Meet Records Fall in Bunches in Irvine

Considering that Olympic gold medalists and various high school, college and amateur swimming champions were in the field, it was small wonder so many meet records fell Friday in the Speedo Grand Challenge at Heritage Aquatics Complex in Irvine.

Swimmers established new standards in seven of the 10 events contested on the first day of the three-day meet.

Former USC swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg and Newport Harbor sophomore Aaron Peirsol engaged in the evening’s most eagerly anticipated and closely watched race: the 200-meter backstroke.

Despite slipping off the starting block, Krayzelburg covered the distance in 1 minute 58.40 seconds, shattering by two seconds the meet record he’d set earlier in Friday morning’s preliminaries.

The difference in age and experience did not faze Peirsol, who finished in 1:59.47, four seconds faster than the old meet record (2:03.82). He also finished six seconds ahead of Brad Bridgewater, who won a gold medal in the 100 backstroke at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, in Friday’s 200 backstroke final.

A member of the Trojan Swim Club, Bridgewater broke a five-year-old meet record in the 200 individual medley (2:07.43) when he edged former Marina High and Southern Methodist swimmer Blaine Morgan, who finished in 2:07.91.

Olympic winner and former Olympic team captain Dara Torres, who set a meet record for the 50 freestyle in the preliminary race (25.54 seconds), missed breaking her own new meet record by finishing the finals in 25.65.

Olympic gold medal-winners Kristine Quance-Julian and Jenny Thompson squared off in the women’s 200 IM with Quance-Julian finishing in a meet-record 2:16.43, a half-second ahead of Thompson.

Fifteen-year-old Erin Sieper, from Esperanza High, set a record in the preliminaries, then bested her own time in the women’s 100 breaststroke (1:10.75).

Irvine’s Diana MacManus, 14, set a meet record in the women’s 200 backstroke (2:18.18).

“This is a really good meet because you get a chance to see where you are in your training,” MacManus said. “Everybody here has been in training and is shooting for the next level. That really makes this fun.”

MacManus edged Lindsay Benko (2:18.50) in the 200 backstroke, denying Benko a chance to emerge as the meet’s only double winner. Earlier Benko set a record in the 400 free, finishing in 4:19.13.

Bela Szabados won the men’s 400 freestyle (3:55.71), Steve West won the 100 breaststroke (1:04.94) and Jason Lezak of Irvine set a record in the 50 free (23.09).