Flying Into Semifinals

OMAHA, Neb. – California's Trenton Julian and Tom Shields kicked off a big day for the Golden Bears at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials by advancing to the 100-meter butterfly semifinals with strong swims in morning qualifying at CHI Health Center Omaha.
 
Julian and Shields tied for second in 51.71 seconds during preliminaries, trailing only Caeleb Dressel, who clocked the world's lowest time this year (50.17) and set the U.S. Open record. Shields – the second Olympic entrant in the 100m fly behind Michael Phelps in 2016 – hit 23.98 in the second 50 meters to win the seventh heat while Julian lowered his seed time by 1.6 seconds to touch first in the fifth heat. Full results from Friday's prelims can be viewed here.
 
Ryan Murphy, Andrew Seliskar and Ryan Hoffer were all included on the event's heat sheet, but did not swim.
 
100 Fly (Prelims)
T2. Trenton Julian (51.71) – qualified
T2. Tom Shields (51.71) – qualified
30. Dare Rose (53.29)
 
UP NEXT
It won't take much to spot a Cal cap in Friday night's finals and semifinals, as seven Bears are slated to swim across three events. Up first will be the 200m backstroke final, where the quartet of Murphy, Bryce Mefford, Destin Lasco and Daniel Carr will be in the hunt for Olympic berths. Seliskar and Julian will compete in the second final of the night, the 200m individual medley.
 
The evening will conclude with Julian and Shields trying to earn a spot in Saturday's 100m fly final. The action will start at 6 p.m. PT with a live stream on NBCOlympics.com and a television broadcast on NBC/NBCSN.
 
STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal men's swimming and diving, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalMenSwim), Instagram (@CalMenSwim) and Facebook (Facebook.com/CalMensSwimmingandDiving).