Bend swimmer 29th in Olympic Trials prelim

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 3, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. — Dan Nyaradi of Bend finished 29th in the preliminary round of the men’s 200-meter breaststroke Wednesday at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming. Nyaradi, one of four former Bend Swim Club athletes at the trials, finished his swim in 2 minutes, 17.71 seconds. Brendan Hansen, who holds the American 200 breaststroke record, won the prelim round with a time of 2:11.29. Nyaradi’s finish, the highest placing ever by a BSC male in an Olympic Trials event, was 1.9 seconds off the last time to qualify for the semifinals.

Bend’s Alex Larkin also raced in the 200 breaststroke and finished 51st with a time of 2:21.81. Sixty-three swimmers swam in nine heats during the 200 breaststroke preliminaries.

In the men’s 100 freestyle, Nolan Morrell of Bend placed 109th out of 118 swimmers with a time of 51.85 seconds. Garrett Gale-Weber won the 100 freestyle prelims with a time of 47.78 seconds. The final qualifying time to advance to the 100 freestyle semifinals was a mark of 49.37 seconds.

Logan Madson, the fourth Bend swimmer in the 2008 trials, is scheduled to compete in the men’s 200 individual medley today and in the 100 butterfly on Friday. Nyaradi, Larkin and Morrell have completed their scheduled swims at the 2008 Trials.

The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, held at the Qwest Center Omaha, run through Sunday. The top two placers in every event except the freestyle races qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The top six finishers in the freestyle events advance to the Olympics.