U.S. Paralympics Open: Three U.S. Swimmers Break World Records

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, December 7. THREE U.S. swimmers broke their own world records twice Friday to highlight day two of the U.S. Paralympics Open Swimming Championships at the University of Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center.

Rudy Garcia-Tolson, Jarrett Perry and Roy Perkins each cut time from their existing records in the SM7 200m individual medley, S9 200m backstroke and S5 50m butterfly, respectively.

Garcia-Tolson, a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., came into Friday's competition expecting good things.

"My goal coming into today was to break the record," Garcia-Tolson said after setting his new mark of 2:40.73. "I felt really strong this morning and have felt that way throughout the meet. My training has been paying off."

Perry, who is also a resident athlete in Colorado Springs, came in with a very different outlook.

"I wasn't feeling great coming into the morning, so I was a little worried," Perry said. "But I just went out and swam, and my prelims time was a personal best and a new record, which had me excited because I always swim better at night."

U.S. Paralympics Swimming head coach Julie O'Neill said she was very pleased with the performance of all the Colorado Springs resident athletes on Friday.

"Each of the athletes in the program continue to show steady improvement in race prep, strategy, and results which is exactly the outcome that we are striving for with that program," O'Neill said. "Jarrett and Rudy set world records in both prelims and finals, and Amanda Everlove had a great time drop in her 200 IM."

O'Neill added she was very happy with the competition as a whole on Friday, which featured six athletes setting new world records.

Other U.S. highlights on day two included Cortney Jordan setting her third record of the meet, racing to a new American record time of 3:10.60 in the S7 200m backstroke. April Kerley improved on her own American record in the S9 50m butterfly, and Justin Zook won the closest race of the night, beating Spain's David Levecq to the wall in the S10 50m freestyle by .02 seconds.

Special thanks to U.S. Paralympics for contributing this report.

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