June 25, 2012

OMAHA, Neb.-- Elaine Breeden will enter Tuesday's finals of the U.S. Olympic Trials as the second seed in the 100-meter butterfly, while fellow Stanford graduate John Criste failed to qualify for the 100 breaststroke finals after the top preliminary time.

Breeden, in a bid for her second-straight Olympics, swam 58.18, two-tenths faster than her morning swim.  In the semifinals, Breeden trailed Dana Vollmer's top time of 56.42 and was just ahead of Kathleen Hersey's mark of 58.19. The top two spots earn a spot into the Olympics. Breeden won silver as a part of the 400-meter medley relay team in 2008. Breeden had the third fastest prelim time in the morning at 58.38.

Criste had the top prelim time in the morning (1:00.29), but swam one second slower in the evening session (1:01.27), as he fell out of the top-eight finals by six-tenths of a second. Criste's time in the morning of 1:00.29 was one-hundreth ahead of Brendan Hansen (1:00.30) to move onto the semifinals. Hansen swam a best of 59.71 in the evening.

Stanford sophomore Maya DiRado finished fourth in the 400-meter individual medley finals with a time of 4:38.67, as Elizabeth Beisel (4:31.74), Caitlin Leverenz (4:34.48) earned Olympic bids, ahead of Cammile Adams (4:38.62) and DiRado.

DiRado moved up three spots and improved five seconds from her morning swim (4:43.07) as Beisel and Leverenz had the top two prelim times of 4:35.72 and 4:39.57.

Other Cardinal who finished in the top-25 on day one of the Trials included: David Mosko, 16th in the 400 free, Bryan Offutt, 24th and Bobby Bollier, 25th in the 400 IM, and Curtis Lovelace, 25th in the 100 breast.

Shorter events, in the 100 and 200-meter category with consist of a prelims and semifinals (top-16) on the same day and finals (top-8) on the next. Longer events, 400-meters and longer will have a prelim and finals (top-8) on the same day. The event is broadcast throughout the week on NBC and also available via live webcast at www.usasswimming.org and on NBC Sports Network.

(Stanford top-40, *-Cardinal in the finals)
Full Results: http://www.omegatiming.com/Competition?id=00010C0102FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Monday Evening Session
Women's 100 Fly Semis (2. Breeden, 58.18)
*Women's 400 IM Finals (4. DiRado, 4:38.67)
Men's 100 Breast Semis (12. Criste, 1:01.27)

Monday Morning Session
Men's 400 IM Prelims (24. Offutt, 4:24.64, 25. Bollier, 4:24.96)
Women's 100 Fly Prelims (3. Breeden, 58.38, 38. Lee, 1:00.58, 40. Woodward, 1:00.70)
Men's 400 Free Prelims (16. Mosko, 3:53.18, 32. Cosgarea, 3:56.76)
Women's 400 IM Prelims (7. DiRado, 4:43.07)
Men's 100 Breast Prelims (1. Criste, 1:00.29, 25. Lovelace, 1:02.26)

Tuesday
Women's 100 Back Prelims
Men's 200 Free Prelims
Women's 100 Breast Prelims
Men's 100 Back Prelims
Women's 400 Free Prelims

*Women's 100 Fly Finals (Breeden)
Men's 200 Free Semis
Women's 100 Breast Semis
Women's 400 Free Finals
Men's 100 Back Semis
Women's 100 Back Semis