By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 6. IT looked like it would be a four, or maybe even a five-woman race, but the 400 free quickly resolved itself into a

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 6. MORE than one observer has noted that Randall Bal may well be the fastest backstroker in the world… if only he would swim

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 6. HELEN Silver added her name to the list of first-time champions at the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, California, when the

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 6. MICHAEL Phelps is taking a well-earned day off today, the fourth day of the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, California. Otherwise

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 5. WITH two Olympic champions, an NCAA champion and a newly-crowned national champion on one relay team, you’d expect big things out of that

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 5. CALIFORNIA Aquatics and Longhorn Aquatics exchanged the lead several times before Cal Aquatics clinched a victory in the women’s 4×200-meter free relay. The

IRVINE, Calif., August 5. Men's 400 I.M. CHECK list: PHELPS, Michael. Absent LOCHTE, Ryan. Absent. MARGALIS, Robert. Present That’s all anyone needed to know. Robert Margalis, an NCAA champion in

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 5. ONLY 7-hundredths of a second separated top qualifier Ariana Kukors of King Aquatics in Washington and #2 qualifier, Julia Smit, of Three Village

By Phillip Whitten IRVINE, Calif., August 5. MICHAEL PHELPS is the world champion in the 200-meter freestyle, so you’d expect him to win the event at US Nationals. Especially because