigers by finishing 49th in the 400m IM with a time of 4:32.44. Former Auburn swimmer Andrew Callahan led the way in the race by placing 18th in 4:24.12.

In the 400m freestyle, Will Dove came in 32nd with a time of 3:57.03, followed by Robert Looney with his 42nd-place time of 3:58.06.

Action at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials resumes tonight at 7 p.m. with finals in the men's 400m IM, men's 400m free and women's 400m IM. There will also be semifinal heats in the women's 100m fly and men's 100m breast.

Fans can watch all the action on NBC (Channels 12 and 13 in Lee County). Auburn alum Rowdy Gaines will head up the NBC Sports broadcast team and will be joined by Bob Costas, Dan Hicks and Andrea Kremer. Fans can also follow the results with live timing at www.OmegaTiming.com.