William & Mary junior Sophie Rittenhouse (London, England) outperformed all expectations Wednesday morning, finishing 20th at the British Olympic Swimming Trials and breaking two of her own school records in the process.  She swam just after 5 a.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m local time in Glasgow's Tollcross Pool.  The top eight finishers in each event advanced to the evening finals session for a shot at making the Great Britain team for Rio.

Competing in the 100m backstroke, Rittenhouse finished second in her heat, and tied for 20th overall to beat out her seeds of eighth in the heat and 32nd overall.  She passed the 50m mark in 30.63 seconds and then came into the finish at 1:03.18, shattering her own school records at both distances.  Rittenhouse had swum 1:03.90 the day after the CAA Championships in February to qualify for the Trials.  Her performance on Wednesday, while not quite enough to advance, was the best a Tribe swimmer has ever finished at the Olympic Trials, for any country and any swim event, and also surpassed the qualifying standard for this summer's U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb. (Rittenhouse holds dual citizenship).