Originally published Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Emily Kukors, Nathan Adrian make Wednesday semis at Olympic Trials

Two of Seattle's best made it out of morning preliminary races to advance to semifinals Wednesday night at the 2008 U.S. Olympic swimming trials. Swimming...

By Mike Watkins

Special to the Seattle Times

OMAHA, Neb. — Two of Seattle's best made it out of morning preliminary races to advance to semifinals Wednesday night at the 2008 U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

Swimming in her fourth event of the meet, Auburn's Emily Kukors reached her first semifinal with a time of 2:12.15 in the 200 butterfly. She is seeded 14th among tonight's top 16 and was pleased with her swim despite coming in almost two seconds slower than her qualifying time.

"This is a very painful race and you really start to feel it around the first 100 meters, so I wanted to take the first 50 strong and then be able to come home a little easier," said Kukors, who also competed in the 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley earlier this week. "This might be the last meet I get to swim, so I'm taking it one race at a time and trying to enjoy things as much as I can. I'm just glad to get another chance tonight."

Bremerton's Nathan Adrian, competing in his first event at his first Olympic Trials, swam a personal best 48.89 to finish fifth in his heat but 10th overall heading into tonight's 100 freestyle semifinals. In the heat before Adrian's, Garrett Weber-Gale of Longhorn Aquatics broke Jason Lezak's American record with a time of 47.78 and Michael Phelps also broke the 48 second mark for the first time to finish as the top two seeds tonight. Lezak was third at 48.15, also faster than his American record (48.17).

Ariana Kukors swims tonight as the second seed in the 200 individual medley finals against pre-event favorites Katie Hoff and Natalie Coughlin.

Wednesday preliminary results from Seattle area swimmers:

Men's 100 Freestyle:

10. Nathan Adrian, Bremerton, 48.89

32. Ryan Verlatti, Tacoma, 50.07

114. Evan Bernier, Woodinville, 52.23

Women's 200 Butterfly:

14. Emily Kukors, Auburn 2:12.15