By KEVIN HARRIS
Kevin.Harris@newsandtribune.com
July 02, 2008 01:56 am
—
For the third straight time in this week’s United States Olympic Trials, Ben Hesen set a personal-best time in the 100-meter backstroke.
Unfortunately, that was not enough to place him on the U.S. Olympic team.
On Tuesday night at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., the former Jeffersonville High School and Indiana University standout finished fifth in the 100 backstroke final at the Olympic Trials in a career-best time of 53.68 seconds.
Hesen needed to place in the top two spots to qualify for the team and earn a trip to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Aaron Peirsol snapped his own world record to win the 100 back final. His time of 52.89 seconds was .09 of a second faster than his previous world mark. Former Big Ten Conference champion Matt Grevers, who attended Northwestern, finished second in 53.19.
Despite falling short of his Olympic dream, Hesen improved on his 100 back times throughout the event.
On Monday afternoon, he posted the third-best time in the preliminaries and eclipsed his personal-best time in 53.88 seconds. He narrowly bettered that time in Monday night’s second semifinal, placing third in 53.87. His time in the 100 back final was two-tenths of a second faster than his preliminary time.
Hesen also finished better than his seeding by two spots. He was seeded seventh entering Tuesday’s final.
Hesen will have two more cracks of making the Olympic team this week. On Thursday, he will compete in the 200 backstroke preliminaries, where he must finish in the top 16 to advance to the semifinals later that evening. In order to advance to Friday’s final, he must have one of the eight fastest times in the semis.
Hesen will swim in the 100 butterfly heats on Friday. The event’s semifinals will be Friday night and the final will take place Saturday.
But the odds are against Hesen in making the Olympic team in both events. He is seeded 17th in the 100 butterfly and 28th in the 200 backstroke.
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