Katharine Berkoff secured her spot in the women’s 100-meter backstroke final at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials by winning both her heat and semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium.Â
In the morning, the Missoula swimmer won her heat in 58.09 seconds. In the evening session, she swam 57.83 to win the first of two semifinals.
Regan Smith set a new American record in the second semifinal with a time of 57.47. All finalists swam under a minute to secure their spots.
Berkoff, swimming out of lane four in both races, earned the second-best overall time ahead of the final. She improved her morning time by splitting the first half of the semifinal in 28 seconds and led the race wire-to-wire, breaking 58 seconds for the first time.
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In the morning race, she led at the turn by just .05 seconds ahead of Kennedy Noble, but pulled away from the field with three swimmers finishing under a minute on her way back. Smith swam the next heat to earn the top qualifying time from the heats and lead the 16 semifinalists.
The field was reduced to eight in the semifinals. The final is set for Tuesday night’s evening session starting at 6 p.m. MT. Berkoff will aim to be one of the top two finishers in that race to secure a spot in Paris after just missing out in 2021.
The 100 backstroke is the first of Berkoff’s three scheduled events for the week, which also include the 100 and 50 freestyles.
In 2021, Berkoff finished fourth overall in the 100 back at the previous Olympic Trials. Since then, she has become a three-time NCAA champion in the event, earned 30 All-America honors, and won 10 world championship medals.
Berkoff was one of two Montanans competing this week. Billings’ Liam Kerns participated in the men’s 100 breaststroke on Saturday.
