INDIANAPOLIS — In a swimming era of specialists, Chris Guiliano is an outlier. He won’t swim open water any time soon, but give him a lane in pool and see him go.
Guiliano, the first Notre Dame swimmer to make a U.S. men’s Olympic team, qualified in a third event Friday on night 7 of the Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Caeleb Dressel won the 50-meter freestyle in 21.41 seconds, followed by Guiliano in 21.69. That’s the team.
Matt King was third in 21.70, missing by one-hundredth of a second. King is transferring to Indiana University for next season.
Earlier, Guiliano was second in the 200 freestyle and first in the 100 freestyle. The only other American man to swim 50, 100 and 200 freestyles at an Olympics was Matt Biondi, who won gold in the 50 and 100 and bronze in the 200 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Guiliano, 20, of Douglassville, Pa., was on the team that won a bronze medal in the 4x100 free relay at the 2023 World Championships.
“It’s been a journey, trying to execute as best as I can,” he said. “It’s fun to have some range.”
Elsewhere, Regan Smith won her third event of the trials, taking the 200 backstroke in 2:05.16. Phoebe Bacon was second in 2:06.27, just .07 ahead of 19-year-old Claire Curzan.
Curzan won six medals, four of them gold, at February’s World Championships but has not made this Olympic team.
Smith previously set a world record in the 100 backstroke and won the 200 butterfly.
Carson Foster made it a sweep of individual medleys, winning the 200 IM in 1:55.65. Training partner Shaine Casas was second in 1:55.83.
Owen McDonald, who is transferring from Arizona State to IU, was fifth in 1:57.51. Zionsville’s Will Modglin, coming off his freshman season at Texas, was eighth in 1:58.44 – equaling his time from semifinals.
A crowd of 18,474 watched Friday night's competition at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.