Phelps, Soni win titles at US nationals with world’s fastest times

Phelps, Soni win titles at US nationals

IRVINE, Calif. — World and Olympic champion Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. national championships on Thursday night with the fastest time in the world this year.

Phelps led all the way and touched in 50.65 seconds, easily topping the previous quickest time of 51.70 set by Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia.

“I was real happy,” he said. “I wanted to put some distance between my time and the fastest in the world.”

Phelps won his 50th career national title, topping Tracy Caulkins’ mark of 48.

“When you go to so many championships and swim five events every time, it’s going to happen,” he said.

Tyler McGill was second in 52.20, and Timothy Phillips took third. Backstroke specialist Aaron Peirsol finished fourth.

The men’s 50 freestyle was swum under protest, with Olympian Nathan Adrian declared the official winner after touching first in 21.70 seconds.

“That’s the strongest I’ve felt in the water in a long time,” he said.

Olympian Cullen Jones and Josh Schneider of Cincinnati, Ohio, tied for second at 21.97, but places two through eight were not declared official pending an appeal to USA Swimming’s board of directors that was expected to be heard Friday.

The controversy involved Schneider, who was entered in the morning heats of the 100 butterfly and 50 free. He failed to show up or scratch out of the fly, which according to the rules meant he was ineligible to swim the rest of the day. His only other event Thursday was the 50 free.

Schneider said he didn’t know he had been entered in the 100 fly. He recently left Ohio to train in North Carolina.

“It’s something I’ve never trained for,” he said. “I didn’t even look in the heat sheet for my name.”

Schneider’s coach, David Marsh, appealed to the meet referee, who upheld the rule that he not be allowed to swim. However, he was allowed to swim the prelims under protest while Marsh appealed to the meet jury.

The jury upheld the meet referee’s decision, but Marsh appealed a third time to a three-person national board of review. They upheld the original decision, triggering a fourth and final appeal to the board of directors.

“I’ve done what I could, I’ve pleaded my case,” Schneider said. “I feel good about it. I’m going to rest pretty easily tonight. It was a draining day to say the least.”

World champion Rebecca Soni won the 100 breaststroke with the world’s fastest time.

Soni was second at the turn, then poured it on down the stretch to win easily in 1 minute, 5.73 seconds.

She was 2.34 seconds ahead of second-place Ann Chandler, who touched in 1:08.07. Micah Lawrence was third.

Soni trounced a loaded field that included world recordholder Jessica Hardy, who led at the turn before fading to seventh; 2000 Olympic champion Megan Jendrick, and 1996 Olympic silver medalist Amanda Beard. Jendrick was fourth and Beard sixth.

Soni earned a spot on the U.S. team for the Pan Pacific championships later this month.

Hardy swam the first 50 meters in 30.92 seconds to Soni’s 31.01. But Soni used her trademark strong finish to close in 34.72, while Hardy had the slowest second lap in the eight-woman field at 38.32.

Hardy and Soni are the two fastest women ever in the event. They train in the same pool at the University of Southern California, though Hardy is a sprinter and Soni stretches out to 200 meters.

Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce won the 50 free in 24.86, just the second national title of her career. She won her first four years ago.

“It feels so good to come here again and go faster,” said Joyce, who failed to make the final at last year’s nationals. “I couldn’t be happier and I think it showed in my swimming.”

Madison Kennedy was second in 25.15. Olympian Amanda Weir was third. Dana Vollmer tied for fourth, while Hardy was sixth in the event she had focused on this week.

“I overthought it. What happened as the result of my head and not my physical capacity,” Hardy said. “It was completely mental, a panic. I regret how I approached both events.”

Hardy is swimming in her biggest meet since she served a one-year doping ban that ended last August.

“I definitely had some rough stuff this past year, I’m battling,” she said in a shaky voice.

Caitlin Leverenz won the 400 individual medley in 4:35.60. Ariana Kukors was second, and American recordholder Katie Hoff was third.