Kenyon junior Matthew Harris recorded an Olympic qualifying time of 54.87 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly on Friday at the Toyota Grand Prix at The Ohio State University.
He swam in the morning preliminaries, but was not satisfied with his time of 56.46 seconds. That mark ranked 32nd in a field of 103 participants, including six-time 2004 Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps, as well as Frédérick Bousquet, the former world record holder in the 50-meter freestyle. So Harris entered a time trial and improved his time, clearing the Olympic qualifying standard of 55.59 seconds (meet results).
Harris was only able to take part in the event because the NCAA recently amended their policies to allow student-athletes to continue postseason training in an effort to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, which will be held in Beijing. The Grand Prix is one in a series of events set up to serve as opportunity for athletes to continue their preparations, as well as race against top-notch competition.
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