MINNEAPOLIS — Junior Chris Peterson missed qualifying for the 50 freestyle finals at the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday. Peterson, who was seeded eighth, tied for 21st in the event’s preliminaries with Duke’s Nick Garvy in a time of 19.67 seconds.
Peterson’s time on Thursday morning was .18 seconds off of his mark at the Pac-10 Championships earlier this month – which set a new UCSB record – was .05 seconds slower than the last swimmer to qualify for Thursday night’s consolation finals and .31 seconds slower than the swimmer seeded eighth into the event’s finals.
“He just got out too slow,” said head coach Gregg Wilson. “His first lap was a lot slower than it needed to be and his second lap was fine, but you have to be on your game here. It was just a tough swim for him. Now we’ve got to get him ready for the 100 freestyle on Saturday.”
Peterson is seeded 25th in the 100 freestyle on Saturday with a time of 43.35.
