By Dana Lawrence<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas, March 4. THERE was strong close Saturday night to the American Short Course Championships, as three more American records fell. The night\u2019s highlights included Michael Phelps\u2019 200-yard individual medley time of 1:41.30 \u2013 his third American record of this competition. He topped Ryan Lochte\u2019s 2005 record by over four-tenths (1:41.72). \u201cRyan and I have had a great battle and I look forward to continuing that throughout the year,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the crowd saw a record-smashing showing by their hometown Longhorns in the 400-yard medley relay, where Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Neil Walker combined to clock in at 3:02.94. The previous American record of 3:04.47 had been set by Texas in 2003 in this pool, and included three of the same swimmers, the exception being Walker. The crowd was on its feet to help bring Walker home in perhaps the most memorable race of the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the crowd, and to all the young swimmers out there, it\u2019s possible!\u201d said Walker after the medley win. Walker serves as a coach in Longhorn Aquatics\u2019 age-group programs, and he saw many of his trainees in the crowd. To them, his message must\u2019ve seemed especially resonant.<\/p>\n
Early in the day, Tara Kirk blasted her own American record in the 100 breaststroke when she sizzled a 57.77 during a time trial. Her previous record was a 58.41 from 2003.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the women\u2019s 200-yard backstroke featured former Auburn star Margaret Hoelzer with an easy win in 1:51.71, topping Japanese National Team member Aya Terakawa (1:55.20) and King Aquatics-based Ariana Kukors (1:56.01). <\/p>\n
Peirsol came close to topping Lochte\u2019s 200-yard backstroke American record (1:38.29) as he finished just two-tenths off in 1:38.45. The race showcased a great chase between Peirsol and, well, Peirsol, who clearly remains focused on Lochte long-term. \u201c(I\u2019m going to) go back and work on it. Hopefully I can challenge Lochte with that time.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the distance backstroke remains chock-full of American talent, there\u2019s always room for emerging faces, and Jayme Cramer (second in 1:41.29) and Adam Mania (third in 1:42.96) didn\u2019t disappoint. Cramer deserves a nod for his utility performance across all three days of this meet. His versatility certainly continues to raise his star in the sport.<\/p>\n
Saving the classic event for the final day, the women\u2019s 100-yard freestyle brought to the blocks several strong performers: Kaitlin Sandeno, Tanica Jamison and newcomer Tara Thomas swam in a final too close to visually call, with first and third separated by just four-hundredths of a second. Thomas took the win in 49.31, Jamison second in 49.33, and Sandeno third in 49.34. Natalie Coughlin\u2019s 2003 American record (47.00) stayed safe. <\/p>\n
Also intact remains Anthony Ervin\u2019s 2002 record in the men\u2019s 100-yard freestyle (41.62). Ian Crocker took the win tonight in 41.83, with Olympian and Longhorn Josh Davis a prominent face in the crowd. Roland Schoeman (42.47) and Neil Walker (42.64) followed in an Olympic-quality heat which also included Jason Lezak, Klete Keller and Nick Brunelli. Brunelli, whose explosive speed we\u2019ve enjoyed through the World Cup season, has been \u201ctraveling a lot, training, and wasn\u2019t expecting much,\u201d but is focused on increasing his speed for the World Short Course Championships. <\/p>\n
Up-and-comers owned tonight\u2019s women\u2019s 1,650-yard freestyle, where sixteen-year-old Kelsey Ditto took the win in 16:05.39. While well off Janet Evans\u2019 longstanding record of 15:39.14, set in 1990, Ditto posted a personal best time. She also touched at the 1,000 mark in another personal best time for that distance. \u201cI usually do well in my last race (of a meet),\u201d she said. Seventeen-year-old Blake Hayter scored silver in 16:29.10, her second No. 2 placing of this meet. On the men\u2019s side, Bojan Zdesar gradually increased his lead throughout the 1,650-yard freestyle, touching for the win in 15:11.34. <\/p>\n
On to the individual medley events, the women\u2019s 200-yard IM featured eight athletes who had appeared in earlier finals this week. Kukors asserted herself with a win in 1:57.46 while Sandeno followed closely behind in 1:57.53. Jamison took third in 1:59.88 while Megan Jendrick excelled beyond the breaststroke to touch fourth in 2:00.55.<\/p>\n
Also in closing the meet, the women\u2019s 400-yard medley relay was won by King Aquatics in 3:40.73. The foursome of Kukors, Jendrick, Courtney Eronemo and Emilee Jennings put forward a definitive win, increasing their margin of victory throughout. Irvine Nova followed over five seconds later in 3:46.25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Dana Lawrence AUSTIN, Texas, March 4. THERE was strong close Saturday night to the American Short Course Championships, as three more American records fell. The night\u2019s highlights included Michael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n