IRVINE, California, August 5. CAL Aquatics and Club Wolverine secured first-place finishes in the 400-meter medley relays on the final night of the United States National Championships. The relay events put a capper on five days of exciting action at the William Woollett Aquatic Center. Two world records were broken during the meet, by Brendan Hansen in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes.
Natalie Coughlin jumpstarted Cal Aquatics’ win in the 400 medley relay when she covered her leadoff leg of backstroke in 1:00.00. Coughlin is the only woman in history to have dipped under one minute for the 100 back. She was followed by Jessica Hardy’s split of 1:07.57 in breaststroke and Erin Reilly then turned in a 1:00.14 mark in butterfly. Emily Silver anchored the freestyle leg in 55.61.
In Club Wolverine’s winning swim, Michael Phelps registered a time of 54.30 on the backstroke leg and the guys from Michigan rolled from there. Jamie Barone went 1:04.22 in the breaststroke and Davis Tarwater split 53.86 for the fly leg. Klete Keller brought the team home with a freestyle performance of 49.58.
