Katie Hoff Demolishes American Record in 1650 Freestyle at Maryland State Championships

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, March 2. AT the Maryland State Championships held in Annapolis, Katie Hoff was at it again as she obliterated the women's 1650-yard freestyle American record.

Hoff put together an astounding time of 15:24.35 to chop nearly five seconds from Kate Ziegler's 15:29.15 set on Dec. 6 last year in Fairfax, Va.

That gives Hoff five American records over short course yards as she owns the 500 free (4:30.47), 1000 free (9:10.77), 200 IM (1:53.77) and 400 IM (4:00.66). She also has the long course national records in the 200 free (1:56.08), 400 free (4:02.20), 200 IM (2:10.05) and 400 IM (4:32.89).

"We are really psyched because Katie has worked hard on her stroke technique over the past few months," NBAC head coach Paul Yetter said. "She has been moving forward in her training in freestyle over the last few months. After the 500 and 1000 free records, we started concentrating on long course. We were still excited to see what she could do in the mile, though. We hadn't discussed this meet until her performance at the Missouri Grand Prix. At that time, we decided that this event would help her move her program forward over the next few months. Katie is just having fun swimming right now."

Girls 1650 Yard Freestyle
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Name Age Team Finals
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1 Hoff, Katie E 18 North Baltimore-MD 15:24.35
26.41 54.61 (28.20) 1:23.00 (28.39) 1:51.33 (28.33)
2:19.65 (28.32) 2:48.14 (28.49) 3:16.59 (28.45) 3:45.02 (28.43)
4:13.50 (28.48) 4:41.74 (28.24) 5:10.14 (28.40) 5:38.54 (28.40)
6:06.57 (28.03) 6:34.90 (28.33) 7:03.07 (28.17) 7:31.16 (28.09)
7:59.36 (28.20) 8:27.39 (28.03) 8:55.42 (28.03) 9:23.33 (27.91)
9:51.25 (27.92) 10:19.13 (27.88) 10:47.20 (28.07) 11:15.30 (28.10)
11:43.31 (28.01) 12:11.21 (27.90) 12:39.14 (27.93) 13:07.26 (28.12)
13:35.08 (27.82) 14:02.87 (27.79) 14:30.50 (27.63) 14:58.23 (27.73)

In other news at the meet, Elizabeth Pelton, 14, of NBAC lowered her own 13-14 National Age Group record in the 100-yard back with a smoking time of 53.36. She shattered the 54-second barrier for the age group as she previously owned the standard with a 54.08 from last year. She first eclipsed the record with a 54.00 during prelims before taking the record to a new stratosphere.

Pelton also grabbed Mary Beck's 13-14 NAG in the 200-yard back with a time of 1:56.16 during the meet. Beck previous record of 1:56.34 has stood since 2006.

Meanwhile, Pelton ripped off a 100-year free leadoff time of 49.56 as part of the 13-14 400 free relay team for NBAC. This performance fell just short of Amanda Weir's NAG of 49.53 set in 2000.

"Liz is an unbelievably talented swimmer," Yetter said. "Not only did she break the records in the backstrokes, she stepped up in the 100 free and went under 50. With all of her swims combined from this meet, she stands in the top 3 of all time in the 13-14 age group in five events. There is no one else that comes close to that statistic. She's had, what I consider to be, one of the best meets in the 13-14 age group this weekend in the history of the division. If you look at the whole picture this weekend, you find a really incredible meet for a young person."

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