UA men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach Frank Busch may be tuckered out from the Beijing Olympic Games, but just because he’s decided to stay home for the 2009 world swimming championships doesn’t mean Arizona won’t be represented in Rome.
Pacific 10 Conference Lady of the Year Lacey Nymeyer, a former Wildcat swimmer, and sophomore Alyssa Anderson both qualified for the USA team roster that will compete in the 2009 World Championships July 26-August 2.
“”I didn’t really expect Alyssa to make that team so that was a pleasant surprise,”” Busch said of Anderson.
Anderson and Nymeyer set 1:58.45 and 1:58.52 second marks in the women’s 200m freestyle, respectively. While they only placed 4th and 6th, freestyle swimmers take priority over the other strokes as the national team must fill spots to accommodate the abundance of freestyle relays.
Thus, both Anderson and Nymeyer will compete in the 800-meter freestyle relay.
Overall, Arizona had 11 men and nine women take to the water in the USA trials. Other swimmers making a big splash were breaststroker Marcus Titus and individual medley specialist Jack Brown.
Titus took third place in his 100m breaststroke, earning what Busch guessed would be a “”Top 15″” world rank. Meanwhile, Brown also placed third in his 400m IM.
One of the few disappointing outcomes of the weekend was speedster Lara Jackson’s third place in her 50m freestyle event. Her 24.71 second performance was a hundredth of a second off second-place finisher Amanda Weir’s time – that split second left her off the national team.
“”That’s faster than you could blink and eye,”” Busch said, noting that her performance was far from poor. “”There’s just a matter of a tough race.””
Jackson, who lost her father earlier in the spring, should be admired for showing up to compete, Busch said.
As for himself, Busch turned down the opportunity to coach on the national team and will instead remain in Tucson to oversee his swimmers in the U.S. Open, which begins on August 4.
“”The Olympics cooked me,”” he said.
As of now, 13 current and former UA swimmers from eight difference countries have made their national team rosters.
