June 29, 2008

Omaha, Neb. -

A pair of Air Force swimmers, rising senior Justin Day and 2007 graduate Chris Knaute, competed on the first day of action at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, which opened Sunday in Omaha, Neb.

Day, a native of Peyton, Colo., competed in the preliminaries of the 100 breaststroke Sunday, clocking a time of 1:04.17 to finish 50th overall. Meanwhile, Knaute swam in the preliminaries of the 400 IM, finishing 34th overall with a mark of 4:27.68. Knaute, the Air Force record-holder in the 400 IM and member of the Air Force World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), knocked nearly a second off of his qualifying time of 4:28.59.

The top 16 competitors in the 100 breaststroke will move on to this evening’s semi-finals, while the top eight performers in the 400 IM advance directly to tonight’s finals.

Tomorrow, another WCAP performer, Paul Parmenter, is slated to compete in the 100 backstroke.Complete coverage of the Trials can be found on www.usaswimming.org.