U.S. Open: Drew Kibler, Rhyan White Secure Wins Friday Night
The two high-profile American swimmers competing at the U.S. Open each picked up a win among 10 individual events contested in Greensboro, N.C., during Friday’s finals, with Drew Kibler pulling away from Bradley Dunham to win the men’s 200 freestyle and Rhyan White scoring a top result in the women’s 100 butterfly.
Kibler, the 2022 NCAA champion in the 200 free as well as a two-time American Olympic relay swimmer, swam a time of 1:32.78 to win the event. Swimming even with Dunham, a former University of Georgia swimmer, through the first 150 yards, Kibler pulled away with a 23.46 closing split. Dunham took second in 1:33.87, ahead of Wolfpack’s Bruno Correia (1:34.23).
White’s victory came in a rare butterfly appearance as she held off veteran 200 fly specialist Rachel Klinker down the stretch. White touched in 52.19 while Klinker took second in 52.48. Penn State’s Margaret Markvardt, the leader at the halfway point, came in third (52.56).
Later in the session, White just missed earning a second win in the 100 backstroke as Alyssa Sagle, a Nation’s Capital swimmer who had already been part of three relay wins this week, finished well to take the title in 51.71. White was second (51.95), and Loyola Marland’s Lily Mead placed third (52.86).
On the men’s side, Dunham came back after his 500 free win Thursday and his second-place finish in the 200 free earlier in the night to clock a time of 46.11 for the win in the 100 back, beating Penn State’s Matthew Bittner (46.98) and Loyola’s Joe Hayburn (47.06).
Purdue’s Brady Samuels followed up his 50 free win with a dominant effort in the men’s 100 fly, clocking 45.27, with Utah’s Marshall Odom (47.14) and Shane Eckler (47.52) rounding out the top three. In the 100 breaststroke, Charlie Egeland followed up his 200 IM triumph with another win, clocking 52.11 to beat Penn State’s Mariano Lazzerini (52.52) and Logan Kelly (52.68).
Danny Berlitz, a finalist in the 400-meter IM at the U.S. Olympic Trials, narrowly qualified for the final in the yards event in Greensboro, but he finished with a huge freestyle split, clocking 51.54 to overtake Angus MacDonald for the win. Berlitz clocked 3:46.51, ahead of MacDonald’s 3:47.90 and Penn State’s Sean Honey (3:49.05).
The women’s star of the meet so far, Eastern Express’ Kennedy Dobson, added to her 500 free and 200 IM wins from Thursday as she took down Texas A&M’s Chloe Stepanek to win the 200 free. Dobson, a high school senior bound for Georgia next year, took over the lead on the third 50 and touched in 1:44.07, with Stepanek second (1:44.51) and UNC’s Georgia Nel third (1:45.47).
Sadie Buckley, another Nation’s Capital swimmer with relay victories at the U.S. Open, dominated the 400 IM with a time of 4:07.87. She took over the lead at the start of the backstroke leg and went on to win by five seconds over Emerson Callis (4:12.62) and Mira Szimcsak (4:13.22).
Skyler Smith, representing the nearby UNC Tar Heels, clocked 58.87 to dominate the women’s 100 breast ahead of Aliz Kalmar (1:00.56) and Casadie Dibetta (1:00.60).
In 200 free relay action to conclude the night, the Queens team of Maren Patterson, Libby Livesay, Ryley Heck and Abigail Zboran took the women’s win in 1:31.91, beating Nation’s Capital (1:32.78) and Marshall (1:34.45). The men’s relay went to Purdue’s Nathaniel Thomas, Samuels, Dominic Mazurek and Idris Muhammad in 1:17.84, with Queens (1:19.85) and Loyola Maryland (1:20.04) also among the top three teams.
