Luke Whitlock breaks Michael Phelps' record

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

6 2 minutes read

INDIANAPOLIS – Luke Whitlock, an 18-year-old Hoosier, shockingly broke an age group record from Michael Phelps as the U.S. Olympic Trials began today at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Six swimmers from Hamilton County qualified for tonight's session, including five from Carmel.

Olympic Trials:Carmel's Aaron Shackell wins men's 400 freestyle, books ticket to Paris

Learn more about Luke Whitlock:How a Noblesville Swimmer Went From Teen Top 1,000 to Trials Contender

Swimming trials:When will Lilly King, other Indiana and Carmel swimmers compete

The men's 400 freestyle final is a true Hamilton County championship.

In Saturday's preliminaries, the top four were:

Whitlock, a Noblesville resident representing the Fishers Area Swimming Tigers, 3:46.42; David Johnston, 3:47.17; Jake Mitchell, an Olympian from Carmel, 3:47.76, and Aaron Shackell, 19, also from Carmel, 3:47.96.

Two Olympic medalists, Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke, finished sixth and eighth in 3:48.25 and 3:48.63, respectively.

Whitlock has committed to the University of Florida, where Mitchell and Katie Ledecky coach. Whitlock broke the 17-18 record of 3:46.73 set in 2003 by Phelps, winner of a record 23 Olympic gold medals.

Carmel's Drew Kibler, also an Olympian, was eliminated from the 400 freestyle. He was seeded No. 5 with a time of 3:47.58, just behind Mitchell and Shackell. Kibler is also entered in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle.

Michael Brinegar, an Olympian from Columbus, was 17^th in 3:51.53. State champion and recent Carmel High School graduate Gregg Enoch lowered his best time to 3:51.86 and finished 18th.^th.

Three others from Carmel also qualified for tonight's session: Kayla Han in the 400 freestyle, and Alex Shackell and Kelly Pash in the 100 fly.

As expected, Ledecky was fastest in the 400 freestyle heats in 3:59.99. Indiana University's Anna Peplowski surged late to place seventh in 4:09.87. Madi Mintenko, daughter of Indiana Olympic medalist Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko, placed fourth in qualifying with a time of 4:07.53.

Han, who just finished his sophomore year, was less than a tenth of a second out of the top eight in 4:09.96. Due to two scratches, Han, the world junior gold medalist in the 800 freestyle, is in tonight's final.

Her Carmel teammate, Lynsey Bowen, was 27^th in 4:14.01.

Alex Shackell and Pash finished fourth and fifth in the 100 butterfly heats in 57.07 and 57.66, respectively. The top 16 advance to tonight's semi-finals.

Shackell, 17, just finished his freshman year. She moved into third place on the all-time 17-18 list behind Torri Huske and Claire Curzan.

Gretchen Walsh of the University of Virginia, the sensation of March's NCAA Championships (in a 25-yard pool), had the best fly time of 55.94. This makes her the second-fastest American woman of all time behind Huske, who set an American record of 55.64 in winning a gold medal at the 2022 World Championships. Huske finished second in the heats in 56, 26.

Lina Portman

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