Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
GREENSBORO – Molly Hannis made a bid to get her second breaststroke win at the USA Swimming nationals, but SwimMAC Carolina’s Micah Lawrence withstood the challenge to win her specialty with a 2:06.59.
Lawrence doesn’t put in a full rest often in the short course, as indicated by the fact that her previous best of 2:08.23 was done in November 2012. But the star long course swimmer needed a big swim to beat Tennessee’s Hannis, who was charging to the lead in the final 75 yards. Hannis’ runner-up time of 2:06.98 gets her automatically qualified for the NCAA championships in this event, giving her A cuts in both breaststroke events and a lifetime best by two tenths.
Initially, Miranda Tucker of Livonia Community Swim Club touched the wall third, but was later disqualified. That moved Katie Meili’s 2:09.23 up to third for her second podium appearance of the night after winning the 100 free. That was .05 ahead of the Newburgh Sea Creatures’ Lily King, who was fourth with a 2:09.28.
Rounding out the top seven were: Badger’s Bronwyn Pasloski (2:10.21), Clovis’ Danielle Herrmann (2:10.27) and Amanda Rutqvist (2:10.47).
Taking the win in the B final was Michigan’s Emily Kopas with a 2:09.70. She beat out the 2:09.97 by Andee Cottrell and the 2:10.52 by Kathryn Johnstone. Amy Bopp of Ohio State claimed the victory in the C final with a 2:12.40. Jessica Khojasteh was second with a 2:13.49 while Cam Dixon was third with a 2:13.73.
