Day 2: Phillips 66 National Championships

Women’s 200m freestyle:
1996 Olympic gold medalist Cristina Teuscher won the 200m freestyle in 2:01.00. Teuscher finished a disappointing sixth in this event at the 1996 Olympics but came back to win a gold medal in the 800m freestyle relay.

USC’s Lindsay Benko finished a very impressive 2nd. Brooke Bennett, the distance ace, grabbed the 3rd position, while Jenny Thompson completed the 800m freestyle relay team with a 4th place finish.

1996 Olympic gold medalist Trina Jackson was no better than 5th, but she is virtually guaranteed a position on the relay provided that there are enough doubles (2 or more wins by one swimmer).

Men’s 400m IM:
Tom Dolan, the defending Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the 400 IM won his specialty with a 4:17.13. Dolan holds the world record of 4:12.30. It was only his third meet since the 1996 Olympics and first one he rested and shaved for.

2nd place belonged to Reno’s Steve Brown, who will be attending Stanford this fall. Brown defeated pre-meet favorites Chad Carvin and Tom Wilkens, who finished 3rd and 4th respectively.

Women’s 100m breaststroke:
University of Georgia sophomore Kristy Kowal won the 100m breaststroke in 1:08.80. In the process she broke Tracey McFarlane’s World Championship Meet Record (Kowal actually lowered the record twice: once in the morning when she broke McFarlane’s record and again at night when she lowered her own standard.)

Kristine Quance, who always seems to swim well in this event despite not being a sprint breaststroker, finished 2nd with a time of 1:09.63. She was only 3/100 off her personal best time of 1:09.60 (which was set at the Nationals following the 1992 Olympics).

Amanda Beard, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist in the 100m breaststroke, failed to reach the final in this event. Beard qualified ninth, missing the final by 1/100th of a second. Interestingly enough, Anita Nall, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist in this event failed to make the final at the 1994 World Championship Trials. Nall also qualified 9th.

Men’s 800m freestyle:
Timothy Siciliano won the 800m freestyle in 8:02.83. It was his second national title. The 800 is not contested at the World Championships.

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