Saturday, August 12, 2000
Dusing squeezes into Olympics with 6th-place finish
By Jeff Carlton
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS — The top six swimmers entering Friday's 200 freestyle final at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials were separated by one-half second. Villa Hills' Nate Dusing qualified for the Olympics by an even slimmer margin than that.
Only the top four finishers in the 200 freestyle are guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team, but U.S. Swimming has never taken fewer than the top six. Dusing, a Covington Catholic graduate and a senior at Texas, finished sixth in the final, beating out the seventh-place finisher by one-hundredth of a second. His time was 1:48.99.
Dusing's Texas teammate, Josh Davis, won the event in 1:47.26, breaking a 12-year-old American record.
“One-hundredth of a second — it's hard to fathom,” Dusing said. “You can't even push a stopwatch that quickly.”
Dusing said his strategy would be to beat the person on either side of him and hope for the best. With that in mind, Dusing started off extremely fast and was in third place heading down the last 50 meters.
Fatigue set in near the race's end, and Dusing barely hung on to beat Ugur Taner for the last spot on the squad.
Other Olympic qualifiers Friday: B.J. Bedford and Courtney Shealy in the women's 100 backstroke; Scott Goldblatt in the 200 free; Chad Carvin and Klete Keller for the 800 freestyle relay; Lenny Krayzelburg and Neil Walker in the 100 backstroke, and Megan Quann and Staciana Stitts in the 100 breaststroke.
Another area swimmer trying to keep Olympic hopes alive was Ursuline's Tami Ransom. She swam in the semifinals of the 200 individual medley, needing to finish eighth to compete in today's final.
Ransom fell behind early in her semifinal heat and found herself in seventh place at the midway point. She fell further back over the last 50 meters, finishing in 2:20.62. She finished 16th overall.
St. Xavier's Jayme Cramer and Ursuline's Whitney Myers topped the list of locals competing Friday who did not advance past the morning preliminaries.
Cramer finished 19th in the 200 butterfly. He was seeded 13th in the event and swam in the same heat as world-record holder Tom Malchow, who set an Olympic trials record in the heat with a 1:55.67.
Myers finished 28th in the 200 IM and 25th in the 200 freestyle. She competes today in the 200 butterfly.
Ursuline graduate Erin Phenix, a Texas sophomore, finished one spot behind Myers in the 200 freestyle in 2:03.48. She is gearing up for her best event, the 100 freestyle.
Also swimming Friday was Sycamore graduate Dan Ketchum, who finished 64th in the 200 butterfly.
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