Junior Pan Pacs: Dagny Knutson Triples as U.S., Australia, Japan Perform Well

GUAM, January 9. THE supernova of U.S. swimming, Dagny Knutson, continued to per her stamp on the swimming community as she clinched three gold medals during the second day of swimming at the Junior Pan Pacs.

Meanwhile, several meet records took some serious hits with the U.S., Australia and Japan doing most of the damage.

Women's 100 free
American Dagny Knutson rocketed to a meet-record gold-winning time of 55.37. That performance cleared Ellese Zalewski's standard of 55.78 set in 2007. Knutson also scared Rhi Jeffrey's U.S. national age group record of 55.21 set in 2003.

Canada's Hannah Riordan placed second in 56.03, while Samantha Tucker gave the U.S. a 1-3 finish with a time of 56.08.

Men's 100 free
Australia went 1-2 in the men's sprint free as Tommaso D'Orsogna ripped off a time of 49.75 for gold, while Daniel Smith claimed silver in 49.99. D'Orsogna's time finished just .1 seconds off Smith's meet-record time of 49.65 set during prelims. Smith (49.65) and D'Orsogna (49.85) both wiped out the previous meet record of 50.50 set by compatriot Kirk Palmer in 2005.

It was a Down Under sweep of the podium as New Zealand's Daniel Bell grabbed bronze in 50.59.

Women's 100 breast
Australia's Samantha Marshall touched out Japan's Sayuna Sugiyama during finals, 1:09.08 to 1:09.13, as both surpassed the preliminary meet record of American Kasey Carlson (1:09.20).

Carlson joined Canada's Amanda Reason (1:09.26), Marshall (1:09.36), Australia's Tessa Wallace (1:09.63) and American Laura Sogar (1:09.68) under the previous meet record of 1:09.71 set by Hitomi Nose of Japan in 2007.

Wallace wound up taking bronze in 1:09.41 during finals.

Men's 100 breast
The U.S. placed 1-2 in the event as Nick D'Innocenzo and Stuart Ferguson touched first and second in finals. D'Innocenzo showed some consistency by matching his preliminary time of 1:02.99 to win gold at night. Ferguson claimed silver in 1:03:62 after posting a 1:03.36 during prelims. Japan's Akihiro Yamaguchi wrapped up the 1:03 times with a third-place 1:03.88.

Women's 400 IM
Dagny Knutson completed a double with a blistering time of 4:40.10 for the win. That effort crushed her preliminary meet record of 4:44.18, which in turn blasted Mary Beck's 2007 mark of 4:46.30. That's a huge six-second drop from the previous record.

Australia's Ellen Fullerton provided Knutson's closest competition with a silver-winning 4:41.17, while Andrea Taylor of the U.S. rounded out the top three with a bronze-winning 4:43.23.

Men's 400 IM
Japan dominated finals with a 1-2 effort. Yuya Horihata touched first in 4:17.86, while Keita Sameshima finished second in 4:18.72. Both swims broke the 1999 meet record of 4:19.99 set by Canada's Chuck Sayao. Andrew Gemmell of the U.S. hit the wall third for bronze in 4:20.52.

Women's 800 free relay
The U.S. quartet of Andrea Taylor (2:00.33), Samantha Tucker (1:59.81), Catherine Breed (2:00.18) and Dagny Knutson (1:57.84) smashed the meet record with a winning time of 7:58.26. That effort easily cleared the 8:09.15 set by the Australians in 2005.

Australia's foursome of Ellese Zalewski, Fany Papaemanouil, Jessica Ash and Ellen Fullerton placed second in 8:04.89, while Canada's Alexandra Gabor, Paige Schultz, Sinead Russell and Heather MacLean took third in 8:05.62.

Men's 800 free relay
Another meet record took a serious tumble as Australia's squad of Daniel Smith (1:49.98), Tommaso D'Orsogna (1:49.10), Ned McKendry (1:50.47) and Ryan Napoleon (1:48.24) tallied a 7:17.79. That performance downed the 2005 record set by Japan of 7:25.19.

Japan's team of Kai Kohata, Jumpei Higashi, Kenta Ito and Takashi Koike finished second in 7:25.42, while Canada's Hassaan Abdel-Khalik, David Woodman, Matthew Swanston and Bogdan Knezevic touched third in 7:25.43.

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