Masters World Records Continue to Tumble at U.S. Masters Swimming Nationals

MISSION VIEJO, California, August 9. MASTERS world records continued to fall under the southern California sun today at the U.S. Masters long course national championships, with a few swimmers adding to their list of records already broken this week.

The first event of the day was the men’s 50 breaststroke, where David Guthrie, 53, broke the world record in the 50-54 age group of 30.88 by two-time Olympian Richard Schroeder with a 30.48. He now owns all three breaststroke long course records in that age group, and still has the 200 breast left at nationals on Saturday.

Katie Glenn, 37, notched her second world mark of the meet as well, taking the 50 breast in the 35-39 age group with a 32.86, beating out Roberta Crescentini’s 33.10 from 2011. The swim also erased Cynthia Lewis’ national mark of 33.86.

Richard Burns put up a 2:44.59 in the men’s 200 backstroke for a world record in the 70-74 age group. Burns, 70, took down New Zealander Barry Young’s 2:48.10 and Burwell Jones’ national record of 2:55.19. That wasn’t Burns’ only big swim of the day, as he posted a 31.42 in the 50 butterfly to break Hiroshi Matsumoto’s world record of 31.49 and Ron Johnson’s national record of 32.11.

Also breaking a world record in the men’s 200 back was Fred Ferroggiaro, who swam a 2:33.09 for a new mark in the 60-64 age group. Ferroggiaro’s time beat out Jim McConica’s 2:33.94 from May 2012.

Noriko Inada, known mostly for her backstroke prowess as a three-time Olympian for Japan, set a world record in the 50 butterfly today in the 35-39 age group. Inada, 35, swam a 27.80 to beat Australian Lynn Hayes’ world record of 28.03, as well as Tracie Moll’s 14-year-old national record of 28.32. Also breaking a world record in the women’s 50 fly was Traci Granger, who swam a 30.97 to become one of the few to beat a Laura Val world record. Val’s record in the 55-59 age group stood at 31.42 since 2009.

Rita Simonton was the only woman to set a world record in the 800 freestyle today, with the 95-year-old posting an incredible 21:53.69 in the event to drop more than seven minutes off Mieko Nagaoka’s mark of 29:29.02 from 2010. On the men’s side, Willard Lamb set a world record in the 90-94 age group to go along with his 1500 freestyle record from day one and his 200 free record from yesterday. Lamb’s time of 16:28.37 in the 800 today was nearly a minute and a half faster than the record of 17:54.12 swum by Tokushi Komeda in 2005, and also faster than the 18:00.20 swum by Jurgen Schmidt earlier this year for the national record. Schmidt, meanwhile, beat his national record with a runner-up time of 17:58.02.

The host team, the Mission Viejo Nadadores, celebrated a world record in the mixed 200 freestyle relay today. In the 360-299 age group, Frank Piemme (88 years old), Maurine Kornfeld (92 years old), Simonton (95 years old) and Schmidt (90 years old) posted a 3:36.78 in the event to obliterate the standing world record of 4:18.13 set by a team from Japan in 2005 and fully clear the national record set by Coast Masters in 2003 by nearly two minutes.

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