Prolo punches ticket to Olympic Trials

BYU’s Brad Prolo punched his ticket to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials with a 2:00.43 finish in the men’s 200 fly final at the Toyota U.S. Open at Greensboro Aquatic Center on Saturday night.

Author Joseph Hovey
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — BYU’s Brad Prolo punched his ticket to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials with a 2:00.43 finish in the men’s 200 fly final at the Toyota U.S. Open at Greensboro Aquatic Center on Saturday night.

Prolo began the day shaving 1.27 seconds off his entry time to go 2:00.98 and take 16th in the 200-meter fly and advance to the Saturday evening final. With a trip to the Olympic Trials on the line, Prolo one-upped his morning performance, cutting 0.55 seconds to exceed the minimum qualifying time of 2:00.49.

“I am very excited and proud of this accomplishment,” Prolo said. “The race hurt so bad but I knew I had to push through that pain to get the cut. I am so thankful to my coaches and teammates for the faith and support they have given me to get to this point.”

Prolo will now vie for a spot in Paris at the 2024 U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The senior from San Clemente, California overcame swimmers from Louisville, Texas A&M and Utah for a 13th-place, qualifying finish. Each of Prolo’s 200 fly times on the day are good for BYU men’s swimming long course meters records. Prolo is just two weeks removed from a school-record 1:41.18 in the 200 fly short course yards at the Mizzou Invitational on Nov. 17.

“The whole team is excited for Brad,” said BYU head swimming coach Shari Skabelund. “He works so hard. Olympic Trial cuts were so fast this time around and he did it.”

Prolo currently ranks eighth in NCAA Division I for the 200 fly. While coming up short of the 100 breast final, Prolo also raced in that event and finished 43rd at 1:03.47.

Jordan Tiffany, Tony Puertas, Emerson Edwards and Bryce Broadhead also represented BYU at the U.S. Open. Tiffany and Puertas swam 54.92 and 55.48, respectively, in the 100 fly prelims on Friday. Edwards clocked 1:05.23 in the 100 breast prelims while Broadhead recorded finishes of 58.32 and 2:10.46 in the 100 and 200 back, respectively.

BYU swimming has four weeks off before it resumes competition at the FIU Sprint Invite in Miami, Florida on Jan. 3.