TOKYO, Japan — A slate of swimmers who went to UGA impressed in the pool early Saturday at the Tokyo Olympics while an Emory grad made his mark as well.
Qualifying began for swimming events, and the Bulldogs were well-represented on the first day, with six grads or postgrads who advanced out of qualifying.
Emory's Andrew Wilson, meanwhile, the first Division 3 athlete to ever qualify for the Olympics, also will swim again after a successful swim in the heats.
The Georgia-connected swimmers will resume their quests for an Olympic medal in the finals and semifinals for various events tonight.
In Saturday morning's qualifying, here's how things went (all references to time are ET):
- Two former Bulldogs, Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland, both qualified for the men's 400m individual medley final. Kalisz had the third-best time of the heats, at 4:09.65, while Litherland was less than a third of a second behind him at 4:09.91 - seventh-best among the eight qualifiers. That final is set to take place tonight at 9:30 p.m.
- Hali Flickinger, who graduated from UGA in 2017, qualified for the women's 400m individual medley final with the second-best heat time of 4:35.98. That event begins at 10:12 p.m.
- Andrew Wilson, the Emory grad, qualified for the men's 100m breaststroke semifinal at 10:39 p.m. He finished second place in Heat 6 with a time of 59.03 seconds. That qualifying time ranks sixth among the eight qualifiers in his semifinal race - the top eight times from two semifinals will advance to the final.
- The U.S. women's 4x100m freestyle team featured three UGA connections - graduates Olivia Smoliga and Allison Schmitt, and postgrad Natalie Hinds. They qualified for the women's 4x100m freestyle relay final at 10:45 p.m. The team's qualifying time of 3:34.80 was second behind only Denmark.
- Additionally, Caio Pumputis, who went to Georgia Tech, represented Brazil in the heats. He did not qualify for the men's 100m breaststroke final, finishing sixth in his heat with a time of 1:00.76.