Six World Records Fall on DayTwo of US Masters Long Course Champs

By Phillip Whitten

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, August 14. THE lights flickered here this afternoon as much of the northeastern US and eastern Canada lost power in a massive blackout. Fortunately, the electricity stayed on and the second day of the USMS Long Course Nationals on the verdant campus of Rutgers University did not miss a beat.

Six world records and an additional three USMS national mark fell on Day Two. Once again, Walnut Creek's Suzanne Heim-Bowen led the way.

Yesterday, Heim-Bowen, 46, obliterated the 1500m free standard
for women 45-49. Along the way, she broke the 400 and 800 free marks. Today, swimming the 800, she took the 800 and 400 records down still further.

Heim-Bowen finished the 16-lapper in 9:24.53, six seconds under the 9:30.82 she split yesterday. In an evenly split race, she flipped in 4:41.64 at the 400, almost three seconds ahead of her 4:44.34 split yesterday.

Heim-Bowen is looking to take the record under 4:40 when she swims the 400 later in the meet. That would represent a drop of more than 12 seconds from Laura Val's pre-Nationals world record of 4:52.03.

There were several other spectacular record swims this day topped by Robert Poiletman's 1:07.15 in the men's 100m fly in the 60-64 age group. The old record was 1:10.06 by Japan's Koji Iwamoto last year.

The oldest record-breaker waas Golden West's Rita Simonton, 85, who zipped through the 800 free in 17:14.24, almost two minutes faster than the old record of 19:12.10 for women 85-89, set by Jean Durston in 1999.

Olympian Yoshi Oyakawa continued to assert his dominance in the backstroke sprints. Swimming in the men's 70-74 division, Oyakawa clocked 35.52 seconds for the 50 meter dorsal spring, erasing Japan's S. Sekikawa's 36.18.

In the men's 50-54 division, John McCall, Orlando Masters, sliced one-hundredth of a second off Lawrence Day's listed WR in the 100 fly, touching in 1:01.93.

National records were set by Greg Oxley, Peter Andersen and Jackie Marr.

Oxley, Colonial 1776, clocked a USMS record 1:10.27 in the 100m breast for men 45-49. Anderson, San Diego, went 1:18.63 in the same event for men 60-64.

Marr, also from San Diego, swam 11:41.17 in the 800 free, a record for women 60-64.

After Day Two, Colonial 1776 leads the team scoring with 606 points. Garden State Masters follows with 561, and New England is third with 452.

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