June 25, 2012
OMAHA, Neb. — Four South Carolina swimmers opened the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials on Monday with solid performances in the preliminaries at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb.
Although none of the Gamecocks advanced to the finals, Matt Navata (400 IM), Matt Columbus (400 freestyle) and Abby Galbreath (400 IM) all finished much higher than they were seeded heading into their respective races, while Rachael Schaffer had the best showing with a 24th-place finish in the women’s 400 IM.
“This is a really good start to our meet,” South Carolina head coach McGee Moody said. “The first day is usually spent feeling out what the tempo is going to be like. Given our athletes moved up a lot from their seed, that’s a good thing. We just need to continue to swim our races and stay within our race plans.”
Navata opened the morning in strong fashion as he swam a personal best of 4:28.39 to win his heat in a tightly contested race by .07 of a second. Navata, who was seeded 88th, finished 49th overall.
After being seeded 109th in the 400 freestyle, Columbus swam to a seventh-place finish in his heat and was 79th overall with a time of 4:01.83.
Schaffer and Galbreath both raced in the women’s 400 IM. Schaffer, who entered the event seeded 20th, swam a 4:50.71 to claim fourth in her heat and 24th overall. Galbreath touched seventh in a time of 4:59.73, which left her in 93rd place at the end of the preliminaries.
Three Gamecocks will be in action on Tuesday at the Trials, as junior Michael Flach and former Carolina All-American Kyle Cormier are slated to swim in the 200 freestyle and Schaffer will compete in the 100 breaststroke. Preliminaries will get underway at 10 a.m. CT. Live results for each event and live video of all but the fastest preliminary heats will be available by clicking here. NBC and the NBC Sports Network will also provide live and same-day video of the heats and finals.
Monday, June 25
2012 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials
Omaha, Neb. – CenturyLink Center
Day 1 Preliminary Results
Women’s 400 IM
24. Rachael Schaffer 4:50.71
93. Abby Galbreath 4:59.73
Men’s 400 IM
49. Matt Navata 4:28.39
Men’s 400 Freestyle
79. Matt Columbus 4:01.83
