North Baltimore Long Course Championships: Michael Phelps Wins 200 Fly

By David Rieder, Swimming World high school intern

BALTIMORE, Maryland, June 13. SWIMMING superstar Michael Phelps highlighted his club's annual June meet with a victory in his signature event during the third evening of long course meter racing in Baltimore.

Phelps, the world record-holder at 1:51.51, cruised in the 200 fly, posting a winning time of 1:57.91, which put him into the world rankings in 23rd, just ahead of Nikolay Skvortsov's 1:57.92 from the Russian Nationals last month. Phelps dominated the race, winning by nearly 10 seconds over his teammate Mike Thomas (2:07.30), his coach Bob Bowman, described the swim as "most disappointing."

Another Bowman-trained elite swimmer at North Baltimore, Felicia Lee, posted two victories on the third night. Lee claimed the 50 free in 26.37, over teammate Elizabeth Pelton's 26.77, and she came back to take the 100 back in 1:04.16. Pelton, who finished sixth in the 200 back at the 2009 World Championships, also swam the 400 free, where she finished eighth in 4:33.96. More impressive, according to Bowman, Pelton swam the 400 as a backstroke event.

North Baltimore's Natalie Beale touched out her teammate Allison Schmitt, a U.S. Olympian, to win the 400 free, 4:21.26 to 4:21.34. Schmitt also took fourth in the 200 fly, where she clocked 2:18.93.

Two more North Baltimore elite swimmers posted wins at the meet, as Todd Patrick claimed the 400 free in 4:01.06, while Olympian Scott Spann finished first in the 200 IM in a time of 2:07.99. Spann won his first victory of the meet after taking second to Phelps on Saturday in the 100 breaststroke, an event he is more known for.

Swimming World high school intern David "The Swim Geek" Rieder is a high school swimmer in Charleston, S.C. He swims for the Southern Marlins Racing Team and often negative splits his races. He can be found on the web at swimdr549.blogspot.com and twitter.com/david2swim.

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