BEIJING -- Portland's Ian Crocker made it into the Summer Olympics 100-meter butterfly semifinals Thursday night, but not by a whole lot.

Swimming in the eighth of nine heat races, Crocker -- the world record holder in the event at 50.40 seconds -- was clocked in 51.95 seconds, placing him 13th among the 16 swimmers that advanced to the semifinals.

He'll race again at 11:15 p.m. (EST) today, trying to qualify for the finals. The top eight will go.

Crocker didn't seemed concerned. He's just happy to have swam in a race.

"It's been a long week, sitting around watching them swim,'' he said. "At this point I'm just happy to have finally been in the water for a legitimate race.''

His coach, Eddie Reese, expects Crocker to be markedly better in the semifinals.

"It didn't feel good to him and it wasn't very good,'' said Reese of Crocker's swim. "The key is he made it into the top 16 and he'll be ready to go in the pool.''

Reese later added that he expects Crocker "to drop down about a second'' from his preliminary time.

He better because the field is very fast.

Crocker said the Olympics are "a new breed of meet. It's much different than anything I've ever seen. It's good for the future of swimming. I feel like there have been some major jumps.''

Crocker's problems started right at the start, which is usually the place where he pulls ahead. He had only the third-fastest start (0.71) of his group. He was second after the first 50 meters, behind New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel.

Both were caught by Venezuela's Albert Subirats Altes, who won the heat in 51.71 seconds and will be the eighth seed.

Michael Phelps, who has won five gold medals thus far in his quest to become the first person to win eight golds in a single Olympics, is the second seed in the semifinals. He finished with a time of 50.87 seconds. Serbia's Milorad Cavic was first, at 50.76 seconds.