Team Aussie Concludes Junior Pan Pacific Championships With Dominant Last Day

By Jason Marsteller

MAUI, Hawaii, January 14. THE Australians closed out the last day of long course meter swimming at the Junior Pan Pacifics with a decisive team win in Maui, Hawaii. At the end of the day, the Aussies owned 39 total medals with more than half (20) of the gold variety.

In other action, the United States had 31 medals with five of them gold, while Japan snared 25 medals with six overall titles. Additionally, China chimed in with three golds and New Zealand picked up a trio of bronze medals. Mexico closed out the meet with a sole bronze effort.

In the final day of action, seven meet records went down in quick fashion. The women wiped out the 200 IM, 50 free, 200 breast and 400 medley relay in that order, while the men took down the 200 IM, 50 free and 400 medley relay standards.

Women's 800-meter freestyle
17-year-old Lorren Sellwood of Australia gave her country its 16th gold medal of the meet with a win in the distance free event. Sellwood bounced back-and-forth between low 33s and high 32s splits before dropping the hammer with a 30.73 in the final 50 meters to touch in 8:42.40 for the win.

The United States went 2-3 to comprise the rest of the podium as 16-year-old Alyssa Anderson earned her second distance silver after taking second in the 1500 free on the first day followed by a second-place 8:43.82 in the 800 free.

16-year-old Kirsten Groome brought up the final three with a time of 8:46.67 to pick up the bronze.

Women's 200-meter IM
15-year-old Mary Beck of the United States doubled up on IM wins after claiming the longer distance yesterday. This time, she clocked a meet-record time of 2:16.72, faster than her prelim meet standard, to take top billing with the United States' fifth crown.

Meanwhile, teammate 16-year-old Spindrift Beck gave the America its fourth medal of the day with a silver-winning time of 2:17.50. Additionally, 15-year-old Samantha Hamill snagged bronze in 2:18.27.

Mary Beck trailed three swimmers, including Hamill, after the butterfly leg, but started closing the gap on her Australian counterpart in the backstroke leg. She then took the lead with a 40.94 breaststroke split before bringing it home with a 31.41 in the freestyle leg.

Men's 200-meter IM
Australia bounced back with a 1-3 effort in the men's 200 IM. Stephen Parker cleared the meet record with a time of 2:03.05. That performance erased the 2:04.68 set by Japan's Sho Uchida on Jan. 9, 2005.

17-year-old Yuma Kosaka of Japan also touched under the meet record with a silver-winning effort of 2:03.42, while Sam Ashby of Australia concluded the top three in 2:05.58.

Kosaka clocked the fastest fly (26.11) and breaststroke (35.67) legs, while Parkes took the best back (30.62) leg. Fifth-place finisher Matt Thompson of the United States had the quickest free split of 28.76.

Women's 50-meter freestyle
Australia kept it up in the splash-and-dash with 15-year-old Ellese Zalewski breaking the meet record in 25.61 to touch out her compatriot Olivia Halicek, who set the standard at 25.81 in prelims and finished in the silver with a 25.63.

Zalewski's effort also set the Australian age group record of 25.76 previously set by Alice Mills on Jan. 9, 2002. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Misaki Yamaguchi picked up third place for Japan in 26.32.

Men's 50-meter freestyle
17-year-old Lu Zhiwu of China added the one-lap gold to his two-lap version from earlier in the meet when he clocked a 22.92 to surpass the meet-record time of 23.10 set by Australia's Matt Lenton on Jan. 9, 2005.

17-year-old Kazuki Dobayashi of Japan turned in a silver-winning time of 23.05 that also eclipsed Lenton's previous record, while 16-year-old Orinoco Faamausili-Banse earned New Zealand's third medal with a bronze-winning 23.28.

Women's 200-meter breaststroke
16-year-old Yuumi Murakami of Japan turned the tables on teammate Hitomi Nose after losing to her in the 100 breast earlier in the meet. While both eclipsed Murakami's meet record of 2:28.86 set during prelims, Murakami touched first in 2:28.05 with Nose finished right behind in a second-place time of 2:28.46.

Murakami came rocketing from behind in the final 50 meters, making up a half-second difference with a 38.10 final split – almost a full second quicker than Nose's 39.06.

16-year-old Micah Lawrence of the United States pocketed America's fourth medal of the day with a bronze-winning time of 2:31.57.

Men's 200-meter breaststroke
Former world-record holder Kosuke Kitajima's impact could be no more evident with Japan snagging the bulk of medals in the breaststroke events. The men's 200 breast was no different with 17-year-old Ryo Tateishi and Kazuki Otsuka giving Japan the quinella. Tateishi dominated with a first-place time of 2:15.70 to give Japan its sixth gold medal, while Otsuka hit the wall in 2:18.14 for silver.

The United States' Adam Klein rounded out the podium with a third-place time of 2:19.94.

Men's 1500-meter freestyle
China moved its gold-medal total to three as Ren Chen edged 17-year-old Ian Rowe of the United States for the title with a winning time of 15:34.19. Meanwhile, Rowe clocked a silver-winning time of 15:35.14, while teammate 17-year-old Joe Kinderwater chipped in with a bronze-winning 15:38.35.

Ren sat in the pocket off the two Americans through the initial 850 meters, and then made his move to take a lead at the 900-meter mark with a time of 9:21.84.

The race really started to heat up as Rowe took a slight .05 second lead at the 1300-meter mark that held until the final 50 meters. Ren just had way too much left in the tank when he torched Rowe in the last dash with a 27.26 split against Rowe's 28.44 to overcome Rowe's .23 second advantage at the 1450-meter mark.

Women's 400-meter medley relay
Australia garnered its 19th gold of the meet with a meet-record time of 4:09.06 to nip the United States in a thrilling race. The Aussie foursome of Emily Seebohm, Talia Goddard, Ellese Zalewski and Amelia Evatt-Davey far surpassed the meet-standard time of 4:11.34 set by Japan on Jan. 9, 2005. Meanwhile, the U.S. contingent of Mary Beck, Kasey Carlson, Felicia Lee and Allison Schmitt placed second in 4:09.34. Japan's team of Shiho Sakai, Hitomi Nose, Natsuki Akiyama and Yayoi Matsumoto provided another strong contender with a third-place 4:09.81.

Seebohm gave Australia more than a second lead over the U.S. with a backstroke leg of 1:02.25. Japan actually sat in second at that point with Sakai clocking a 1:02.53. Carlson then pushed the Americans ahead of Australia with a breaststroke leg of 1:10.21 as both teams watched Japan's Nose take the lead for her team with a 1:09.80.

Lee then gave the U.S. the advantage with a 59.09 butterfly leg, but Schmitt could not hold on with an anchor leg of 56.30 against Evatt-Davey's strong 54.56 split to give the Aussies the win.

Men's 400-meter medley relay
The men's race was not nearly as exciting as the Australian team of Daniel Arnamnart, James Stacey, Sam Ashby and Bobby Jovanovich led wire-to-wire with a meet-record time of 3:42.25. That performance crushed the previous standard of 3:45.27 set by the Japanese on Jan. 9, 2005.

Team Aussie had the fastest first three legs of the race with Arnamnart clocking a 55.27 in the back, Stacey a 1:02.12 in the breast and Ashby a 53.04 in the fly. Japan's Kenichi Teranishi provided the quickest freestyle leg with a 51.60 to help his teammates Kazuki Dobayashi, Ryo Tateishi and Yoshinori Muramatsu to a second-place time of 3:44.98.

The United States quartet of Cory Chitwood, Stuart Ferguson, Neil Caskey and Buddy Turner finished in third with a time of 3:48.49.

Results: 2007 Jr Pan Pacific Swimming Championships – (01-11-2007 – 01-14-2007)

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