Cullen Jones sets American record at trials

Omaha, Neb. -- Cullen Jones rocketed to an American record in the 50-meter freestyle preliminaries at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials on the Fourth of July.

Jones touched in 21.59 seconds, lowering the old mark of 21.76 set by Gary Hall Jr. at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Jones gulped one breath halfway through Friday's chaotic race.

"I'll take an American record," he said, smiling. "I definitely put my head down when I was going into the wall, but I think there's a lot more in the tank."

He, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Hall were the only men under 22 seconds in the morning heats. World champion Wildman-Tobriner qualified second in 21.68; Hall, the 33-year-old, two-time defending Olympic champion, was third in 21.89.

"Everybody anticipated that record was going down," Hall said. "There's just been too much fast swimming in the world. Records don't last, especially these days."

Jones was the silver medalist at last year's world meet, where Wildman-Tobriner was the surprising winner. But Jones has struggled to regain the form he first showed in 2006, when he became the first black swimmer to break a world record on the victorious 400 free relay at the Pan Pacific Championships.

"There's a lot of things that go into the 50 freestyle," Jones said. "One of the things is you have to be perfect for the most part or at least try to. There's never the perfect race, you always mess up something. That's what I love about the sport. You never swim that perfect race, but you keep trying."

Nathan Adrian, 100 free champion Garrett Weber-Gale and 100 free runner-up Jason Lezak all tied for fourth at 22.05.

Also advancing to the evening semifinals were 100 backstroke runner-up Matt Grevers, Nick Brunelli, 2004 Olympian Gabe Woodward and two-time Olympian Neil Walker, who like Lezak, is 32.

Jones was third and Adrian fourth in Thursday's 100 free, both earning their first Olympic berths as relay swimmers. Jones' mind was racing later that night.

"I sat up in my bed just daydreaming about how I was going to swim the 50," he said. "I just kind of slapped myself and said, 'Wait a minute, you have to sleep before you can do that.' I had to force myself to go to sleep."

Two-time world champion Kate Ziegler topped Katie Hoff in qualifying for the 800 free, winning her heat in 8 minutes, 29.39 seconds to set up their second showdown of the meet in Saturday's final.

"The 800 is one of my favorite events. I want to do well," Ziegler said. "It should be a good race. Hopefully, we can push each other to some good times."

Hoff finished in 8:29.91. She's already qualified for four individual events and one relay, while Ziegler got on the team as runner-up to Hoff in the 400 free.

"I was doing a smaller version of my race plan for tomorrow night," Hoff said. "I wasn't giving it 100 percent, but I wanted to be under 30 (seconds) and I was."

Ziegler broke swimming's oldest world record last June when she took down Janet Evans' mark in the 1,500 freestyle, which is not an Olympic event for women.

As the second-fastest woman ever in the 800 free, she still has Evans' 19-year-old world mark in her sights.

"Katie has been on fire here, and I went a little faster than my best time in the 400," Ziegler said. "But I'm really not focused on time at all. I just want to be in the top two. The goal is to make the team."