STANFORD, Calif. – Three returning Stanford swimmers – Abrahm DeVine, Sam Perry and True Sweetser – competed at the FINA World Championships last week in Budapest, Hungary.
DeVine, a seven-time All-American, advanced the furthest of the three, finishing 10th in the 200-meter individual medley after advancing to the semifinals. DeVine's 1:58.01 in the semifinals was nearly two seconds lower than his prelim time, and was 0.20 seconds away from making the final. At the United States' trials, DeVine swam a personal-best 1:56.79 to finish second in a loaded field behind only Chase Kalisz, the eventual world champion in the 200 IM.
Perry, who represented New Zealand, was the busiest of the three, swimming the 400-meter freestyle relay, 100-meter freestyle, 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly. In the 50 free, Perry (22.93) finished 49th in the 125-swimmer field, while his 50.14 in the 100 free was good for 51st out of 119. The Kiwis finished 14th in the 400 free relay, with Perry swimming a 49.35 second leg. Perry, who owns 12 All-America honors on The Farm, opted not to swim the 100 fly on Friday, choosing to focus on the 50 free.
Sweetser, who garnered All-America status in both distance freestyle events as a freshman, was the final Stanford swimmer to compete at FINA Worlds, finishing 16th (15:07.38) in the 1,500-meter freestyle on Saturday. He earned his place at the World Championships after winning the event at the United States Trials in dramatic fashion. Sweetser sat in eighth place at the 400-meter mark before storming past the field to claim gold.
Several Stanford swimmers -- Matt Anderson, Patrick Conaton, Liam Egan, Jack Walsh, Benjamin Ho, Andrew Liang and William Macmillan -- will be in action this week at the U.S. Open Swimming Championships on Aug. 2-6, with Hank Poppe set to swim the Speedo Junior National Championships Aug. 8-12. Grant Shoults will also represent the United States in the 4x200-meter free relay, 400-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle at the World University Games in Taipei on Aug. 19-30.
