Another Perfect Day for Setting Records

Records continued to fall in the Speedo Grand Challenge as standards were set in all eight events Saturday at Heritage Park Aquatics Complex in Irvine.

Two-time Olympic gold-medal winner Jenny Thompson won two consecutive events, and Lenny Krayzelburg, Bela Szabados and Kristine Quance-Julian visited the victory stand for the second straight day in the three-day meet.

In the finals, seven of the eight record-setters broke marks they had established in Saturday morning’s preliminaries.

Thompson won the 200-meter freestyle in 2 minutes 0.70 seconds but put the celebration on hold to prepare for the 100 butterfly, which she covered in 58.97, three seconds faster than Bethany Goodwin’s meet record and two seconds ahead of Stanford teammate Dara Torres.

“I wanted to go two-double-oh [2:00], so obviously I’m really excited,” Thompson said. “I felt like I could go faster today. My stroke was easy and I had a lot left at the end. I was pretty confident I could reach my goal.”

For the second straight day, a men’s backstroke event got the crowd’s attention, with Krayzelburg facing Newport Harbor sophomore Aaron Peirsol, Olympic gold-medalist Brad Bridgewater and Robert Brewer in the 100 meters.

This time the only drama was in the race for second place. Krayzelburg dominated from start to finish and was timed in 58.97, two seconds faster than the meet record he set in 1998 and a second better than his preliminary time.

“That’s the goal, you want to go as fast as you can every time out,” Krayzelburg said. “To do that, you have to keep grinding, stick with it and believe in your training.”

Szabados, who will represent Hungary in an Olympics for the third time in Sydney, swam the 200 freestyle in 1:52.33 in Saturday’s preliminaries, then bettered his mark in the final with a 1:51.15. He won the 400 free Friday.

Northridge swimmer Quance-Julian, a USC graduate, broke two of her own records when she won the 400 individual medley (4:47.51). In the preliminaries, she beat the mark she established in 1999. On Friday, she won the 200 IM.

USC swimmer Erik Vendt won the 400 IM (4:25.89), bettering his own preliminary mark and finishing eight seconds ahead of Mission Viejo’s Torwai Sethsothorn, who held the previous record.

In the day’s closest race, Miami of Ohio graduate Kevin Northup won 100 butterfly (55.23), and four swimmers finished within six-tenths of a second of one another.

Hayley Cope of California won the women’s 100 backstroke (1:04.04), just ahead of Irvine middle-school student Diana MacManus (1:04.22). Cope was the only swimmer not to break her own record, instead bettering a mark set by Cal’s Elli Overton.