IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 4. DURING a day that featured intensely hot sunrays bearing down on the competitors, swimmers stepped up to the challenge and came through with some incredible efforts during the fourth preliminary session at the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships. Overall, athletes added 107 more Olympic Trial cuts throughout the day.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 100-meter Freestyle<\/b>
\nLast night\u2019s 50-meter freestyle champion Cullen Jones, coached by Brooks Teal, ripped off the top time from the morning with a solid 49.17. That effort cleared his previous personal best of 50.26 set in July. Meanwhile, Jones split a 23.64 to sit in fourth among top-eight qualifiers at the halfway point. The World University Games 50 free winner, however, used that elite-level sprinting ability to turn in the best back half of the day in 25.53.<\/p>\n
Irvine Novaquatics\u2019 Jason Lezak, coached by Dave Salo, parlayed the fastest 50-meter split of prelims (23.30) into the second-best time of the morning with a 49.52 in front of a partisan crowd. The Olympic gold medalist split a 26.22 during the last 50 meters.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Stanford Swimming\u2019s Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner (49.61), Longhorn Aquatics\u2019 Neil Walker (49.72), Longhorn Aquatics\u2019 Garrett Weber-Gale (49.77), Tucson Ford\u2019s Adam Ritter (49.79), Sun Devil Aquatics\u2019 Nick Brunelli (49.84) and Club Wolverine\u2019s Klete Keller (49.88) will comprise the rest of the championship heat.<\/p>\n
Northwestern University\u2019s Matt Grevers (No. 7 seed) and Bakersfield Swim Club\u2019s Gabriel Woodward (No. 8 seed) fell out of contention for the title as Grevers went 50.39 for 13th and Woodward turned in a 50.45 for 14th.<\/p>\n
Overall, 36 swimmers cleared the Olympic Trial cut threshold.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 200-meter Butterfly<\/b>
\nUCLA and Orinda Aquatics\u2019 Kimberly Vandenberg used the second-fastest first half (1:01.97) of the morning and dropped the hammer with a 1:07.74 over the final 100 meters to post the fastest time of prelims in 2:09.71. Meanwhile, North Baltimore Aquatic Club\u2019s Courtney Kalisz put together a consistent race for second in 2:10.88. The 2005 National Junior Team member went out in 1:02.76 and came back in 1:08.12.<\/p>\n
Swim Atlanta\u2019s Kathleen Hersey (2:12.11), Athens Bulldog Mary Descenza (2:11.86), Sierra Marlin Stephanie Cota (2:12.20), Wildcat Aquatics\u2019 Elaine Breeden (2:12.52), Club Wolverine\u2019s Kaitlin Sandeno (2:12.68) and Tucson Ford\u2019s Whitney Myers (2:12.84) will make up the rest of the big finals. <\/p>\n
Cota made the biggest move up the board to come from a No. 12 seed into contention for the crown. Additionally, Descenza clocked the fastest first half with a 1:01.95 to beat Vandenberg\u2019s first 100-meter by a scant .02 seconds. Notably, 21 swimmers garnered Olympic Trial cuts.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 200-meter IM<\/b>
\nMichael Phelps is well on his way to his fifth title with an impressive 1:59.43 to grab the top-qualifying spot in the event. The world record holder posted the second-fastest butterfly leg of the morning with a 25.80. Indiana University\u2019s Todd Patrick, coached by Ray Looze, rocketed to the best butterfly time in 25.70.<\/p>\n
Phelps pushed ahead with the best backstroke split of the day in 29.74, before holding steady throughout the breaststroke leg with the second-fastest split in the stroke with a 34.69. Meanwhile, Swim Atlanta\u2019s Eric Shanteau blazed the breaststroke leg with the fastest effort of the morning in 33.50.<\/p>\n
Phelps conserved some energy as he shut it down during the freestyle leg with a 29.20, the fourth-best final leg of the day. IU\u2019s Patrick book ended his swim with his second top-split of the day by coming home in 28.54 on the freestyle leg to finish 12th in 2:04.60.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Daytona Beach\u2019s Ryan Lochte (2:00.83), Shanteau (2:01.23), Saint Petersburg\u2019s Robert Margalis (2:02.99), Auburn University\u2019s Doug Van Wie (2:03.00), Wisconsin Aquatics\u2019 Tim Liebhold (2:03.95) and Harvard\u2019s Geoffrey Rathgeber (2:04.09) made the championship final. Jewish Community\u2019s Pat Mellors made a gigantic move up the board from his No. 26 seed to place sixth in the morning with a 2:03.89.<\/p>\n
Overall, 32 swimmers turned in Olympic Trial cuts.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 200-meter Backstroke<\/b>
\nNew blood emerged during a surprising day of 200 back prelim competition. Bluefish Swim Club\u2019s Elizabeth Beisel looked to be the newest superstar to burst onto the scene as the 13-year-old posted the fastest qualifying time of the day with a 2:12.48.<\/p>\n
Beisel turned in a 32.15 split at the 50-meter mark, while several other swimmers posted faster times in the initial stages of the race. Atlantis Aquatic Club\u2019s Kristen Shickora, however, put away the quickest first 50 meters in a sterling 31.36 split, before finishing the race in 23rd with a 2:18.72.<\/p>\n
Beisel remained steady in the second 50 meters with a 33.98 split, while third-best qualifier Julia Smit (2:14.18) of Three Village Swim Club clocked the fastest second 50 split with a 33.45.<\/p>\n
Beisel\u2019s ability to maintain a consistent pace throughout her race helped her jump into the lead with a 33.33 split for the fastest third 50 meters of the field that put her total time at 1:39.46.<\/p>\n
Beisel then brought it home with a strong final 50 meters in 33.02 to touch in 2:12.48. The final split far surpassed the second-best final kick by eighth-place Kathryn Thompson of Tucson Ford, who split a 33.83 in the last 50 meters to stop the clock at 2:15.92.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the 2005 summer national titlist in the event, Auburn Aquatics\u2019 Margaret Hoelzer lodged the second-best time of the morning with a 2:14.14. Additionally, Cougar Aquatic Team\u2019s Lauren English (2:14.18), Rutgers Swimming\u2019s Kelly Harrigan (2:14.53), Germantown Academy\u2019s Teresa Crippen (2:14.79) and Long Island Aquatic Club\u2019s Daphne Skelos (2:15.65) will also compete in the championship heat.<\/p>\n
Skelos made a humongous move up the seeding board, coming from a No. 31 seed to be in contention for a national title in Friday\u2019s finals. Overall, 18 swimmers captured Olympic Trial cuts from prelims.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 800-meter Freestyle<\/b>
\nSwimming World Magazine\u2019s<\/i> Female National High School Swimmer of the Year Kate Ziegler put together the best 800-meter freestyle swim during a marathon session of action on day four.<\/p>\n
After being the third-fastest person in the opening 50-meters with a 29.43 split (behind 28th-place Rory Schmidt\u2019s 28.56 and Kirsten Groome\u2019s 29.27), Ziegler never trailed the pace of any other competitor through the rest of the race. By the end of the heats, her solid time of 8:32.72 guaranteed her the top spot during Saturday\u2019s finals.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Santa Barbara Swim Club\u2019s Adrienne Binder (8:35.50), Club Wolverine\u2019s Hayley Peirsol (8:35.64), WSY Swimming\u2019s Leah Gingrich (8:38.19), Longhorn\u2019s Kelsey Ditto (8:38.53), North Baltimore\u2019s Groome (8:41.32), Swim Macon\u2019s Laura Conway (8:44.21) and Lakeside Swim Team\u2019s Caroline Burckle (8:46.40) will join Ziegler in the championship heat on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 1500-meter Freestyle<\/b>
\nClub Wolverine\u2019s Erik Vendt and Trojan Aquatics\u2019 Larsen Jensen claimed the top-two qualifying spots during the men\u2019s 1500-meter freestyle during day four preliminary heats. The two swam similar races through the initial 550 meters, at which point Vendt pushed the pace to take nearly a six-second lead over Jensen\u2019s pace at the 1,100-meter mark with Vendt posting an 11:07.48 and Jensen clocking an 11:14.03. Jensen, however, had strong last portion of the race as he began tracking down Vendt\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Jensen, Vendt had built too much of a lead and Jensen could only cut the gap down to Vendt\u2019s 15:13.46 against Jensen\u2019s 15:15.52 at the final touch.<\/p>\n
In other action, Sea Devil Aquatics\u2019 Thomas Koucheravy (15:17.09), Saint Petersburg\u2019s Robert Margalis (15:18.24), Longhorn\u2019s Michael Klueh (15:19.05), Club Wolverine\u2019s Peter Vanderkaay (15:22.13), Charles Peterson\u2019s (15:22.14) and Mission Viejo\u2019s Chad La Tourette (15:22.86) also qualified for the championship heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 4. DURING a day that featured intensely hot sunrays bearing down on the competitors, swimmers stepped up to the challenge and came through with some incredible efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[53774],"class_list":["post-11763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-2006-us-long-course-nationals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n