Australians Highlight Swimming World’s Senior Circuit in Scottsdale

By Sarah Tolar

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, May 31. THE 2004 Cactus Classic, the second meet of the first annual Arizona Senior Circuit, brought swimmers from around the Southwest and even lured some Aussies from their training camp up north.

Members of the Australian Olympic and National team have been in Flagstaff for a training camp that will be concluded next weekend as the team heads to Southern California for the Janet Evans Invitational to test the waters of the US Olympic Trials pool.

Saturday night’s session was kicked off with the women’s 200 meter fly, where #1 world-ranked Petria Thomas of Australia dominated the field, taking her race out in 1:02.8, to finish at 2:12.29. Seventeen year-old teammate, Sarah Paton followed with a 2:19.80.

The men’s 200 fly featured Justin Norris, the Australian Olympic Trials champion and 2000 Olympic bronze medalist in this event. Norris took the first hundred out in 57.5 and booked home to touch the wall at 1:58.98. Chris Voigt of BEST held his own, racing to second with 2:10.21.

The men’s 50 freestyle showed that the Americans weren’t willing to roll over yet. The top three swimmers all touched within half of a second, and 17 year-old Scott Goodrich of the Arizona Swimming Gauchos put his hand on the wall first, touching at 23.96. Australia’s Andrew Mewing was second with 24.18, and Goodrich’s teammate, Chad Zaabadick was third with 24.42.

In one of the closest races of the evening, South African and University of Arizona alumnus Greg Owen matched up against Justin Norris for the 200 breaststroke. Owen swam off the front for the first 100, out in 1:06.5 to Norris’s 1:08.1. Owen held his ground, but with about 20 meters to go Norris began closing. It was not soon enough. Owen touched the wall at 2:19.04, while Norris was second with 2:19.26.

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