Hayley Peirsol comes up short

Steve Virgen

Before the U.S. Olympic swim trials began, Hayley Peirsol had always

felt a bit more confident with the 800-meter freestyle than the 400

free.

As she approached her heat in the women’s 400 free preliminaries

Thursday, she was hoping to find her comfort zone and advanced to the

final. However, that was not the case as she fell behind the pace in

her heat. Peirsol, a former Newport Harbor High standout, finished

13th in the 400 free preliminaries in 4:14.04 at the U.S. Olympic

swim trials at the Charter All Digital Aquatic Centre in Long Beach.

Kaitlin Sandeno, who had thought to scratch herself from the

final, won the 400 free in 4:08.07.

“I really wanted to make it back [to the final],” Peirsol said.

“But, it was a good morning swim for me. That’s the fastest I’ve gone

in the morning. But I feel that if I made it back [for the final] I

could have gone a lot faster.”

Peirsol, 18, who will be a sophomore at Auburn University in the

fall, seemed to take her performance in stride, quickly shifting her

focus to the 800 free, which will take place Monday with the

preliminaries during the morning session that begins at 9 a.m. The

final is on Tuesday during the evening session that starts at 5 p.m.

“I’m just going to put [Thursday] behind me and focus on the 800,”

she said. “I would have liked to make it [to the final] in the 400,

but I just have to move on.

“I feel more comfortable with the 800. The longer the better. It’s

just a longer race and it gives me more time to get it going. I have

endurance and that’s what it takes. It’s just been a stronger race

for me. I’m excited about the 800.”

The field for the 800 free is highly competitive. Peirsol and her

coach, Brent Lorenzen, said any one of the top eight can win the

event. Peirsol is the No. 2 seed with a time of 8:30.92, behind Diana

Munz who enters with a 8:24.19. Kaitlin Sandeno, Kalyn Keller, Brooke

Bennett and Peirsol’s college teammate, Adrienne Binder, are also in

contention to land one of the top two spots to make the U.S. Olympic

swim team.

Peirsol hopes to secure her place on the squad and join her older

brother, Aaron, who is expected to compete in the 100 and 200

backstroke in Athens, Greece next month.

Peirsol said she received some advice from her older brother

before the race. They also talked before the trials began.

“He just told me to relax,” Peirsol said. “It was great to see

him.”

Peirsol did her best to stay calm. She has been confident she can

find success in the 800. She knows the longer the distance the better

her results. She won the silver medal in the 1,500 free at the FINA

World Championships last summer.

She trained with Lorenzen leading up to that performance. After

returning to Orange County last month, Peirsol reunited with the

coach. They trained at the UC Irvine pool.

Since Peirsol trained with Lorenzen, she changed her swim club

affiliation to the Irvine Aquazots. Lorenzen, a former Irvine

Novaquatics coach, is an assistant with UCI, which also involves the

Aquazots. Peirsol, who swam with the Harbor View swim club as a

child, trained with Irvine Novaquatics most of her life.

She said she will return to the Novaquatics next year.