Cal's Jack Alexy Second in 100 Freestyle at Olympic Trials

Alexy finishes ahead of Caeleb Dressel and qualifies for the Olympics by six-one-hundredths of a second, but he does not win the event

Jack Alexy, after winning a heat on Tuesday / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

Cal’s Jack Alexy won his much anticipated duel with Caeleb Dressel and qualified for the Summer Olympics, but surprisingly Alexy only finished second in the 100-meter freestyle final at the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis Wednesday night.

Chris Guiliano was the winner of the event with a time of 47.38 seconds, finishing a mere 0.09 of a second ahead of the 6-foot-8 Alexy.  Alexy barely edged out Dressel for the second and last spot on the U.S. Olympic team in this event, finishing just six-one-hundredths of a second ahead of Dressel, who was timed in 47.53, only 0.15 of a second behind the winner.

The top two finishers in each event at the trials traditionally get the Olympic berths from the United States. Alexy and Dressel were the favorites to land those two spots in the 100 freestyle even though Guiliano had the fastest time in the Wednesday morning semifinals.

However, Dressel, a gold medalist in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle at the 2020 Olympics (which were held in 2021), will not qualify for the Olympics in this event.  He remains the favorite in the 50 freestyle, and presumably will go to Paris as a relay swimmer in any case.

Hunter Armstrong, a member of Cal's postgrad group, finished fourth in that event, and Cal's Destin Lasco was seventh.

Cal alum Abbey Weitzeil finished fifth in the women’s 100-meter freestyle final. That means she did not qualify for the Olympic in this event, but as a top-six finisher she will probably make it to Paris as a member of a U.S. 4x100 freestyle relay team.

She was timed in 53.70 seconds, which left her 1.14 seconds behind winner Kate Douglass and 0.77 of a second behind second-place finisher Torri Huske.

Three Cal-affiliated swimmers swam in the finals of the men’s 200-meter butterfly final, but none of them qualified for the Olympics. Dare Rose and Colby Mefford, both of whom were members of this year’s Cal squad, finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and former Cal swimmer Trenton Julion came in seventh. Rose was the closest to qualifying for Paris, finishing in a time of 1:55.70, just 0.62 of a second behind second-place finisher Luca Urlando.

The winner of each event qualifies for the Olympics and the second-place finisher traditionally goes as well.