Five more Auburn swimmers advance at Olympic Trials

Special to the News

Published: July 2, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. — Five current and former Auburn swimmers advanced in Wednesday’s preliminaries at the 2008 Olympic Swimming Team Trials at the Qwest Center.

Former Tiger Eric Shanteau had the top performance of the session, finishing fourth in the 200m breaststroke with a 2:12.39.

Shanteau led a pack of five current and former Tigers in the event and was tops among the three that advanced to Wednesday night’s semifinals.

Following Shanteau was Mark Gangloff at 12th with a time of 2:14.95. Gangloff secured his spot on the 2008 Olympic Team on Monday by finishing second in the 100m breast. Former Auburn swimmer Jon Roberts also advanced to semis, taking the next-to-last spot by finishing 15th with a 2:15.68.

Barely missing out on a semifinal appearance was Adam Klein, who just finished his freshman year at Auburn. Klein came in 17th with a 2:15.94, 0.13 seconds out of 16th place. Former Tiger Andrew Callahan also swam in the event, finishing 44th with a time of 2:19.48.

Rising junior Ava Ohlgren made her second semifinal of the meet, touching in with a 2:12.26 to finish 15th in the 200m butterfly semifinal. Ohlgren, however, may not compete in the 200m fly semis Wednesday night as she is also slated to swim in the 200m individual medley final.

Also advancing to the semifinal was Emily Kukors, giving her the first semifinal appearance of the meet after barely missing out on two Tuesday. Kukors clocked a 2:12.15 in the race to take 14th overall.

Also competing in the 200m fly preliminary were former Tiger Julie Stupp (19th, 2:12.94), Melanie Roberts (41st, 2:15.12) and Julianne McLane (51st, 2:16.11).

The other preliminary of the session was the 100m freestyle, an event that saw 26 swimmers go under 50 seconds. Six current and former Tigers competed in the preliminary, but none were fast enough to make the semifinals.

Doug Van Wie led the way by finishing 22nd with a 49.70, followed by Bryan Lundquist at 31st with a 50.04. Rising junior Tyler McGill touched in at 50.34 to take 40th and was trailed by Scott Goodrich at 46th with a time of 50.43.

Joey Schneider placed 53rd with a time of 50.65 as Steve Scheren clocked a 51.02 to take 71st.