Connor Jaeger Edges Michael McBroom for 800 Free U.S. Open Record

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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 29. IN an extremely close battle, Michigan's Connor Jaeger pulled off the middle-to-long-distance freestyle sweep against The Woodlands' Michael McBroom in the men's 800-meter freestyle with a U.S. Open and meet record at the U.S. Nationals and World Championship Trials.

Jaeger had just enough to hold off a hard-charging McBroom, 7:46.78 to 7:47.13. The two had dueled throughout the entire race with McBroom never letting Jaeger get too much of a lead.

Jaeger's time lowered the U.S. Open record of 7:47.27 set by Chad La Tourette of Mission Viejo back in 2009, and crushed the meet record of 7:49.75 set by Club Wolverine's Erik Vendt back in 2007. Jaeger's third victory of the meet moved him to third in the world rankings behind only Ryan Cochrane (7:43.61) and Sun Yang (7:45.60).

Again, Jaeger barely started swimming distance freestyle in meters a year ago. He only has seven 800-meter freestyle efforts to his resume in USA Swimming's SWIMS database. His lifetime best had been a 7:50.14 from the Santa Clara stop of the Arena Grand Prix.

1 Jaeger, Connor 22 Univ. Of Michiga 7:50.14 7:46.78O 908 20
r:+0.78 27.58 57.33 (29.75)
1:26.64 (29.31) 1:56.35 (29.71)
2:25.46 (29.11) 2:55.02 (29.56)
3:24.22 (29.20) 3:53.97 (29.75)
4:23.11 (29.14) 4:52.39 (29.28)
5:21.92 (29.53) 5:51.58 (29.66)
6:20.81 (29.23) 6:50.33 (29.52)
7:19.35 (29.02) 7:46.78 (27.43)
2 McBroom, Michae 22 The Woodlands-GU 8:01.20 7:47.13O 906 17
r:+1.00 27.80 57.33 (29.53)
1:26.86 (29.53) 1:56.36 (29.50)
2:25.73 (29.37) 2:55.20 (29.47)
3:24.50 (29.30) 3:54.05 (29.55)
4:23.31 (29.26) 4:52.77 (29.46)
5:22.25 (29.48) 5:51.95 (29.70)
6:21.33 (29.38) 6:50.90 (29.57)
7:19.91 (29.01) 7:47.13 (27.22)

McBroom, meanwhile, snared the second spot on the Barcelona roster with a 12-second lifetime best. The Woodlands' swimmer demolished his previous best of 7:59.06 from the 2011 Texas Senior Circuit meet, and vaulted to fourth in the world rankings.

Open water champion Andrew Gemmell of Nation's Capital Aquatics took third in 7:57.83, while Club Wolverine's Ryan Feeley placed fourth in 8:01.28.

Auburn's Zane Grothe (8:02.06), Germantown's Arthur Frayler (8:02.31), Michigan's Sean Ryan (8:03.77) and Mission Viejo's Janardan Burns (8:04.76) comprised the rest of the top eight finishers in the timed final event.

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