Hansen Dominates 200 Breaststroke, Missy Franklin Finishes Incredible Two Weeks With 100 Free National Title

Women’s 800 free

USC swimmer Haley Anderson, who made the World Championship team in the open water 25k, turned her efforts back to the pool and the women’s 800 free (the Olympic distance event) on the last day in Palo Alto. She had a solid lead through about the halfway mark before Gillian Ryan, a 15-year old from the Parkland Aquatic Club in Pennsylvania, started to make a move. Within 150 meters, Ryan had taken the lead, and with the pair well ahead of the field the battle was on to the finish. Ryan pushed, and pushed, and extended her lead with each length, and at the touch took the win, and National Championship, in a time of 8:27.64.

That swim not only makes her the youngest National Champion of the meet, but puts her as 12th-fastest in the world this year. This race was the coming-out party for a new contender in a deep American distance group on the women’s side.

Anderson also was phenomenal to touch 2nd in 8:29.19, which is a career-best for her by well over two seconds and also ranks her in the world’s top 20. This meet actually ended up being a good opportunity for Anderson to swim well, given that she didn’t actually get to compete in Shanghai (she was slated for the 25k, which she pulled out of due to the unsafe temperatures). That left her two weeks to go into a “pool-swimmer’s taper,” which is vastly different than that of an open water swimmer, and hit for a great swim.

In 3rd was another US Open Water swimmer, Ashley Twichell of Mission Viejo, in 8:35.20.

Full women’s 800 free results here.

Women’s 100 free

The Colorado Stars’ Missy Franklin capped off an incredible two-week run in this women’s 100 free (she’s still got a relay to swim, but still has a medley to swim later) with a win in 53.69 for her second National Title of the meet. That’s a career-best time for her and moves her to 6th in the world this year. She now is in the world’s top 8 in 5 different individual events in 2011 (100/200 free, 50/100/200 back), and she’s still only 16. With a full two weeks having passed since her first swim of this taper, it speaks even more to her mental and physical maturity (as well as her youth allowing for a quick bounceback) to still be putting up these kind of numbers.

Franklin was half-a-second ahead of Amanda Weir, who finished in 54.14. Dana Vollmer was 3rd in 54.27, and then there was another big dropoff to Allison Schmitt in 4th at 54.71. For Schmitt, that’s a career-best time

LSU’s Amanda Kendall, who we highlighted after prelims, swam a 55.08 for 7th-place. This caps off a 2011 long course season that saw her cut almost two seconds off of her career-best, and she’s a highlight swimmer for the 2011-2012 collegiate season, and is a testament to the way that Dave Geyer has turned that program around in only one year at the helm.

Down in the C-Final, Madison Kennedy appeared to be gunning for a top-16 time, and a spot in the beefed-up APA program that provides stipends for America’s most-elite swimmers, but came up just short in 25.02. 16th in the world currently belongs to Aussie Bronte Campbell in 24.97.

Full women’s 100 free results here.

Men’s 200 backstroke

Matt Grevers took this race out hard, like any good 100 backstroker should to take a solid body-length lead at the halfway mark. Daytona Beach’s Rex Tullius, who trains with the famed middle-distance group at the Gator Swim Club, is a 200m swimmer though and was roping Grevers in. By the 150 mark, Tullius had closed that to 6-tenths, and was coming hard. As the two stroked towards the finish, Tullius almost pulled even with Grevers, but in the end, Grevers’ 6’8 frame won the touch in 1:57.26, which ranks him 11th in the world.

Tullius touched in 1:57.48, which puts him 14th. If that mark holds up after the World University Games next week and Pan Ams in October, it will be Tullius’ highest world ranking ever (he was ranked 16th in this event in 2008).

Sprinter Nick Thoman touched 3rd in 1:59.31, just out touching 16-year old Ryan Murphy in 1:59.33.

Full men’s 200 back results.

Women’s 200 breaststroke

SwimMAC’s Micah Lawrence is rounding into fine 100 breaststroke form ahead of her swim at the World University Games in just over a week, but that 100 form is showing up in her 200. She was 8-tenths ahead of Minnesota’s Haley Spencer, the defending NCAA Champion in this event, at the halfway mark, but then began to fade pretty hard. The touch came down to who was lined up for a better finish, and as we’ve seen time-and-again in this meet, Lawrence’s experience won a battle to the touch. Her winning time was 2:27.06, versus Spencer’s 2:27.09.

While that’s two-seconds slower than Lawrence’s career-best from 2010, Spencer’s time was two-seconds faster than her 2010 career-best. These two should both be amongst the contenders for the second 200 breaststroke spot at the London 2012 Olympics (behind World Champion Rebecca Soni).

Three other swimmers were in the 2:27’s, with Georgia’s Michelle McKeehan 3rd in 2:27.57, Princeton sophomore Andrea Kropp in 4th in 2:27.61, and Katy Freeman in 5th in 2:27.87.

Women’s 200 breaststroke final.

Men’s 200 breaststroke

Brendan Hansen looked great through the first 150 meters of the men’s 200 breaststroke, just like he did in prelims. However, this time he was a full second faster on his closing 50 and roared his way to a 2:10.59. That time moves him to 13th in the world (as compared to 9th in the 100) and makes him the second-best American, though Eric Shanteau’s World Championships time (2:09.2) is still well-ahead in that battle.

As for this race, Hansen was impressive in his utter domination. I’d say that this race, moreso than the 100, really exposed the lack of American depth in the breaststrokes. Without Shanteau in this race, the almost 30-year old won this race by better than two seconds. Texas’ Eric Friedland, however, is a 21-year old that’s giving the Americans some hope for after 2012, when Hansen will likely retire again. The defending NCAA Champ took 2nd in 2:12.91.

That gave Longhorn Aquatics a 1-2 finish in this race, which is their second of the meet (after Garrett Weber-Gale and Jimmy Feigen’s combo in the 100 free). They’re actually the only team in the meet who has done this even once, showing that despite their exodus to the West Coast over the past few months, Eddie Reese is still developing plenty of new, young talent.

In a tie for 3rd were Tucson Ford’s Clark Burckle and Cal’s Sean Mahoney in 2:13.08.

Full men’s 200 breaststroke results.

Men’s 1500 free

This men’s 1500 free was all about demonstrating the Americans’ depth in the distance freestyles. Without Chad La Tourette or Peter Vanderkaay, who placed 5th and 6th at Worlds, this race was a pretty wide-open one amongst a very young group of distance swimmers. Michigan’s Sean Ryan held a big lead through 1200 meters, but that’s when open-water Worlds team member Andrew Gemmell really kicked in that open-water endurance. As Ryan started to fatigue, Gemmell got even stronger.

Ryan’s 50 splits started to sink towards the 30.7 range, but Gemmell’s hovered towards the 29.9/30.0 range, and he quickly made up the ground and finally overtook Ryan. Ryan wasn’t done yet, and he was better than Gemmell in the final 100 meters, but by then it wasn’t quite enough, and Gemmell won in 15:01.31. Ryan took 2nd in 15:01.43.

That’s a best-time for him by a full 6 seconds, which shows he’s made a ton of progress training at the National Center of Excellence in Fullerton, and ranks him 10th in the world. He’s got a tough decision, as he left the Georgia program last season to train in California. He cannot earn a spot in the lone, 10k, open water race at the Olympics, unless Alex Meyer drops out, but with this improvement his chances at a pool spot are clearly improving in his new atmosphere (though, he could have rightfully made the same improvements in Athens). He’s still 7 seconds out of an Olympic spot, unless Vanderkaay chooses not to swim this race in London, and he would be taking a bit of a gamble to stay at FAST next year, rather than returning the University of Georgia. Still, with the improvements he’s made, it would be hard to blame him.

As for the depth, also out of this race, Ryan now ranks 11th in the world, Michael Klueh (15:04.24) ranks 13th, Michael McBroom (15:06.22) ranks 17th, and Ryan Feeley (15:06.48) ranks 19th. That means the Americans now have 7 swimmers in the worlds top 20, but their challenge between now and London will be pushing one of those 7 onto the podium. La Tourette was 7 seconds away from a medal in Shanghai.

Full men’s 1500 free results.

Women’s 400 medley relay

The Tucson Ford quartet of Sarah Denninghoff, Annie Chandler, Lauren Smart, and Margo Geer won in 4:04.25 to all-but seal up the team title. They were led by an event-best 1:08.81 from Chandler on the breaststroke leg, and Geer was able to just hold off Lindsay Gendron of Tennessee Aquatics, who finished 2nd in 4:04.49.

Though Stanford took 3rd-and-4th, it wasn’t enough to make up any ground on Tucson Ford’s placings of 1st and 7th.

Full women’s 400 medley results.

Men’s 400 medley relay

SwimMAC Carolina took the men’s 400 medley relay, the last of the event and almost an afterthought for many teams, in an impressive 3:33.70, which shatters the old National Championships record set by Club Wolverine in 2007 (ironically, none of the Club Wolverine quartet is still there 4 years later – Phelps, Spann, Tarwater, and Vanderkaay). The SwimMAC quartet of Nick Thoman, Kevin Swander, Tim Phillips, and Davis Tarwater touched in 3:33.70. All four legs were impressive for the SwimMAC-ers, including a 53.6 for Thoman and a 1:00.08 for Swander on the breaststroke leg.

(Note, the official results show SwimMAC’s relay as a U.S. Open Record, but that mark actually belongs to the USA’s Pan Pacs relay from 2010 in 3:32.48.)

Tucson Ford’s A relay finished way back in 2nd in 3:39.82, to officially put the team championship in the books.

Full men’s 400 medley relay results.

Team Scoring

Tucson Ford’s strong finish on the final day of competition gave them a relatively-comfortable victory, though it was much tighter throughout the meet. Second through fourth places were all pretty well spread out, though the Athens Bulldogs (aka Unitersity of Georgia) was almost nipped by a DQ’ed A 400 medley. Longhorn Aquatics, thanks in no small part to Brendan Hansen’s strong finish, rounded out the top 5 over Cal, NBAC, and FAST.

1. Tucson Ford (799)
2. Stanford (754)
3. SwimMAC Carolina (567)
4. Athens Bulldogs (330.5)
5. Longhorn Aquatics (312)

For full day 5, and meet, results, click here.

High Point Awards

Elizabeth Beisel of Bluefish and Matt Grevers of Tucson Ford earned the female and male high point awards of the meet.

Beisel will be taking home three individual national titles in the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 backstroke, and will add this honor to a big list of summer accomplishments that includes a 400 IM World Championship.

Grevers made up for his absence in Shanghai by taking a backstroke sweep, including the 6th-best time in the world in the 100.

An overall recap of the entire meet will be posted tomorrow.