T&T swimmer Dylan Carter was fourth in the men’s 100m freestyle B-final at the fourth and final stop of the 2021 TYR Pro Swim Series at IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday.
A former University of Southern California Trojan swimmer, Carter, swimming from lane seven of eight had the joint best reaction to the starter alongside Carter Swift and Cody Bybee of 0.61 seconds.
However, at the halfway mark of the race, the T&T swimmer had faded to the fourth spot with a split of 23.81 seconds to trail the trio of Ali Khalafalla (23.55), Dean Farris (23.67), and House Grant (23.78).
The 24-year-old USA-based Olympic Games-bound Carter had a slow second half of his race with a time of 26.08, the fifth-best to end in a combined time of 49.89 seconds and fourth overall In the eight-man field.
House who was timed at 25.80 coming home, and Farris (25.91) both touched the wall in 49.58 for a share of the top spot while Hunter Armstrong who had a sizzling 25.67 split on the second half of the race took third in 49.83.
Swift was fifth in 45.90 followed by Khalafalla (50.20), Bybee (50.49), and Oleksii Khnykin who was eighth in 50.58.
The A-final was won by Blake Pieroni in 48.76 ahead of Nathan Adrian (48.91), and Ryan Held (49.21) while Michael Chadwick claimed fourth in 49.22, and Jorge Iga, fifth in 49.23.
The other finishers were Zach Apple (49.32), Alberto Mestre (49.50), and Bowe Becker, in 50.12.
In the morning session, Carter swam to a third spot in the sixth of eighth heats for the 14th spot overall.
Competing from lane five, Carter found himself well position in the third spot at the halfway mark in 24.31 seconds to trail Iga (23.77) and Pieroni (23.87).
And on the final 50m, Carter, T&T’s first-ever Commonwealth Games swimming medallist got home in 25.81 for a combined 50.12 seconds and third spot and 14th best overall in the heat to qualify to the B-final.
Pieroni who raced home in 24.91 for a combined time of 48.78 clocked the top qualifying time overall while Iga’s 25.59 second-leg swim combined for a tally of 49.36 and the sixth-best to secure a spot in the A-final.
For the A-final, heat eight winner and Olympic gold medallist Held (49.03) and runner-up Chadwick (49.29) had the second and third best times respectively while the quartet of Martinez (49.31), Adrian (49.36), Apple (49.57) and Becker (49.67) qualified from heat seven as the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth fastest respectively.
Carter was joined in the B-Final by Swift (49.75) and Khalafalla (49.94) from heat seven, the heat eight trio of House (49.83), Farris (49.89) and Armstrong (50.30), as well as heat four victor Khnykin (50.09), and runner-up Bybee (50.24).
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On Friday morning, Carter, the recent recipient of the 2020 First Citizen Sports Foundation “Sportsman of the Year” and T&T Olympic Committee impressed in securing a spot in the 100m butterfly A-final.
This after he was third to the wall in the sixth and final heats in 52.77 seconds from lane two, behind Evan Carlson, who won in 52.31 from lane seven for the second-fastest time overall, and Kyle Robrock, who ended in the second spot from lane eight in 52.58 and was fifth overall.
The others to reach the final carded for Friday afternoon were heat five winner Michael Andrew who had the top qualifying time of 51.31 and Miles Smachlo ( 52.45), the fourth-fastest qualifier, while the trio of Zach Harting (52.40), Youssef Ramadan (52.64), and Danny Kovac (52.87) qualified from heat four.
On Saturday from 9.10 am, Carter will face the starter in the 100m backstroke as the sixth-seeded entrant in 54.03.
Last month, Carter, a University of Southern California Trojans graduate competed at the third stop of the Pro Swim Series at the Marguerite Aquatics Center, Mission Viejo, California.
In his final event, he finished with a creditable fourth-placed in the men’s 100m freestyle A-Final in 49.51 after he clocked 49.55 in the heats.
He was also third in the men’s 50m freestyle B-final in 22.72 seconds to trail Michael Chadwick who won in 22.52 and Santiago Grassi (22.71) after he placed 12th in the heats in 22.81 seconds.
Carter’s sub-23 clocking bettered his 22.96 he achieved at the three-day 2012 Federation France Swimming International FFN Camille Muffat Golden Tour Meeting De Nice in France in February in the A-Final when he ended in fifth spot as well as his 23.13 preliminary heats time.
And in his other swim, Carter ended in sixth in the men’s 100m butterfly B-Final in 53.34.