Tide Swimmer Finals at U.S. National Championships
8/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
University of Alabama swimmer J.T. Jones enjoyed a break-out swim Wednesday at the United States National Swimming Championships being held on the Stanford campus in California.
Jones, who will be a junior this coming season, was seeded 37th going into the preliminaries of the 200-meter butterfly. During prelims he bettered his lifetime best by two seconds to grab the fifth seed going into finals with a time of 2:02.74.
"His swim in the morning was just so great," Alabama assistant head coach Sonya Porter said. "He's been moving toward that kind of swim all year and it was great to see him finally have that kind of success."
In the finals, Jones got out to a fast start, covering the first 150 meters faster than in the morning, before fading over the last 50 to finish seventh. It is the Madison, Miss. native's best finish at the national championships.
"He went after it tonight," Porter said. "He swam a much better 150 than in the morning, but just didn't have it in the end. He went 2:03.26 in finals which was still way under his best coming into the meet. Today was a great day for JT, well deserved and a turning point that will give him momentum going into his junior year.
Jones will swim the 100m butterfly on Friday and Porter looks for another good swim.
"There is nothing more satisfying as a coach than seeing your athletes realize and embrace their potential," Porter said. "His smile says it all, and the tenacious spark in his eye is looking for another great swim in the 100 Fly on Friday."
