Eight Masters World Records Broken on Day One of Arizona Short Course Champs

By Phil Whitten and Mark Gill

TEMPE, Arizona, October 26. THE weather was unseasonably cold and (gasp!) rainy, but that didn't prevent some hot swimming on the first day of competition at the Arizona Short Course Meters Championships in Tempe, site of the 2003 USMS Short Course National Championships.

Eight Masters world marks were shattered plus an additional three USMS national records.

San Diego Swim Masters teammates Karlyn Pipes-Neilson and Caroline Krattli — both in the women's 40-44 age group — led the way with two global marks apiece.

Pipes-Neilson clocked 2:20.71 for the 200 meter butterfly, slashing more than five seconds from Beth Baker's old standard of 2:26.15. She later came back to dip under Jill Hernandez's world mark of 2:06.81 in the 200m free with a 2:06.29 effort.

Krattli swam the 100m IM in a record 1:07.20, and once again it was Beth Baker's name that was erased from the record book. Baker had held the old mark at 1:08.98. In the 100m breaststroke, Krattli swam a stunning 1:13.26, obliterating the former record of 1:17.18 owned by Germany's Dagmar Hilbig.

Fresh from her four gold medal performance at the World Masters Games in Melbourne, 1968 Olympian Jane Swagerty-Hill, Phoenix Swim Club, swam the 100 IM in 1:16.08, breaking the women's 50-54 standard held by fellow Olympian Susan Jones-Roy at 1:17.81.

Hawaii Masters' Steve Borowski took down a giant when he swam the 50m fly in a speedy 27.21 seconds, smashing the men's 55-59 record of 27.74 held by Rich Abrahams.

Sun Devil Masters' Camilla Johansson, a member of the Swedish National Team, just dipped under the women's 25-29 record in the 100m backstroke with her 1:03.26. The old record, 1:03.33, was held by Lia Oberstar.

Finally, Phoenix Swim Club's Greg Dozer celebrated the birth of his daughter a week ago by slicing a miniscule 3-hundredths of a second off the men's 45-49 400M IM record. Dozer's 4:57.31 just edged out the old mark held by Tom Reudy.

Three US national records also bit the dust — er, mud — today, with Sun Devil Ron Johnson accounting for two of them.

Swimming in the men's 70-74 age group, Johnson slashed almost 11 seconds' off Joe Kurtzman's long-standing 200m fly mark of 3:26.07 with a 3:15.19 effort. Johnson came back to post a USMS mark of 1:26.99 in the 100m breaststroke, taking down Chuck Baldwin's record of 1:28.63.

Finally, Joy Ward carved a full two seconds off the women's 60-64 mark for 50 meters butterfly. Her 36.28 destroyed Jayne Bruner's record of 38.30.

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