Pan Pacific Championships: Claire Curzan Breaks Meet Record But Still Misses Finals in Loaded 100 BackComing into the
Pan Pacific Championships, the elite swimmers knew there would be some tough-luck races.
In the meet format, only two swimmers from each country can qualify for the finals, which leaves a third swimmer – at least – in the B final that is fast enough for the A final.
It is one of the exciting parts about this meet, but also can be a tough one, especially for the U.S. in the women’s backstroke.
The depth in the women’s backstroke has been unmatched for decades, especially in the 100.
Predictably, it left some good swimmers out of the A final, but how about a meet record swim?
Claire Curzan broke the meet record in the 100 backstroke in the prelims, going a 58.21 to break the mark set by Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2018. It could have been the swim of the morning.
The problem was that there were two heats remaining.
Katharine Berkoff immediately set a new record with a 58.09 swim in the next heat.
Then Regan Smith broke THAT meet record with a 57.86 to take the top spot, put Berkoff second and leave Curzan out.
Take a wild guess how many times that has happened.
If that didn’t show the complete dominance of the USA in the backstroke, Leah Shackley, Rylee Erisman and Phoebe Bacon all finished in the top eight.
Six of the top eight (Canada’s Taylor Ruck and Australia’s Hannah Fredericks were the only non-Americans to finish in the top eight) were from the home soil.
The U.S. went 1-2-3 in the 200 fly also as Alex Shackell and Tess Howley kept Caroline Bricker out of the finals.
Torri Huske was the tough out in the 50 fly, finishing seventh overall behind Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass, who also each broke the meet record in back-to-back heats, while Rylee Erisman was the touch out in the 200 free, behind Anna Peplowski and Erin Gemmell.
This meet will be full of events like that for the U.S., and Australia and Canada will have some, too.
It adds an extra edge to the meet – but it is tough to see someone break the meet record and not make the A final.
