Dec. 3, 2011
Contact: Tim Ertle
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Atlanta, Ga. - After a 2:02.21 in the 200 meter fly prelims qualified him for the finals, Justin Kermack's 2:01.70 in the 200 meter fly finals was the ninth quickest at the 2011 AT&T Winter National Championships held on Saturday (Dec. 3) night. Kermack, a native of Durban, South Africa, posted a time which was under the US Olympic Trials qualifying time of 2:03.99.
In the last prelim race of the three-day event, Kermack improved his previous best time to crack the top-eight.
In addition to Kermack's success, five other Vikings captured top-100 finishes at the national event which features Olympians and some of the best swimmers in the world.
"We wanted to come down here and train on a long course, but we also wanted to see where we stack up with some of the best athletes in the world," said assistant coach Andrew Hancock who, along with assistant coach April Woo, is with the 10 Vikings who qualified in Atlanta. "Justin had a great swim that was his best in that event yet, and he is shoulder-to-shoulder with some terrific swimmers. He's put in a lot of hard work, and he's really worked at it to get to this point."
Joanna Olsson, who already finished the 200 and 400 IM in Atlanta over the past two days, finished her weekend with a 2:22.74 in the 200 fly to come in 74th.
Carys Behn, a day after competing in the 200 free, covered the 100 free in 58.97 to finish 85th. Berry Thompson did the same event on the men's side and came in 96th with a 52.95.
Nathan Grant and Brian Ferro, the top two swimmers in the Horizon League in both the 100 and 200 breast, swam in the 100 breast event on Friday. They each did the 200 breast on Saturday and cracked the top-80 in the country. Ferro was 65th in 200 breast with a time of 2:25.38 and Grant was 76th with a 2:26.90.
"This was a great weekend for us in many regards," said Hancock. "We swam a lot of our long course best times and learned a lot in the process. This will definitely benefit our program going forward."
