Local swimmers chase Olympic dream at Trials

• Becca Weiland and Josh Hall competed in 2012 Olympic Trials.
• Hall has competed for Philippine National Team since 2013.
• Ryan Korslin and Zoe Huddleston are first-time Olympic hopefuls.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS - Central Wisconsin isn't considered a swimming hotbed.

That hasn't stopped four talented former local swimmers from pursuing their Olympic dreams.

Becca Weiland and Ryan Korslin, both from Wisconsin Rapids, and D.C. Everest graduate Zoe Huddleston all earned invitations to the U.S. Olympic Trials to be held June 26 through July 3 at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb. The three swimmers will vie to earn a spot on the United States National Team for the Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.

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To compete in the Trials, each swimmer had to swim faster than the Olympic qualifying cut time at a sanctioned event.

The fourth hopeful, Wausau East graduate Josh Hall, competed for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 2012, and has been swimming with the Philippine National Team  since 2013. He will learn of his Olympic eligibility on July 3.

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For Weiland and Hall, this is their second attempt to make an Olympic team, while Korslin and Huddleston are first-time hopefuls. Weiland and Huddleston will compete with between 120 and 130 other women in the 50-meter freestyle, while Hall and Korslin will swim in the 100-meter breaststroke, with a similar number of competitors in their event.

Each one of these former local standouts has worked toward this opportunity for his or her entire swimming career. That much they have in common.

How they got to this point differs vastly.

Becca Weiland: One more shot

For five months after graduation from the University of Minnesota, Weiland didn't so much as put her toe in a swimming pool.

She was done with competitive swimming.

It seemed like a good time to stop. She had a successful high school career, winning the 100 freestyle her senior year at Wisconsin Rapids, then went on to help the Gophers win four straight Big Ten women's titles. She was a 14-time All-American, set nine school and two Big 10 records and competed in an Olympic Trials.

"I felt like I had done everything I could as far as swimming," Weiland said. "I had great high school and college careers and I was ready to move on."

That changed one morning.

While out for a jog in St. Cloud, Minn., where she is pursuing a master's degree in college counseling and student development, she began to wonder "what if?"

"I starting thinking to myself that I didn't want to live with regret," Weiland said. "I had already had my cut, so I decided to get back into the pool and train for another Olympic Trial. I started last October."

Weiland has been going about her training solo in St. Cloud. She is using a workout of short, intense intervals called Ultra Race Paced Sprint Training, or URPST.

"I'm competing in the 50-meter freestyle at the Trials, so my training has been a lot of 25- and 50-meter intervals," Weiland said. "It's different training by myself, but I had a good cut time two years ago and I'm swimming good times in training."

With one Olympic Trials under her belt, Weiland feels more confident and loose heading into next week's competition.

"I was a terrified little freshman at the last Trials," she said. "I was intimidated and didn't perform well. The Olympic Trials is an intimidating meet. You are in the same pool swimming against world and Olympic champions.

"I'm much more relaxed this time. I want to have fun and just take it all in because it's a great experience."

BECCA WEILAND

Age:  23

High School: Wisconsin Rapids (2011)

College: University of Minnesota (2015)

Event: 50-meter freestyle

Made cut: 2014 U.S. Senior Nationals (25.92, cut 26.19)

Josh Hall: Team Philippines

While Weiland, Korslin and Huddleston are in Nebraska at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Hall will travel to Glasgow, Scotland to compete in the Scottish Open National Championships. There he hopes to improve his world ranking in the 100-meter breaststroke — the event he hopes to swim in Rio.

After competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 2012, Hall was approached by the Philippine National team and started competing for that nation in 2013.

"For me to continue my swimming career and to have a shot to get to the Olympics, I decided to swim for the Philippines," Hall said. "By swimming for them, I was able to continue my swimming career and I think I reached my potential in swimming. My mom wanted me to swim for the Philippines and I'm glad I did."

The Olympic qualifying process for a smaller country like the Philippines is different from that in the U.S., which holds Trials. The Philippines use a combination of a cut time and a swimmer's performance at the World Championships.

For Hall, the cut time was 1 minute, 2.09 seconds, nearly a second faster than the time Korslin had to beat. Hall placed 41st in 1:02.40 at last year's World Championships in Russia.

"A lot of countries just use their national tournament or the World Championships as their Olympic qualifier," Hall said. "There aren't many people in the Philippines who can swim a 1:02 in the breaststroke, so the number of qualifiers is less than (in) bigger countries."

Hall has had a great deal success with the Philippine National team. At one time he held as many as five national records. His long course 100-meter breaststroke record was recently broken, but he still holds the mark in the 100 short course event.

JOSH HALL

Age:  25

High School: Wausau East (2009)

College: University of Minnesota (2013)

Event: 100-meter breaststroke

Made cut: 2015 World Championships (1:02.40, cut 1:02.69)

Ryan Korslin: The pride of Phoenix

Korslin became the first swimmer in program history at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to make an Olympic cut. He posted a time of 1:03.64, five-hundredths of a second under the cut time, on June 5 at a qualifying meet in Brown Deer.

"I've been training to make the Olympic Trials since I was done with competing for UWGB and it feels good to have been able to make the cut," Korslin said. "It feels great to be the first person from my college to make an Olympic cut. It was a good way to cap my five years here in Green Bay."

Korslin, a four-time state qualifier for Wisconsin Rapids, was the Division 1 state runner-up in the 100-meter breaststroke his senior year.

A 2015 UWGB graduate with a psychology major, Korslin continued his swimming career with the Green Bay Swim Club.

As a first-time qualifier, Korslin wants to soak it all in and enjoy the experience.

"It's going to be exciting to see all the famous people in the sport and I think it's going to be a great experience," Korslin said. "It hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm competing in the Olympic Trials. My goal is to place in the top 50 and have a better time than my cut time."

RYAN KORSLIN

Age:  22

High School: Wisconsin Rapids (2011)

College: UW-Green Bay (2015)

Event: 100-meter breaststroke

Made cut: Pirate Plunge, at Schroeder YMCA in Brown Deer on June 5, 2016 (1:03.64, cut 103.69)

Zoe Huddleston: This is it

For Huddleston, her collegiate swimming career at the University of Denver has been training to make the cut for the Olympic Trials.

A four-time state qualifier for D.C. Everest Senior High School, Huddleston went out West for college and was a strong performer for the Pioneers. She still holds some of the fastest times in three events in the program's' history.

This will be her first and last attempt at making a U.S. Olympic team.

Between training sessions, Huddleston is applying to physicians' assistant programs to pursue her career goal.

"After the Trials I'm not going to continue to swim," Huddleston said. "It's time to focus on academics and then getting a job."

Huddleston stayed in Denver after graduating and took time off from her studies to train for the Olympics. She is among eight Pioneer swimmers who will compete in Nebraska.

"I'm really excited about the Trials and I think it's going to be a great experience," Huddleston said. "I'm also curious to see where the next part of my life takes me. I've loved my time in Denver and I would enjoy experiencing a different part of the country when I continue my studies."

ZOE HUDDLESTON

Age:  22

High school: D.C. Everest (2012)

College: University of Denver (2016)

Event: 50-meter freestyle

Made cut: 2015 Summit League meet (26.08, cut 26.19)

For more information on the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, visit the USA Swimming webpage.

Mark Massoglia: 715-424-7309 or mark.massoglia@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @markmazzy.