The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
More American records shattered at American Short Course Championships
03.03.2006 | Men's Swimming and Diving
AUSTIN, Texas -- Olympic gold medalist and Texas alumnus Brendan Hansen helped bring the crowd to its feet by breaking his own American record in the 200-yard breaststroke on the second day of the 2006 American Short Course Championships held at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin.
Hansen's record breaking performance was on the heels of Tara Kirk and Michael Phelps shattering of their own American records. Hansen finished in a time of 1:51.74, breaking his own record of 1:52.62.
"Following last night's race I think this was a classic case of seeing what you did wrong and fixing it for the next time in the pool," said Hansen, who won the 100-yard breaststroke on Thursday evening but just missed breaking the American record in the event.
"I love the support from the crowd," said Hansen. "I just felt driven when every time I came out of the water the crowd was shouting and cheering me on."
Kirk set the past American record of 2:07.13 in the 200-yard breaststoke at the Pacific-10 Championships in 2004, but her time of 2:05.73 blew that away by nearly two whole seconds.
"I really felt good during the swim," said Kirk. "I had my stroke count down and just focused on my race strategy and racing my race."
Phelps started the dominos falling in the men's 200-yard butterfly with a new American record time of 1:39.70, breaking his own record of 1:41.72 and became the first American under 1:40.00.
"The first 100-yards felt real good and I knew I had a good pace going," said Phelps. "It feels good hearing the crowd and really gets you going. Just want to thank them for all the help."
Also competing at the meet was women's alumna Tanica Jamison. She took second-place in the women's 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.18 and third-place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.61.
Current Longhorns, senior Wade Kelley (Marietta, Ga.) and freshman Michael Klueh (Evansville, Ind.) were in the finals with Phelps. Klueh racing directly to Phelps right, finished third with a NCAA consideration time of 1:45.18, while Kelley took seventh-place with a time of 1:49.92.
UT alumnus Ian Crocker won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.22, just over the American record of 19.05 held by Tom Jager of Santa Clara. Current Texas junior Poston Pritchett (Durham, N.C.) took second-place in the 'B' final of the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.49.
Following suit, Olympic gold medalist and former UT All-American Aaron Peirsol took first-place honors in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 45.02, just missing the American record held by former teammate Neil Walker of 44.92. Freshman Sean Patton (Charlotte, N.C.) finished in eighth-place in the same heat with a time of 49.66.
The American Short Course Championships will conclude tomorrow, March 4, with preliminary heats of the men's and women's 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual, 400-yard medley relay and 1,650-yard freestyle starting at 9 a.m. Finals of all events will start at 6 p.m.