Native El Paso swimmer misses Olympics by 0.14 seconds

OMAHA, Neb. – Will Licon gave everything he had, but came up 0.14 seconds short in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke finals Thursday night in Omaha at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Josh Prenot and Kevin Cordes will reprsent the USA in that event in Rio. Prenot won the race and set a new American record with a time of 2:07.17. Cordes finished with a time of 2:08.00, just edging out Licon on the final touch of the wall.

Licon, a native of El Paso who now swims for the University of Texas, bowed out of the 200-meter IM preliminaries earlier in the day to save energy for the breaststroke finals later in the evening.

His strategy seemed to pay off at first, as he was in second place for much of the race.

Licon appeared to fade down the stretch, but was able to make one final push in an attempt to out-touch Cordes at the wall. He set a personal best in the process, but finished third in an event where only the top two qualify.

Licon’s Olympic trials have now come to an end.