Prenot, Stevens fail to advance at US Swimming Trials

Posted: Jun 25, 2012 3:52 PM by Bill Halter
Updated: Jun 25, 2012 5:59 PM

Josh Prenot from Santa Maria and Zach Stevens from Arroyo Grande made their Olympic Trials debut in the pool on Monday morning. The 18 year old Prenot finished 13th in the 400 meter individual medley and 34th in the 100m breastroke. The 16 year old Stevens was 72nd in the 100m breastroke. The US Swimming Olympic Trials started on Monday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Prenot, who will attend UC-Berkley next year was only 3.2 seconds from qualifying for the final of the 400m individual medley. His 13th place finish was five spots from advancing him, the top eight times advanced to the final of the event which will be on Monday night. Prenot touched the wall in 4:22.53, 11.87 seconds behind the top mark posted by Ryan Lochte. Michael Phelps had the second best time. On Monday night in the finals of the event, Lochte finished first and Phelps finished second. Those two will represent the United States in the 400 individual medley at the London Olympics. There were 113 swimmers who competed in the 400m individual medley. The individual medley forces swimmers to use four different strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle.

Prenot finished the 100m breastroke in 1:02.89 (34th). He was 2.6 seconds behind the winner but just 1.09 seconds from being one of the 16 qualifiers for the semifinals. Because the 100m breastroke is a less taxing event it has three rounds rather than just two like the 400 individual medley.

Prenot will compete in the prelims of the 200m butterfly on Wednesday, the 200m breastroke on Thursday and the 200m individual medley on Friday.

Stevens was 72nd out of 139 swimmers in the 100m breastroke. His time of 1:04.26 was 3.97 seconds off the top mark and 2.46 seconds from being one of the 16 qualifiers for the semifinals. Stevens will compete in the 200m breastroke on Thursday.

Pioneer Valley High graduate Meghan Zimmer swims on Wednesday in the 200m freestyle. Zimmer swims for San Diego State.