INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Robert Margalis, a 15-year-old high school student from Clearwater, Fla., won the 400-meter individual medley here at the U.S. Open, breaking a 12-year-old age group record and beating a field that including two 1996 Olympic medalists in the event. <\/p>\n
Margalis swam the distance in 4:23.26, the fastest time ever by a U.S. citizen in the 15-16 age group. Margalis bettered the 1985 age group record of 4:24.56, set by Dave Wharton, who went on to become the 1988 Olympic silver medalist in the event. <\/p>\n
“It\u2019s awesome,” Margalis said. “I\u2019m just here having a good time.” <\/p>\n
Spanish Olympian Frederik Hviid placed second in 4:24.91, followed by 1996 Olympic bronze medalist Curtis Myden of Canada. 1996 Olympic champion and world record-holder Tom Dolan finished seventh in the field. <\/p>\n
Margalis shaved and tapered for this meet, whereas many of the elite swimmers are training to peak at the world championships in Australia next month. <\/p>\n
USC teammates Lenny Krayzelburg and Brad Bridgewater duplicated their feat from the previous night, winning first and second place in their specialty. Krayzelburg swam the 100-meter backstroke in 55.27, setting his second U.S. Open meet record in as many days. Bridgewater followed in second place in 57.02. The duo is training 15,000 meters a day in preparation for the world championships. <\/p>\n
Lea Maurer, a schoolteacher from suburban Chicago, set a new U.S. Open meet record in winning the 100m backstroke. Maurer swam the distance in 1:01.83, well ahead of Olympic champion Beth Botsford at 1:03.40.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Robert Margalis, a 15-year-old high school student from Clearwater, Fla., won the 400-meter individual medley here at the U.S. Open, breaking a 12-year-old age group record and<\/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":[4],"tags":[105,605,356,881,1243,1415,1416,1417,32,294,491,358,1418,1412,363,639,62],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-australia","tag-beth-botsford","tag-brad-bridgewater","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-clearwater","tag-curtis-myden","tag-dave-wharton","tag-florida","tag-indianapolis","tag-lea-maurer","tag-lenny-krayzelburg","tag-robert-margalis","tag-the-u-s-open","tag-tom-dolan","tag-u-s-open","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n