GW senior Emils Pone became the first man from his native Latvia to post a FINA B-cut time this year with a career-best 200-meter individual medley swim on Saturday at USA Swimming's TYR Pro Series meet in Des Moines, Iowa.
In posting a time of 2:03.13 in the long course pool at MidAmerican Energy Aquatic Center, Pone took a major step toward his goal of earning a spot at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer. It was a hard-earned breakthrough for the three-time All A-10 swimmer who redshirted this season to focus on long-course training in order to chase his Olympic dream.
"I was just really happy for him -- he's invested a ton of hard work, a ton emotionally and mentally," said GW head coach Brian Thomas, who was poolside to celebrate the achievement. "We sat down in my office almost a year ago and pinpointed the 200 IM as a good opportunity to try to make a B-cut. To actually follow through on that when it took over a two-second drop to get there was unique and really special."
"I'm not shocked he had success because Emils is like that. He's a determined, driven young man. His process with this isn't done yet, but it was certainly good to get over the hump and put ourselves in a position where we have a shot."
Pone posted a time of 2:03.79 in qualifying and then went even faster in his finals heat to eclipse the FINA B standard by seven hundredths of a second.
That effort continued an excellent meet for Pone, who qualified for the A final of the 200-meter backstroke on Friday night. His personal-best time of 2:03.65 in the nationally-televised final was good for seventh with the six finishers ahead of him all former Olympians. Patterson set two personal bests at the TYR Pro Series meet in Iowa.
Teammate Ryan Patterson also competed at the meet and put his best foot forward. The sophomore from Nebraska dropped three seconds off his personal-best time in the 200 back with his swim of 2:05.09. He also shaved 1.2 seconds off his previous best in the 100-meter backstroke to post a time of 56.94 seconds.
Thomas was pleased with the way both Colonials rose to the challenge of racing against some of the world's best on a big stage.
"I was really proud of how they responded," Thomas said. "The environment there presented some great opportunities for us because of the level of the meet. With that many U.S. national teamers and Olympians in a pretty intimate setting, it was a great learning experience for both of them."
