H2Omaha Central
By Amy Kibler
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
It’s a wonderful time this summer, swimming is on every night this week on prime time television and people are actually watching! I love this time, it only happens every four years. I heard someone at Target the other day talking about Michael Phelps and how they were flipping channels and saw the swimming and couldn’t believe he broke the world record. My favorite thing about Olympic Trials is seeing all of the names I recognize, athletes my siblings and I swam against growing up.
There are a couple of girls from my year-round team in Winston-Salem that made trials, Caroline Smith and Kelly Ann Baird. They are so talented and I know it’s a great opportunity to be there. I’m watching one person very closely, Terra Wilson. She finished in the Top 50 in the 200 Free and is seeded in the Top 30 in the 100 free later this week. I think she’ll do much better in that.
There are also kids from Eastern North Carolina who are there as well, two from Greenville and one from Pine Knoll Shores.
Matt Houser and Lauren Perdue are both from Greenville. Houser finished 50th in the 400 IM and Perdue finished 59th in the 200 Free. Houser is also competing in the 200 IM on Thursday. Perdue will swim the 100 Free Thursday and the 50 Free Saturday. Both teenagers swim for Greenville Swim Club year-round and at JH Rose High School. Perdue holds the NCHSAA State Record in the 50 free.
Chip Peterson is also competing. He’s best known for his open water swimming but Peterson got 31st in the 400 Free and 66th in the 200 Free. He is a member of the UNC Swim Team and went to West Carteret High School. Peterson won the 5 and 10K Open Water Races at the 2007 U.S. Open National Championships.
You can check these swimmers out and all the other ones – dozens more from right here in our state – on www.h2omaha.com. The trials go through Sunday.
Happy Swimming!
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