Bennett’s Time Has Arrived

After touching the wall to win the 800-meter freestyle Saturday night, Brooke Bennett had to wait patiently for her competitors to finish to find out her time.

When she turned to the scoreboard at the far end of the YMCA Aquatic Center pool in Orlando, she squinted.

Eight minutes 30.54 seconds.

She couldn’t believe it.

Considering the Phillips 66 U.S. spring nationals ending today is simply a tuneup for next month’s U.S. Olympic trials, Bennett, 15, was not expecting to come so close to her lifetime best of 8:29.21.

That she did sends a message to the world that Bennett, a high school sophomore from Plant City, Fla., has arrived.

She was almost 16 seconds, and 30 meters, ahead of second-place Jessica Foschi of Old Brookville, N.Y., in perhaps the performance of the meet.

“I dove into the water and came up on top and felt great,” Bennett said.

As if that explains everything.

“I try to get out there and get comfortable in my race so I don’t have to worry about passing people,” she added.

That was hardly a concern as Bennett immediately took a commanding lead and expanded it to the point where she was swimming alone before the halfway mark.

Bennett’s coach, Peter Banks, started yelling along the far sideline when his swimmer’s 400 time was an impressive 4:15.

“She’s got to the point where she’s learned not to swim with the field but to get out there,” Banks said. “She made a statement . . . people have to catch her.”

One of those trying next month will be world-record holder Janet Evans, who has lost ground to Bennett in the last year.

“I think Janet would have been right up there with me [Saturday],” Bennett said.

*

Swim Notes

David Fox and Angel Martino, two of the United States’ best sprinters, won their 100-meter freestyle races with dominating performances Saturday. Martino, a bronze medalist in the 1992 Olympics, overcame Suzu Chiba of Japan after the turn. Fox, a member of the U.S. residence team at Colorado Springs, Colo., took the lead over second-place Bart Kizierowski of Poland three-quarters of the way through the race. . . . Fox was asked if he breathed during the race. “No, there’s no time to breathe,” he said. “That only slows you down.”

Norbert Rozsa, the 1994 world champion and 1992 Olympic silver medalist, was a runaway winner in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:16.65. Eric Wunderlich of Michigan was a distance second, ahead of Ron Karnaugh, a third-year medical student taking a year off to try to reach his second Olympics. Wunderlich finished in 2:19.06. . . . Wunderlich also finished second behind Rozsa at the world championships in Rome. Rozsa is one of four Hungarians competing in the spring nationals, a tradition that started in 1986.