Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Anne Lepesant.
Fifth out of morning’s heats, Colorado Stars’ Missy Franklin was in lane 2 for the final of the women’s 200m backstroke. Franklin wasted no time, however, getting out into clean water. She was first at the 50 wall, first at the 100 wall, and first at the 150. Stanford Swimming’s Maya DiRado began to creep up on Franklin during the third 50, though, and made it a thrilling race down the stretch. Franklin lunged at the wall and ended up getting her hand there first; she won with 2:07.87 to DiRado’s 2:08.28.
Island Swimming’s Hilary Caldwell, the fastest qualifier, finished third in 2:10.05, just ahead of Cal’s Elizabeth Pelton (2:10.54) and Bluefish’s Elizabeth Beisel (2:10.77).
Erin Earley of Hopkins Mariner won the B final with 2:11.87. Claire Adams of Carmel Swim Club (2:12.57) and Kathleen Baker of Cal/SwimMAC (2:12.70) followed.
She is always so happy
Let’s be honest, after this summer I doubted that missy would be a strong contender for for the Olympic team in the back events. But I think I’m wrong! The move back to Todd seems to be helping tremendously! I’m glad she only decided to stay at CAL 2 years. I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do in the coming months.