Marcelo Chierighini, a native of Brazil and Auburn swim and dive alumnus (2010-14), qualified for the men's 100m freestyle final at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with a 48.23 semifinal time on Tuesday. Competing in the second of two heats, Chierighini led at the 50m mark with a 22.59 split - the fastest first half of any semifinalist.
The former Tiger would finish fifth in his semifinal to place at eighth for Wednesday night’s final, set to begin at 9:03 p.m. CST on NBC. Nathan Adrian of the United States is the top overall seed after qualifying in 47.83.
Chierighini reached the semifinals with a 48.53 to finish fifth in the sixth of eight preliminary heats. That time ranked 13th-fastest in the morning, 0.63 seconds behind top qualifiers Kyle Chalmers of Australia (47.90).
Ziv Kalontarov, a sophomore at Auburn from Rishon Lezion, Israel, tied for 45th during the prelims, clocking a 50.65. The Israeli national record holder in the 50m free, he returns to the pool for that event’s preliminaries on Thursday. He will be one of three Auburn swimmers in the event, joining George Bovell and Fred Bousquet. Kalontarov and Bovell will be in lanes six and seven, respectively, in heat eight while Bousquet will swim in lane one in heat nine.
During Wednesday's preliminaries, Auburn's Julie Meynen and Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace will both compete in the women’s 100m free. Meynen, an incoming freshman from Luxembourg, will swim in heat three, lane eight at 11:08 a.m. CST while Vanderpool-Wallace, swimming for the Bahamas, will swim in heat five, lane seven at 11:14 a.m. CST. There will be six total heats in the event.
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