Mel Zajac Jr. International: First Night Features Plenty of Meet Records

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 22. THE first night of long course meter swimming at the Mel Zajac Jr. International meet featured a handful of meet records falling by the wayside.

Ryan Cochrane blasted his meet record in the men's 800 free with a time of 7:51.74 to open the evening. That performance cleared his standard of 7:56.31 set last year. Teammate Jeremy Bagshaw placed second in 8:08.79, while Kier Maitland touched third in 8:08.90.

U.S. junior teamers Missy Franklin and Madison White battled it out in the women's 200 back with Franklin touching out her teammate, 2:12.50 to 2:12.57. Lindsay Seemann took third in 2:12.91. Both times beat Julia Wilkinson's meet record of 2:12.70 set in 2008. Matt Hawes claimed the men's 200 back crown in 2:00.13 with Daniel Arnamnart touching second in 2:00.90. Matthew Swanston rounded out the top three in 2:02.33.

Annamay Pierse dominated the women's 100 breast with a time of 1:07.32. That readout beat the 2006 meet record of 1:07.43 set by Megan Jendrick. Ariana Kukors earned second in 1:08.12 while Ashley Wanland placed third in 1:09.76. Jendrick, still on the comeback trail from a broken leg suffered during national team training with the Navy SEALS, took fourth in 1:09.94. Another meet record tumbled in the men's 100 breast with Scott Dickens touching in 1:01.88. The effort clipped Morgan Knabe's 2004 record of 1:01.98. Matthew Elliott finished second in 1:03.16 with Sean Nugent placing third in 1:05.01.

Bronte Barratt picked up the women's 200 free triumph with a time of 1:59.16. That was enough to beat Alexandra Gabor's second-place 2:00.61. Kevyn Peterson placed third in 2:00.82. Tom Shields dropped the hammer to overtake Stefan Hirniak in the men's 200 free, 1:51.01 to 1:51.32. Shields utilized a 27.21 final split to claim the win. Joel Greenshields wound up third in 1:51.34.

Kukors turned her silver in the 100 breast into a women's 400 IM gold with a time of 4:38.75. The swim smashed the meet record of 4:44.42 set by Tanya Hunks last year. Alex Komarnycky finished second in 4:39.50 under the former record, while Hunks took third in 4:45.53. Ben Hinshaw walked away with the men's 400 IM crown in 4:23.01. David Dimitrov took second in 4:27.96, while Bryan Offutt finished third in 4:28.82.

The sprint 50 fly events followed. Alisa Finn of the U.S. team won the women's title in 27.51. Chantal Vanlandeghem took second in 27.60 while Margaret Hoelzer picked up third in 27.89. Joe Bartoch captured the meet record in the men's championship finale with a 24.49. The time beat the 24.51 set by Mitchell Patterson last year. Kelly Aspinall touched second in 24.55 with Arnamnart finishing third in 24.85.

In the final individual event of the night, Ashley Evans won the women's 1500 free with a 16:55.02. Rachel Naurath took second in 17:01.54, while Bridget Coley placed third in 17:01.66.

The 400 free relays closed the night. The U.S. team of Margo Geer (56.77), Franklin (55.31), Rebecca Jones (56.23) and Lauren Perdue (56.63) blazed the women's heats with a 3:44.94. The swim beat the meet record of 3:47.23 set by Australia last year. Tommy Gossland, Brian Johns, Dickens and Rory Biskupski beat the U.S. team of Shields, Payne Montgomery, Miles Joye and Tofey Leon, 3:24.67 to 3:24.89, to complete the evening.

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