Seven swimmers will represent Stanford and Team USA at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary beginning Sunday. World record holder and Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky and Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel will swim in multiple individual events, while two-time Olympian Lia Neal will compete for Team USA’s relay. Greg Meehan is serving as head coach for the Americans.
On the men’s side, Junior Abrahm DeVine, sophomore True Sweetser and senior captain Sam Perry are set to compete in the World Championships.
Ledecky won three national titles at the Phillips 66 National Championships, and is ready to defend four world titles.
Manuel will compete individually in the 50 and 100-meter freestyles following her U.S. championship in the 50 free in Indianapolis, while Neal qualified for Team USA’s 400-meter free relay with a third-place finish in the 100 free.
Led by Coach Meehan, Ledecky, Manuel and Neal helped Stanford to the 2017 NCAA title, the program’s first since 1998.
Perry, a 12-time All-American at Stanford, earned a place in four events at the World Championships in April at the New Zealand Open Championships. A native of Hamilton, New Zealand, Perry equaled the 22.47 time standard for the 50-meter freestyle.
He was one of four Kiwis to break the 50.00 mark in the 100-meter freestyle (49.48), good enough for the top four and a place on the 400-meter freestyle relay team. Perry also qualified in the 100-meter butterfly.
Stanford qualified two more swimmers at Phillips 66 National Championships in Indianapolis in June. Sweetser, an All-American in both distance freestyle events as a freshman, punched his ticket in the 1,500-meter freestyle (14:59.73) on the opening night of the meet.
Sitting in eighth place at the 400-meter mark and sixth at the 500-meter mark, the Gainesville, Florida, native stormed past the field to seize the lead with 100-meters to go and never looked back.
On the final night of the trials, DeVine turned heads by beating most of a loaded field to qualify in the 200-meter individual medley in second place.
The seven-time All-American (1:56.79), who hails from Seattle, lowered his preliminary time (1:58.77) by nearly two seconds in the finals, coming from behind with a 27.81 freestyle leg, the fastest in the field.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics