AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Stanford junior Sam Perry punched his ticket to the 2017 World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, this past week at the New Zealand Open Championships, qualifying in four events.
"It is always challenging going from the bathtub to the big pool," said Perry, who recently captured six All-America honors at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis. "I am really happy to have been able to hold it together and happy to get another chance to do it at the world championships – hopefully we will be in even better form there."
Perry, a native of Hamilton, New Zealand, swam 22.47 in the 50 freestyle, which equaled the qualifying standard for the World Championships. In the 100-meter freestyle, Perry was one of four Kiwi swimmers to break the 50.00 mark – Perry's time of 49.48 was good enough for a top-four finish and a place on New Zealand's 400 free relay team.
In addition to the 400 freestyle relay and 50 freestyle, Perry will also compete in the 100-meter butterfly and 100-meter freestyle.
At the 2017 NCAA Championships, Perry helped Stanford finish fifth as a team, collecting six All-America honors to go along with six he earned in 2016. Perry earned first-team honors in the 200-yard medley relay (seventh), 100-yard freestyle (seventh), 400-yard freestyle relay (fifth) and 400-yard medley relay (seventh) to go along with honorable mentions in the 200-yard freestyle relay (10th) and 50-yard freestyle (12th). Perry, who majors in economics, was also recently selected to the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team, the second such honor of his career.