By John Lohn and Dana Lawrence Lohn
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, August 4. IT was only a matter of time before Ryan Lochte grabbed his first national title of the week. The time proved right in the 200-meter individual medley, as Lochte dominated the competition on his way to a triumph in 1:56.95. The effort wasn't far off Lochte's personal-best time of 1:56.11, set at last year's Pan Pacific Championships.
"I just wanted to go under two minutes," said Lochte. "So I was really happy with this swim. For training, we wanted to try something different, so [in advance of this meet] I didn't rest, didn't shave. I'll shave for Short Course in November or December."
Lochte shot off the blocks in the butterfly with a split of 25.60 and checked in at the 100-meter mark in 54.36. Well ahead of the field, Lochte (Daytona Beach) capped the breaststroke leg in 1:28.26 and carried it home for the sub-1:57 outing. Only three men have ever cracked 1:57: Michael Phelps (1:54.98), Lochte and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh (1:56.92). Phelps was originally scheduled to race the 200 I.M., but was given the event off by coach Bob Bowman.
Fueled by a stellar breaststroke leg, Eric Shanteau (Longhorn) picked up the silver medal with a mark of 1:59.56. Shanteau has enjoyed a strong week, finishing second in the 200 breaststroke and third in the 100 breast. He was followed in bronze-medal position by Nate Cass (Stanford), who clocked 2:02.09. Geoff Rathgeber (SoNoCo) was fourth in 2:02.42 and Brendan Hansen (Longhorn) was fifth with a personal best of 2:02.89. Hansen doubled here in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events.
Click here to view event results PDF file.
