2005 World Championship Trials: Day Three Complete Prelim Results, with Comments

By Duncan Scott

Attached are the complete results of the Day Three Prelims at the 2005 World Championship Trials.

100 M Breaststroke – Women
Several interesting races are on the docket for this evening starting with the Women's 100 breaststroke. Olympian and short course world record holder in this event, Tara Kirk, Palo Alto Stanford, leads the way but by only .06 over Jessica Hardy, a high schooler with Irvine Novas. These two had a bit of separation on the field this morning, but that gap may be illusory as three of the next four qualifiers would not be major surprises if they were able to slip into the slots for Montreal.

Third is the Sydney Gold medalist Megan Jendrick (formerly Quann) who has returned to the sport with new vigor after a bit of a break and marriage to SwimInfo correspondent Nathan Jendrick. Lindsey Ertter of Athens Bulldogs has been a long time finalist in this event (6th at the 2004 OT) who made a significant breakthrough a few weeks ago bursting under the minute mark both prelims and finals at the NCAA Championships for Georgia. And Caroline Bruce, an Olympian at the 200 distance has improved her 100 from 10th at the OT to being NCAA champion for Stanford as a freshman. Jendrick (Sectionals), Ertter and Bruce have all been :59.7 or better short course in the last few weeks.

Rebecca Soni, a consolation finalist at the Long Beach Trials, qualified ahead of Ertter and Bruce. She may have already had her big swim, though, dropping over 1.5 seconds to a fine 1:09.58, but unless she has a lot more in the tank that level of swim won’t get to Montreal.

100 M Butterfly – Men
Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker separated by only .03 seconds (Phelps leading at :53.13 to Crocker’s :53.16) and over half a second back to the next qualifiers (200 fly winner Davis Tarwater and Peter Verhoef tied at :53.74). A media dream.

50 M Freestyle-Women
Kara Lynn Joyce returns to her dominant form after a surprisingly weak 200. She swept to :25.37 compared to college teammate Amanda Weir’s :25.88 and Texas’s Sarah Wanezek :25.90, with Maritza Correia lurking at :26.01. Of the remaining finalists, the swimmer most likely to challenge is Lacy Nymeyer who was :21.63 relay split for University of Arizona at NCAAs.

400 M IM – Women
At this meet, when you’ve said Katie Hoff, you’ve said it all! Already a winner of the 200 IM (American record 2:11.24) and an out-of-the-blue 200 free winner, it would take a monumental upset for Hoff not to be the winner in this one. The more reasonable question for this swimmer “on a roll” is whether she can challenge Kaitlin Sandeno’s American record (4:34.95 silver medal Athens swim) or, dare we say it, the Yana Klochkova 4:33.59 world record blitz from Sydney. Sandeno is in the final and on her best day certainly could win, but her best day has yet to show up this week. If it does tonight, what a treat of a race!

50 M Freestyle – Men
As so often happens, the third place finisher at an Olympic trials has found a new gear in the next quadrennium. Nick Brunelli, Sun Devil Aquatics, was third behind Hall and Lezak in Long Beach. Hall isn’t here and, at least for the prelims, Brunelli moved past Lezak with a lifetime best :22.28, the number one time in the world so far. Lezak is right behind at :22.31.

Those two have a bit of a margin over Stanford’s Ben Wildman-Tobriner at :22.51, but watch out for Ben if he can translate his recent short course speed to the longer pool. He had :19.20 and :19.15 on his free relay leadoff swims, morning and night, at the NCAA meet, certainly times at least equivalent to the morning efforts of Brunelli and Lezak.

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