Auburn’s Shanteau, Hoelzer take third-place finishes at Olympic Trials

Special to the News
Published: July 4, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. — Former Tiger and Olympian Eric Shanteau led the way Thursday at the 2008 Olympic Swimming Trials at the Qwest Center.

One night after earning a spot on the Olympic team in the 200m breaststroke, Shanteau returned to the pool to take third in the 200m individual medley with a 1:59.15.

Eight other current and former Tigers were competing Friday night in semifinal races. Rising junior Tyler McGill was tops in the evening session, finishing fourth in the 100m butterfly with a time of 52.20.

“I had a really good 100 free yesterday and that gave me a lot of confidence,” McGill said. “But, there are some things I can fix after tonight and be ready for finals tomorrow.”

McGill earned his first finals appearance after barely missing out in the 200m butterfly, finishing 10th in the semifinal.

Also racing in the 100m fly was rising senior Logan Madson. He finished 16th in the semifinal with a time of 53.97.

Four Tigers swam in the women’s 200m backstroke Friday night, with Olympian Margaret Hoelzer leading the pack by finishing third with a time of 2:09.04. Erica Meissner missed out on the finals by barely more than a second after she finished 10th in the race with a 2:12.38.

Emile Ewing followed in 11th with a 2:12.94 while Julianne McLane finished in 15th with a time of 2:13.52.

Also advancing to a final was short course record holder Bryan Lundquist, as he finished eighth in the 50m freestyle with a 22.32. Scott Goodrich, who just finished his senior year at Auburn, finished .1 seconds behind Lundquist, posting a time of 22.42 to finish 12th in the semifinal.

Action in the 2008 Olympic Swimming Team Trials continues at 11 a.m. today, with preliminaries in the women’s 50m freestyle and the men’s 1500m freestyle.

Fans can watch all the action live with a video Webcast at http://www.NBCOlympics.com or with live timing at http://www.OmegaTiming.com.

For more information on the 2008 Olympic Trials, visit http://www.USASwimming.org.