Swimming

Torri Huske Out-Duels Abbey Weitzeil in the 100 Free at Southern California Invitational

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INVITATIONAL

A battle-to-the-wire between two of America’s top sprinters was the highlight of day 2 of the Southern California Invitational on Thursday in Irvine.

Torri Huske and Abbey Weitzeil, two of 15-or-so serious contenders for six 400 free relay spots on the US Olympic Team, came down to the final touch, with Huske winning in 53.33 and Weitzeil placing 2nd in 53.56. Huske led the race most of the way, though the two were never really separated by more than about a foot throughout the race.

The race is featured in the live stream at about the 21 minute mark:

At last year’s US Trials, Huske was 5th and Weitzeil was 2nd, but this swam was already better than Huske was at that meet (53.41). Huske finished one spot ahead of Weitzeil at the US Open in December by a margin of 53.17 to 53.53.

Weitzeil is a pro training at Cal while Huske is taking an Olympic redshirt season off from her NCAA career at Stanford.

Also in that field was a 54.96 from Amy Tang, a 55.72 prelims swim and personal best from 37-year-old mother of 3 Brooke Boak, a near-best time of 55.73 from Gigi Johnson to win the B-Final, and a near-best time of 55.90 in prelims from Aurora Roghair, who won the 1500 in a huge time drop on Wednesday.

Roghair won the 400 free on Thursday in 4:09.46, which was another best time for her. Her previous fastest of 4:10.84 was done in June 2023 at US Trials, though she was already knocking up against that with her 4:10.87 in San Antonio in April.

The other top stories out of Thursday’s session came in the men’s and women’s 100 breaststrokes.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Michael Andrew has been on a roller-coaster of results, but just as he did in 2021, he seems to be peaking at the right time for the Olympic Trials. He won the men’s 100 breast in 59.87, which is .05 seconds shy of the 59.82 he swam in March in France. Incidentally, it’s half-a-second better than the defending US champion Nic Fink swam in Austin on Thursday evening.

Daniel Roy placed 2nd in Irvine in 1:00.64.

In the women’s 100 breaststroke, USC Trojan Kaitlyn Dobler, the 3rd-place finisher at the NCAA Championships and Pac-12 Champion, won in 1:07.95. That’s about a quarter-second slower than the defending Olympic gold medalist Lydia Jacoby swam in Austin.

Deeper into those rankings was 32-year-old Breeja Larson. Larson was a 2012 Olympic gold medalist on the US 400 medley relay team. After a three-and-a-half year retirement from the sport, where she worked in teaching clinics and doing speaking engagements, Larson returned to the water in January. She hit her Olympic Trials cut at Sectionals in March (1:10.08) and swam 1:11.24 on Thursday evening.

A native of Arizona, she is currently training with former USC head coach Dave Salo at Irvine Novaquatics, the host team for this meet.

Other Day 2 Winners & Highlights

  • US World Championship Team member Henry McFadden won the 400 free in 3:56.41. That’s a second faster than he swam in San Antonio coming out of his freshman NCAA season at Stanford. His Stanford teammate Henry Morrissey was 2nd in 3:57.99, just three-tenths shy of his personal best time.
  • Cal’s Jack Alexy, the 2023 World Championships silver medalist in the 100 free, won that race on Thursday in 48.37. That’s very close to what Caeleb Dressel, the defending Olympic gold medalist who is working back from a break from the sport, did in Atlanta (48.30). Stanford’s Andres Dupont was 2nd in 49.33, McFadden (before the 400 free) was 3rd in 49.35, and 2021 US Olympian Brooks Curry was 4th in 49.65.
  • Cal’s Rachel Klinker, who was 4th at the 2024 World Championships, won the 200 fly in 2:09.31. That was half-a-second better than Stanford’s Caroline Bricker (2:09.80) who had a breakout year for the Cardinal.
  • 100 fly specialist Dare Rose swam 1:58.17 in the 200 fly to win that race on Thursday. He beat out Cal alum Trenton Julian, who was 2nd in 1:58.50.

SwimSwam: Torri Huske Out-Duels Abbey Weitzeil in the 100 Free at Southern California Invitational

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