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Canton High swimmer Will Gallant qualifies for 2020 U.S. Olympic trials

Canton’s Will Gallant qualified to swim at next June’s U.S. Olympic swim trials in Omaha, Nebraska Tuesday at a meet in Florida. (Photo courtesy West Hartford Aquatic Team)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 28, 2019 – Canton High senior Will Gallant already has an invitation for a place to visit this summer after graduating.

Gallant has earned an invitation to the 2020 U.S. Olympic swimming trials after qualifying with a personal-best time of 8:10.63 in the 800-meter freestyle on Tuesday at the TYR ISCA (International Swim Coaches Association) Junior Championship Cup here at the North Shore Aquatic Complex.

The U.S. Olympic swimming trials will be June 21-28 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Gallant, the No. 1 ranked 17-year-old swimmer in the nation according to College Swimming.com, won the 800 freestyle race at the Junior Championship Cup by nearly eight seconds. He beat the qualifying time of 8:12.99 by nearly two seconds.

Gallant took seventh in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:01.86 and swam on the West Hartford Aquatic Team’s 800 freestyle relay (Gallant, Charlie Perks, Maksymilian Jaremko, Colton Litwinczyk) that finished ninth with a time of 8:02.84.

He was the top seed in Thursday’s 500 freestyle race with a seed time of 4:27.10.

Gallant trains and competes with the West Hartford Aquatic Team (WHAT). He is a two-time U.S. Open championship meet qualifier and a distance freestyle specialist. He has made a verbal commitment to attend Indiana beginning in the fall.

He captured the 800 meter freestyle (8:15.56) and the 1,500 freestyle (15:49.18) are the recent TYR ISCA Summer Championships meet. He earned USA Swimming Scholastic All-American honors for his work last summer.

At the ISCA Northeast Showcase earlier this month in Middletown, Gallant won six events (100 yard freestyle, 500 yard freestyle, 1000 yard free, 1,650 yard free, 200 yard back and 400 yard IM) and had eight new lifetime best times. At the New England NSCC Invitational at MIT in Boston in December, he won four events (500 free, 400 IM, 1000 free and 1650) free along with second place finishes in the 200 free and 200 backstroke.

Gallant is not the only Canton swimmer on the team. Freshman Charles Perks also competed for WHAT in Florida. He was fifth in the 16-and-under 800 freestyle with a time of 8:47.30.

Gallant and Perks swam on the 800 freestyle relay team with Jaremko, who is from Avon and Litwinczyk, who is from Bristol.

Since 2009, the Collinsville Press has been providing award-winning coverage of sports and news in the Farmington Valley and across Connecticut.

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