There's nothing like a chance to go for the gold to provide a little motivation.
Current and former Gator swimmers have been busy at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., with Caroline Burckle leading the way for the women.
The recent UF graduate qualified for the 200-meter freestyle finals on Tuesday as she set a personal record with a time of 1:58.50 in the semifinals. She entered the Wednesday finals seated fourth.
Burckle's Wednesday swim was her second finals appearance of the trials. She battled to a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle Monday after shaving off nearly a second and a half from her morning time to record a career-best 4:05.09.
Burckle will try to keep the 200-meter freestyle record under the control of UF. The 16-year-old meet record of 1:58.65 set by gold medallist Nicole Haislett in the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials was broken in the semifinals round by first-place finisher Katie Hoff (1:57.10).
Other UF women also bested their own personal records. Samantha Vanderbilt clocked in at 1:01.85 in the 100-meter backstroke preliminaries to set a new career best and advance to the semifinals seated in ninth place. However, she fell short of qualifying for the finals and finished 14th overall after tapping in at 1:02.14.
Current Gators Sarah Peterson, Kim Larson and Elizabeth Kemp placed 57th (2:02.56), 66th (2:03.12) and 71st (2:03.44), respectively, in the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle.
2007 graduate Ashley Carusone represented UF in the 200-meter individual medley preliminaries, placing 98th with a time of 2:22.59.
On the men's side, former Gator Ryan Lochte was just a touch short of qualifying to compete in the 100-meter backstroke in Beijing. He entered the finals needing a first- or second-place finish to advance but was beat out by second-place finisher Matt Grevers by two-tenths of a second.
Lochte will still be in Beijing, however. He qualified for the 400-meter individual medley with a second-place finals finish. Though Lochte finished first in the semifinals and finished under the previous world record time at 4:06.08, he couldn't keep up with 2004 U.S. Olympic teammate Michael Phelps, who shattered the record he previously held by clocking in at 4:05.25. Lochte and Phelps will fill the only two available spots on the U.S. Olympic team for the 400-meter individual medley.
Again, Lochte was not the only one to turn in a career performance. 2008 senior Dustin McLarty and junior Clark Burckle both swam for personal bests, with McLarty tapping in at 4:18.90 and Burckle finishing at 4:19.24, good for sixth and seventh place, respectively.
Burckle also swam a career-best 2:00.20 in the preliminaries for the 200-meter fly, but just missed the top 16 and qualified as the second alternate for the evening semifinals on Tuesday.
Recent alumnus Tim Hughes finished half a second after Burckle, setting a new career-best time at 2:00.71. Not to be outdone, McLarty also set a new personal record with a time of 2:02.26 in the event, 44th overall.
Nine Gators have already qualified for competition in Beijing as members of their countries' respective teams.
