LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 15. NATALIE Coughlin posted the fastest time by an American this year during her triumph in the 200 LCM freestyle, while Jason Lezak picked up a victory in the 50 freestyle. Meanwhile, Adrienne Binder captured her third gold of the meet in the 400 IM to highlight Saturday\u2019s competition at the 13th-annual Janet Evans Invitational at the McDonald\u2019s Swim Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif.<\/p>\n
While Lezak, Coughlin and Binder swam strong tune-ups ahead of next month\u2019s USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, Tamas Kerekjarto captured the men\u2019s 400-meter individual medley, his second win of the meet, in preparation for the European Championships later this month in his native Hungary.<\/p>\n
The field for the men\u2019s 50-meter freestyle featured four finalists from the 2004 Olympics, including American gold medalist Gary Hall, Jr. and South African bronze medalist Roland Schoeman. Lezak, the fifth-place finisher at the Olympics, overcame that field to win in 22.51, the second-fastest time by an American this year. Nick Brunelli placed second in 22.53, and Salim Iles of Algeria, who finished eighth in the Olympics, took third in 22.57. Gabe Woodward was next in fourth, followed by Schoeman in fifth and Hall in sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the strongest field besides maybe an Olympic field,\u201d Lezak said. \u201cIt\u2019s not all that often you can get a group of that many guys and put them together and have a field like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coughlin, who won Friday\u2019s women\u2019s 100-meter freestyle, stopped the clock in 1:58.20 to win the 200-meter freestyle. The five-time medalist at the 2004 Olympics swam .04 seconds faster that Katie Hoff did in June and is now the seventh-fastest swimmer in the event in the world this year. She led from the start and pulled clear to beat Erin Reilly (2:00.46). Lacey Nymeyer took third in 2:01.58.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where I like to be \u2013 out in front, and people have to try and catch me, and so that was a good way to take charge of the race,\u201d Coughlin said. \u201cThis is a bit different because it\u2019s the more strategic than my other 100 [meter] events. The 200 is still a sprint, but it\u2019s difficult to truly sprint for two minutes. So it\u2019s all about conservation of energy and speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binder won her third race in the 400-meter individual medley by making her move to the lead during the breaststroke leg and pulling clear in the freestyle to win by more than four seconds in 4:47.20.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never come to a swim meet and swept all three events. So it\u2019s a first and adds to the confidence I have going into nationals \u2013 all good things,\u201d Binder said. \u201cWhen you put it all together, this was one of my best meets. It definitely comes at good time. It\u2019s my last meet before nationals, and I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meghan Leddy closed in the last 50 meters to move up to second place in 4:51.46, and Jessie Schmitt finished third in 4:51.98.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 400-meter individual medley, Kerekjarto, the winner in the 200-meter butterfly on Friday, grabbed the early lead during the butterfly portion of the medley. Tyler Clary took over briefly during the backstroke leg, but Kerekjarto regained the advantage in the breaststroke and held on in the freestyle to win in 4:24.39. Ziqiang Li of the Chinese national team placed second in 4:26.89 with Clary finishing third in 4:27.19.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me a lot of confidence,\u201d Kerekjarto said. \u201cI like having this meet two weeks before and being in a shape like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nymeyer, who finished third in the women\u2019s 200-meter freestyle, came back two races later to win the women\u2019s 50-meter freestyle in 25.60 over Courtney Cashion, who placed second in 25.75. Yanwei Xu of the Chinese national team took third in 25.84.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of rough having them on the same day, but it\u2019s good training and great competition,\u201d Nymeyer said. \u201cWe were kind of fine-tuning things going into nationals, and I feel pretty comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one of the meet\u2019s closest finishes, John Criste held a 1.41 lead with 50 meters to go in the men\u2019s 200-meter breaststroke but ended up winning the race by a scant .03 seconds in a final time of 2:20.37. Ivan Barnes sat in sixth place with 50 meters left but made up almost three seconds in the final leg to tie for second with Stanford Swimming\u2019s Chris Ash. Barnes and Ash finished in identical 2:20.40.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how hard it hurt, I had to keep going,\u201d Criste said. \u201cA lot of it was mental for me. It was a lesson learned. I\u2019m happy with my finish. I got to take it and run.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 200-meter breaststroke went to 2004 US Olympic silver medalist Tara Kirk in 2:28.67. Qun Wang, a 15-year-old member of the Chinese national team who led slightly with 50 meters left, finished second in 2:29.01. Kristen Caverly took third in 2:30.23.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy to win,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see the Chinese girl over on the side, and so I turned and I saw her, and I was like, \u2018Whoa,\u2019 I know I\u2019m going to face her in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s 200-meter freestyle went to Jayme Cramer, who closed in the final half of the race to win in 1:49.87. Cramer, the NCAA champion in the event at Stanford in 2004, beat Shaun Phillips, who placed second in 1:50.37, and Benjamin Stasiulis of the French national team snared third in 1:51.41 after leading in the early stages of the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my goal of this race,\u201d Cramer said. \u201cJust to focus on the second 100.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Janet Evans Invitational will conclude on Sunday with the 100-meter butterfly, the 100-meter backstroke, the 100-meter breaststroke, the 200-meter individual medley, the 1,500-meter freestyle and the 400-meter medley relay. Preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. with the finals at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 15. NATALIE Coughlin posted the fastest time by an American this year during her triumph in the 200 LCM freestyle, while Jason Lezak picked up a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76466,"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":[7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n