Lezak Has Record Swim at International Meet

Jason Lezak, a 25-year-old from Irvine, set a meet record for the second consecutive day in the TYR Swim Meet of Champions Saturday at the Marguerite Recreation Center in Mission Viejo.

Lezak, a double-medal winner in the 2000 Olympics, won the men’s 50-meter freestyle final in 22.53 seconds, breaking the previous meet record of 22.88 set last year by Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin. Lezak’s time also broke the pool record of 22.63, set in 1985 by Tom Jager, the event’s world record holder from 1990-2000.

Lezak set a meet record of 49.74 in the 100 freestyle Friday, winning by a body length. In Saturday’s race, Lezak finished over a second faster than Jake Steele of Canada.

“[The victories] show I have the speed to win the 50 and the endurance it takes to hold on in the 100,” Lezak said. “I’m really looking forward to racing against [world-record holder Alexander] Popov and the other guys at the world championships next month.”

Kristen Caverly, who will be a senior at San Clemente High in the fall, won the 200 breaststroke and the 400 individual medley.

Caverly, who last month broke five records set by former Olympians, won the breaststroke in a season-best 2:30.60. Caverly was nearly a second ahead of Masami Tanaka, who set the meet record in the event last year.

Courtney Cashion, who will be a sophomore at Irvine High, won the 50 freestyle in 26.85 and Lindsey Benko won the 200 freestyle in 2:01.34.