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Lezak, Phelps a Potent One-Two Punch

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Times Staff Writer

Ownership has its privileges in the pool, at least for now.

Example No. 1: Jason Lezak of Irvine, in the 100-meter freestyle. The home-pool favorite fended off a familiar opponent on Friday night in Neil Walker, 30, and a relative newcomer and 50-freestyle champion Cullen Jones, 22.

The 30-year-old Lezak won the 100 freestyle in 48.63 seconds, having been 0.19 under world-record pace at 50 meters. He finished with the second-fastest time in the world this year at the U.S. Summer National Championships at the Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine. Walker and Jones were second and third.

Lezak was asked if it was a response to having finished third in the 50 on Thursday.

“It wasn’t necessarily an answer back,” Lezak said. “This is my race right now till somebody takes me down at it. I still have the American record. Cullen did a great job last night. Right now, he’s definitely a 50 specialist, working his way toward the 100. I figure two years from now it’s going to be a lot harder challenge.”

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Jones, who acknowledged he couldn’t sleep after winning the 50, is finding his way in longer distance.

“Absolutely. It’s a work in progress. I’ve never gone 49 [seconds] in my life. To go twice is a step in the right direction,” he said of his swims in the preliminaries and final.

Example No. 2: Olympic star Michael Phelps in the 200 individual medley. Ownership of that event is almost an understatement. He has broken that world record several times since 2003 and won it at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Here, he had a little more company than usual, at least domestically. Phelps had a serious challenge from Ryan Lochte but held him off, winning in 1:56.50, the fourth-fastest performance in history. Naturally, the top three performances have been by Phelps.

Lochte hit a personal best by a large margin, going 1:56.78. His previous fastest time in the 200 IM had been 1:57.79, and he acknowledged his obvious improvement and pursuit of Phelps, saying: “I’m going in the right direction.”

Phelps was under his own world-record pace at 100, and he was fully aware of his progress.

“I always have a tendency to look at the scoreboard when I have the chance,” said Phelps, who won his fifth race at this national meet. “When they’re yelling and screaming you know something good is happening.... I wanted to close fast. Ryan and I have battled it out in that event and it’s getting closer and closer. The last 50 hurt pretty bad for me. I don’t know how it felt for him. I was definitely in a lot of pain.”

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Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman called it “fighting to the death” to get to the wall. “It’s good for him. It’s good for both of them. It makes them faster.

“I think it’s really important. Once you get to a level like Michael’s where you sort of eliminate a lot of competition, there’s not many things to motivate you. Michael’s opened the door and now people are coming.

“Four years ago at this meet, Michael went 1:58, and only two people had ever been 1:58. Tonight, Ryan became the first person other than Michael to go 1:56 -- the event’s getting faster.” The other two individual winners were Kimberly Vandenberg of UCLA in the 200 butterfly (2:08.51), a personal best by more than a second, and Olympian Margaret Hoelzer in the 200 backstroke (2:10.71). Hoelzer, 23, had 10 years on the second-place finisher, Elizabeth Beisel.

“I don’t know the last time I raced against a 13-year-old, but the older I get it seems to be happening more and more,” Hoelzer said.

Beisel reassured one reporter of her age when asked about it, saying: “Yeah. I’m really 13.”

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