Missy Franklin Closes Mel Zajac Down With a Back-to-Back Blastoff

Franklin,M.

IRVINE, California, May 25. A day after having a few setbacks against Canada’s Brittany MacLean in the 400 free and 800 free relay, Missy Franklin sure looked like she was ready to put on a show tonight at the Mel Zajac Canada Cup.

Franklin kicked off the festivities by leading a California backstroke 1-2-3 in the women’s 100-meter back with a 1:00.97. That gave her a backstroke sweep of the 50-100-200 events this week in Vancouver. Rachel Bootsma raced to second in the finale in 1:01.63 with Elizabeth Pelton closing out the Cal sweep with a 1:01.74 for third. Brooklyn Snodgrass posted the top time from a Canadian with a fourth-place 1:02.19.

Franklin doubled up tonight with a win in the women’s 100-meter free. She posted a 55.71 as she overtook Victoria Poon coming down the stretch for the win. Poon touched second in 55.93 after leading Franklin at the 50, 27.20 to 27.30. Franklin just had more in the tank with a 28.41 coming home against Poon’s 28.73. Poon’s training partner Sandrine Mainville finished third in 56.12.

With no warmdown pool in the facility, Franklin definitely had to be inventive to win the back-to-back events that were scheduled 1-2 this evening with just the men’s 100-meter backstroke in between.

After winning a trio of titles on the first night of finals, Franklin duplicated that effort of two individual and one relay wins tonight as California’s Elizabeth Pelton (1:02.48), Caitlin Leverenz (1:10.77), Farida Osman (1:01.04) and Missy Franklin (56.29) took the women’s 400-meter medley relay by a wide margin with a 4:10.58. The UBC Dolphin foursome of McKenzie Summers (1:07.48), Tera Van Beilen (1:12.19), Noemie Thomas (58.99) and Heather MacLean (57.14) took second in 4:15.80, while Montreal’s Ariane Mainville (1:07.89), Marie-Solei Jean-Lachapelle (1:12.40), Katerine Savard (57.89) and Frederique Cigna (57.83) finished third in 4:16.01.

Audrey Lacroix of PPO put up one of the fastest times of the night with a 2:09.80 to win the women’s 200-meter fly. She’s been faster this year with a 12th-ranked 2:08.84 at the Canadian National Championships, but tonight’s effort would have made the top 20 as well, hovering just on the outside of the top 15. Katerine Savard checked in with a second-place 2:11.44 with Noemie Thomas taking third in 2:12.85. Caitlin Leverenz produced the top American time with a fourth-place 2:14.73.

Club Wolverine’s Richard Funk raced his way to a third breaststroke win of the week with a 28.55 in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke event. Teammate Zach Hayden finished second in 28.84, while Keyano’s Nick Kostiuk placed third in 29.28.

Marie-Solei Jean-Lachapelle clipped Rebecca Terejko in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke, 32.18 to 32.22. Tera Van Beilen placed third in the sprint event with a 32.30. Mack Darragh powered to the title in the men’s 200-meter fly with a 2:01.80, while Thomas John (2:03.98) and Evan White (2:04.05) finished second and third.

Russell Wood matched Franklin’s backstroke sweep with a 50-100-200 run of his own as he posted a 56.68 tonight in the 100 for the win. He actually had a faster time in prelims with a 56.36, but didn’t need that speed for the finale tonight. Mark Thormeyer touched second in 57.70 with Joe Byram earning third in 58.27. Club Wolverine’s Geoff Cheah captured the men’s 100-meter freestyle title in 50.54 with UBCD’s Stefan Milosevic touching second in 50.80. Simon Fraser’s Andrew Poznikoff wound up third in 51.56.

The UBC Dolphin quartet of Coleman Allen (58.44), Sergey Holson (1:06.36), Stefan Milosevic (55.71) and Luke Peddie (51.69) earned the men’s 400-meter medley relay crown to close the meet in 3:52.20. Simon Fraser’s Dimitar Ivanov (59.98), Andrew Poznikoff (1:03.58), Steven Hibberd (58.37) and David Hibberd (50.80) touched a close second in 3:52.73. Keyano’s Adam Best (59.43), Nick Kostiuk (1:04.60), Anders Klein (58.84) and Kier Maitland (53.09) turned in a third-place time of 3:55.96.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x