Monika A. Paris: June 2008 Archives

The second day of the Olympic Trials marks another exciting day for the FISH team.  Kate Ziegler will be swimming her first, much anticipated race, the 400 m Free.  She will be swimming her prelim race in Heat 10, lane 4 in the early afternoon which can be watched at nbcolympics.com.  Finals will be tonight and are shown on NBC from 8:00 - 9:00 PM. 

Update:  8:59 PM - Kate just finished swimming her 400 Free final and she secured her spot on the Olympic Team in a time of 4:03.92.  In a very tight race, Kate needed a personal best time to finish second only to Katie Hoff.  We will provide a further update when we have heard from Kate and Ray.  The first FISH ever to go to the Olympics.  Congratulations!

Update: 9:53 PM - We just heard from Ray and needless to say they are both very relieved and relaxed and happy at this point.  A very happy coach said, "Kate swam the race exactly as planned and it worked out very well. We were not worried about time, we just wanted to make sure she came in as number one or two that is all that matters right now.  That she did it  in a best time was of course a fantastic way to finish her first final at trials."  Ray said, "I believe Kate is one of a few female swimmers  from the Washington, DC area to ever go to the Olympics."  He also feels that Kate will be much more relaxed going into her next races. 

Feel free to leave a comment for Kate and Ray.

These are very exciting times for the FISH as Ray Benecki, Olympic-hopeful Kate Ziegler and Matthew Benecki pack their bags to fly to Omaha, Nebraska.  They are on their way to the Olympic Trials which will be held from June 29th through July 6th and results will be posted as they become available.

Kate will swim on Monday the 400 Free, on Tuesday the 200 Free, and on Friday the 800 Free.  Matthew will swim the 400 Free on Sunday and the 1500 Free on Saturday.  All events can be observed on omegatiming.com and NBC will have TV coverage every night from 8:00 to 9:00 PM.

In addition, NBCOlympics.com will webcast the morning prelim sessions live from the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb. Olympic gold medalist and former National Team captain Josh Davis will be the commentator. The webcasts begin Sunday and will air each day of Trials starting at 11 a.m. Central Time.