Beard Is Fitted With Record

Amanda Beard’s goal of owning a clothing boutique might have to wait a few more years. She continues to show she isn’t through closing shop on the competition.

Beard broke a meet record in the 200-meter breaststroke Saturday at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions. The two-time Olympian and American record holder won the event in 2 minutes 28.42 seconds, breaking Masami Kitajima’s three-year-old mark by .21 at the Marguerite Recreation Center in Mission Viejo.

Beard, 21, who won two silver medals in the breaststroke events at the 1996 Olympics before her sophomore year at Irvine High, turned a 1 1/2-second advantage at the halfway point into a nearly five-second victory over Keri Hehn of Minnesota Aquatics.

Beard, who is about a year away from completing her bachelor’s degree in retail and consumer science at Arizona, was asked to aim for the 2:28 range, but wasn’t sure if she was capable of hitting that mark.

“I’m in the middle of some really hard training,” she said. “For me to do that time is a good sign.”

Jason Lezak of Novaquatics broke one of his meet records for the second consecutive day. Lezak won the 50 freestyle in 22.48, bettering his mark of 22.53. Lezak broke his meet record in the 100 freestyle Friday.

Ous Mellouli, the Pacific 10 Conference newcomer of the year last season at USC, won his third event of the meet, taking the lead on the breaststroke leg of the 400 individual medley and winning in 4:30.86.

Kaitlin Sandeno of the Trojan Swim Club continued her comeback from an injury-plagued 2002 that cost her a chance to qualify for next month’s FINA world champions. Sandeno, a 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, won the women’s 400 individual medley in 4:50.61.