GREENSBORO, N.C. — Several Olympic hopefuls will head to North Carolina this weekend for the 2023 U.S. Open. Nine Irish will have the opportunity to swim among them. A few Notre Dame swimmers have their eyes set on Paris as well.
On the women’s side, Grace Brenneman and Sophia Karras will be representing the Irish. Brenneman broke the school record in the women’s LCM 50 free with a time of 25.97 last weekend at the Ohio State Fall Invitational. She also posted two best times this season in yards — 50 free (23.11) and 100 free (50.14). She’ll look to lower that school record even more this weekend.
Karras is a distance specialist and posted two top-10 finishes last weekend; she took sixth in the 1000 free (9:59.44) and ninth in the 1650 free (16:42.56). She will swim the 800 and 1500 free this weekend. The Long Island native is seeded 33rd in the 800 and 17th in the 1500.
Seven of Notre Dame’s male swimmers are headed to Greensboro as well.
Chris Guiliano, a two-time ACC Swimmer of the Week this year and last year’s ACC champion in the 200 free, hopes to sneak onto the team headed to Paris this summer. He has Olympic Trials in front of him, but the U.S. Open will serve as a warm up. Guiliano is the No. 10 seed in the 50 free (21.96), No. 6 seed in the 100 free (47.98) and No. 49 seed in the 200 free (1:49.59).
Like Guiliano, Abdelrahman El-Araby has a lengthy list of collegiate accomplishments. He’s hoping to add Egyptian Olympian to the list. He will swim the 50 and 100 free plus the 100 fly in Greensboro, but he’s heavily focused on notching the qualifying time for his home country in the 50. El-Araby finished fourth in the 50 last weekend with a prelim time of 22.65 and a finals time of 19.45. The latter ranks fourth in Notre Dame history.
Fifth-year Cason Wilburn is slated to swim the same events as El-Araby, but his greatest shot at making a splash is in the 100 fly. Wilburn is seeded 35th with a time of 53.40 and finished fourth in the event last weekend (53.64 prelims/46.32 finals).
Luka Cvetko, a graduate transfer to Notre Dame this year, rounds out the sprint freestyle group this weekend. He will compete unattached in the 50 and 100 free.
Backstrokers Tanner Filion and Kaden Smesko have already come up big for Notre Dame in dual meets this year. Filion holds the Division III 200 back record and narrowly missed a best time last weekend. His best time in an Irish cap is now 1:42.21, which ranks fifth in program history. He is entered in the 100 and 200 back with his yards best times.
Smesko went 1:43.77 in the 200 back at Ohio State, a personal best time. He sits just outside of top-10 all-time at Notre Dame. Smesko is only entered in the 100 back in Greensboro at this time.
Finally, William Wheeler is headed to Greensboro as Notre Dame’s lone breaststroker. The freshman will swim the 100 and 200. He is seeded 82nd and 65th, respectively.
Wednesday’s competition will begin at 6 p.m. ET with the 800 free. Thursday through Saturday prelims will begin at 9 a.m. ET, and finals start at 6 p.m. ET. For streaming information, click here.