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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, July 7. STANFORD's Julia Smit utilized an amazing breaststroke leg to power her way to an American record in the women's 200 IM.
While North Baltimore phenom Elizabeth Pelton, 15, shocked the crowd by being under world-record pace through the first half of the race with splits of 27.53 and 59.84, Smit used her strongest weapon to overcome the teenager in the end.
Smit completed the sprint medley with a time of 2:09.34 to lower Katie Hoff's American and U.S. Open record of 2:09.71 set at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb. The swim also moved Smit to the top of the heap this year, surpassing Camille Muffat's 2:09.37 as the best in the world this year.
"I definitely saw [the other swimmers] out [front early on], but I had to go on the breaststroke leg to get home," Smit said. "I have been confident in my training and my program. I'm excited for the taper and this meet."
Pelton, meanwhile, upset some top stars with a second-place time of 2:11.03, bettering her lifetime best of 2:11.03. KING's Ariana Kukors (2:11.07) and ASK's Dagny Knutson (2:11.11) touched third and fourth with Olympian Elisabeth Beisel of Bluefish claiming fifth in 2:11.80.
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July 7, 2009 Congrats to Smit who missed getting an individual Olympic event last year. Very impressive breaststroke; she even outsplit Leverenz. Pelton had a nice drop from Jr. Worlds, but given how much she died on the last 50, it was more that Kukors, Knutson, and Beisel failed to capitalize:
Kukors got a little too far behind on fly and failed to capitalize on her superior breaststroke, Knutson didn't catch up in freestyle as expected, and Beisel was dead last after the fly and never got into contention despite her usual strengths in all 3 remaining strokes, particularly backstroke where Pelton still outsplit her by a second. Given how close the outcome was, I'm interested in learning what suits the finalists were wearing, especially Pelton, Kukors, and Knutson. Submitted by: liquidassets
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