By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
200 meter backstroke<\/b>
\nCOLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 20. ON any given day\u2026\u201d You know the rest of the clich\u00e9. On any given day, anyone<\/I> — no matter how great \u2013 can be beaten.<\/p>\n
You know the clich\u00e9, but you don\u2019t really believe it.<\/p>\n
Believe it!<\/p>\n
Tonight, swimming the final individual event of her storied career, in which she was attempting to become the first woman to win the maximum of 12 events without a loss, Natalie Coughlin was defeated. Soundly. <\/p>\n
At first it didn\u2019t shape up that way. Natalie was under her own world record (2:03.62) pace for 150 meters and appeared to have the record \u2013and the perfect 12 for 12 \u2013 all sewed up.<\/p>\n
Then she faltered. <\/p>\n
And Auburn\u2019s Kirsty Coventry, who had just managed to keep contact with the leader through the first 50 meters, seized the moment. Rocketing ahead of Nat, Kirsty hit the wall in an NCAA record and history\u2019s second-fastest time, 2:03.86. Kirsty\u2019s teammate saw the opportunity and piled on, sneaking in for second in 2:05.55. Natalie followed in 2:06.54.<\/p>\n
The impossible had happened. Natalie Coughlin was just human, after all. She had been beaten.<\/p>\n
You know, on any given day\u2026.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I know it\u2019s a clich\u00e9. But I believe it now.<\/p>\n
EVENT: 16 WOMEN's 200 Meter Backstroke <\/p>\n
NCAA Record: 2:03.62 Natalie Coughlin Cal. Berkeley 2001
\nNCAA Meet Record: 2:06.70 Beth Botsford Arizona 2000
\nWorld Record: 2:03.62 Natalie Coughlin Cal. Berkeley 2001
\nAmerican Record: 2:03.62 Natalie Coughlin Cal. Berkeley 2001
\nUS Open Record: 2:03.62 Natalie Coughlin Cal. Berkeley 2001
\nQUALIFYING FOR "A" Cut: 1:58.24
\nQUALIFYING FOR This Meet: 1:59.26<\/p>\n
RESULTS of FINALS <\/p>\n
RANK NAME YEAR TEAM PRELIM TIME<\/p>\n
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL <\/p>\n
1) COVENTRY, KIRSTY JR AUBURN 2:07.24 2:03.86**
\n :29.97 :31.31 :31.41 :31.17
\n ** NCAA Meet Record:
\n 2) HOELZER, MARGARET JR AUBURN 2:08.83 2:05.55
\n :29.89 :31.20 :31.76 :32.70
\n 3) COUGHLIN, NATALIE SR CALIFORNIA 2:08.12 2:06.54
\n :28.81 :31.21 :31.87 :34.65
\n 4) HAYES, JESSICA JR ARIZONA 2:09.36 2:07.84
\n :30.37 :32.18 :32.68 :32.61
\n 5) HARRIGAN, KELLY SO RUTGERS 2:08.13 2:08.18
\n :30.10 :32.33 :32.88 :32.87
\n 6) FARRELL, MAUREEN JR FLORIDA 2:09.07 2:08.65
\n :30.41 :31.96 :33.00 :33.28
\n 7) RETRUM, LEAH FR FLORIDA 2:08.72 2:09.34
\n :30.87 :32.29 :33.01 :33.17
\n 8) VOLCAN, ERIN SO AUBURN 2:09.24 2:10.22
\n :30.82 :32.35 :33.08 :33.97 <\/p>\n
CONSOLATION FINAL <\/p>\n
9) FARGUS, JOANA JR SOUTHERN CAL. 2:10.33 2:09.97
\n :31.25 :32.78 :33.55 :32.39
\n 10) WHITE, BRIELLE SO VIRGINIA 2:10.66 2:10.07
\n :30.89 :33.12 :32.83 :33.23
\n 11) WYCLIFFE, ELIZABETH SO TEXAS 2:11.03 2:10.29
\n :30.65 :32.96 :33.54 :33.14
\n 12) CHURA, HALEY FR GEORGIA 2:10.77 2:10.31
\n :31.40 :32.72 :33.18 :33.01
\n 13) FESSEL, JACQUE SO TENNESSEE 2:11.17 2:10.79
\n :30.73 :33.54 :33.40 :33.12
\n 14) MOSS, JERI SO AUBURN 2:10.62 2:11.78
\n :30.71 :32.61 :33.76 :34.70
\n 15) WATANABE, NAOKO SR UCLA 2:11.70 2:11.86
\n :31.33 :33.14 :33.77 :33.62
\n 16) JOHNSON, SUSAN FR WISCONSIN 2:11.33 2:12.15
\n :31.24 :33.13 :33.77 :34.01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten 200 meter backstroke COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 20. ON any given day\u2026\u201d You know the rest of the clich\u00e9. On any given day, anyone — no matter<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-7025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n