July 3, 2008

OMAHA, NEB. - Two more University of North Carolina long course school records fell Thursday at the 2008 United States Swimming Olympic Trials at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. Tyler Harris set a new school mark in the 200 IM and Kelsey Morrissy notched a new record in the 100 free, bringing to six the total number of school records which have fallen this week with three more days of the Trials still ahead. Tar Heel swimmers, including incoming freshmen, current UNC swimmers and former UNC standouts, also set six career bests in 10 total swims on Thursday.

Kelsey Morrissy, who graduated from Carolina two months ago, had a career best smashing performance in the 100-meter freestyle as she clocked a 55.90 and finished 28th in the process. Morrissy had been the No. 71 seed coming in with a career best 56.85 so she improved .95 seconds on her career best while moving up 43 spots from her seed. Morrissy's time broke Sarah Perroni's school mark of 56.69 set in 1991 at the U.S. Swimming Long Course Nationals.

Also in the field of the 100 free were Erika Erndl, Class of 2001, who went a career best 56.03 to place 35th in the event, up nine spots from her seeded time and .36 of a second faster than her personal best. Rising junior Eliza Butts also competed in the event and went a time of 58.03 to place 94th.

Rising junior Jeff James was Carolina's lone entrant in the 200-meter backstroke where the Chapel Hill native notched a 41st place finish at 2:05.55.

Two Tar Heel had career bests in the 200-meter breaststroke and the third Tar Heel came razor thin close to besting hers. Rising junior Alison Clemens went a career best 2:33.47 to finish 31st. Clemens was the No. 60 seed going into the meet at 2:34.68 so the Staten Island, N.Y., native improved 29 spots over her seed and 1.21 over her career best. Incoming freshman Laura Moriarty showed some similar improvement, going from a No. 78 seed to a No. 39 finish, improving 39 spots. Moriarty went 2:34.68, almost a second faster than her previous personal best of 2:35.62. Incoming freshman Layne Brodie had flirted with a career best as she finished 54th, 34 spots better than her No. 88 seed. Brodie went 2:35.93, missing her career best by .01 of a second.

The last event of hte day was the 200-meter individual medley for men where Harris finished 45th, 22 spots ahead of his No. 67 seed. Harris went 2:05.89 (previous best was 2:06.78). He took down the school record of Daniel Summerlin set in the 1993 U.S. Swimming Championships at 2:06.06.

Two other Tar Heels in the event were Andy Brake who placed 83rd at 2:11.27 and Jeff James who was 84th at 2:11.41.

On Friday, UNC has one entry in each event on the docket -- Steve Cebertowicz in the 50-meter freestyle, Whitney Sprague in the 800-meter freestyle, Tommy Wyher in the 100-meter butterfly and Ashley Howard in the 200-meter backstroke.

On Saturday, UNC's Rebecca Kane and Kelsey Morrisy swim in the women's 50-meter freestyle and Chip Peterson and Joe Kinderwater go in the 1500-meter freestyle.