Another milestone is in the books as WVU treks onward to the Olympic Games and the end of the 2024 swimming and diving season.
The four-day TYR Pro Swim Series in San Antonio wrapped up Saturday, leaving WVU swimmers with just one more chance to meet Olympic Trials standards. Eight Mountaineers swam this week in what is USA Swimming’s final long-course meter event of the year before the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis this June.
West Virginia has two competitors locked in for the Indianapolis meet: seniors Justin Heimes in the men’s 100-meter backstroke and Danny Berlitz in the men’s 400-meter individual medley.
Heimes met the Olympic Trials standard back in March with a 55.48-second swim at the NCAA’s Last Chance Meet in Morgantown. Berlitz is a new addition to the participants list after placing fifth in San Antonio on Friday in 4:20.93.
Senior Ivan Puskovitch will also continue his season after WVU’s final team event, having already qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris. Puskovitch placed 14th at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar in February as an open water marathon swimmer. He will represent Team USA in the men’s 10 kilometer event.
With the season coming to a close for most Mountaineers, though, this week’s Pro Swim Series served as a showcase of WVU’s talent and improvement throughout the season. WVU’s eight-participant list had one notable absence in sophomore Mia Cheatwood, who was scheduled to compete in three events throughout the week but did not swim in San Antonio.
Saturday’s final set of events went well for West Virginia, nevertheless. All eight competitors from the week swam across six events on Saturday and made notable highlights despite not reaching any Olympic Trials qualifying standards.
Puskovitch swam alongside senior William Mullen for the third time this week, as both competed in the men’s 800-meter freestyle. Mullen and Puskovitch opened the Swim Series as WVU’s only participants on Wednesday in the 1500-meter freestyle, where they placed 17th and 13th respectively. Saturday’s results were similar, with Puskovitch taking 14th place in 8:21.75 and Mullen placing 22nd in 8:28.00.
Heimes followed the pair in his best event, the 100-meter backstroke. He was unable to improve on the personal best that earned him a bid to Indianapolis, but he placed 29th in 56.97 seconds.
Fellow Olympic Trials qualifier Berlitz competed in two events Saturday, placing 26th in the 200-meter breaststroke and 27th in the 200 IM. Berlitz’s 200 IM time of 2:05.11 was just 1.62 seconds off the Olympic Trials standard and his 200 breaststroke time of 2:19.94 was just 1.43 seconds off his personal best from last June.
West Virginia’s highlight event of the day was the 50-meter freestyle, in which sophomore Ada Szwabinska competed in the women’s event and senior Roanoke Shirk swam with juniors Braden Osborn and Conner McBeth in the men’s.
Szwabinska broke both her personal best of 26.24 seconds and the WVU program record in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. She placed 37th with a time of 25.97 seconds, which came just .28 seconds off of the Olympic Trials mark. Her success this week easily puts Szwabinska in the running for a trials-qualifying performance next week in Morgantown.
McBeth topped the Mountaineers standings in the men’s event, placing 34th overall with a new personal best of 22.97 seconds, which is .18 seconds off of the Olympic Trials standard. Osborn placed 66th in 23.7 seconds and Shirk finished 69th with a new personal best of 23.75 seconds.
The Mountaineers will swim for the final time this season in the Club Mountaineer Aquatics April Olympic Trial Qualifier in Morgantown. The event begins Thursday, April 18 and will go through that Saturday. All events will be held at The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park.
Photo from WVU Swimming & Diving
