Hansen Breaks Record, Peirsol a Winner Again

There were two kinds of buzz around the pool on the final evening of the U.S. Summer National Championships on Saturday night at Irvine.

One was of a match-race variety: Could local hero Aaron Peirsol maintain his long winning streak in the 200 backstroke, facing an occasional but dangerous challenger in Michael Phelps?

The other was world-record talk: Could Brendan Hansen break his mark in the 200 breaststroke?

Yes and yes.

The world record first. Hansen, based in Austin, Texas, was under world-record pace at 50 meters and stayed there, finishing in 2 minutes 8.74 seconds. His previous mark -- 2:09.04 -- was set at the Olympic trials in Long Beach in 2004. This was his second world-record performance at the Woollett Aquatic Center as he broke his mark in the 100 breaststroke Tuesday night.

“The 200’s my baby,” he said. “It’s my favorite event. I knew if I could be really fast in the 100, to come out here in the 200, I was going to be a little quick. I wanted to kind of chip away at it.... To come out here tonight and do what I did. I still think I have more in the tank, obviously. I definitely think 2:07 is in the future.”

Texans are decent at the prediction game. Peirsol, a teammate of Hansen’s at Longhorn Aquatics, seemed sure that Hansen would rewrite his record.

Peirsol, like Hansen, won his two individual races at Irvine. But the 200 backstroke featured much more drama because of the presence of Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Peirsol has not lost at this distance since winning a silver medal in Sydney in 2000 and he kept the streak intact, winning in 1:56.36. Phelps was second in 1:57.09, and Lochte went 1:58.13.

“Both those guys just pounded me,” Peirsol said. “I had them on both sides, man. I was trying to push right back, but I only have two hands.”

As for Phelps, he heard an unusual question afterward: What’s it like to lose?

“Uh, I don’t know,” he said. “It makes you hungry, that’s for sure. I hate to lose. Having a race like that, if that doesn’t motivate me to get back to training and everything, I don’t know what will.”

He was asked to evaluate his performance at the meet. He won five individual races.

“A week like that -- it was a decent week,” said Phelps, who is scheduled to swim the same program he did at Irvine at the upcoming Pan Pacific Championships in Canada. “It wasn’t a horrible week, but it wasn’t a great week by any means.”

Phelps’ appearance recast the 200 backstroke. No longer was it business as usual for Peirsol.

“He’s the only guy in the past five years who has been within a second of me in that race,” Peirsol said. “Any time I get to race him, it’s a pleasure. Unfortunately, he’s pretty booked all the time.”

Hansen noticed a difference.

“That’s the first time I ever saw Aaron swim somebody’s else race,” he said, smiling. Later he added, “He came back, and I’m not going to tell you what he said, but he was a little disappointed.”

Peirsol maintained his evening was made when his younger sister Hayley won the 800 freestyle, beating rival Kate Ziegler. She joked that he didn’t help her pre-race jitters earlier in the day.

“I was telling him, ‘I’m nervous,’ ” said Hayley, who won in 8:26.45. “And he was like, ‘I bet.’ ”

The night also featured a victory by USC-bound Amanda Weir in the 100 freestyle. She upset Natalie Coughlin and took away Coughlin’s American record, going 53.58. Coughlin, who was second in 54.25, had set the record mark -- 53.99 -- in 2002.

The other significant victory was by former USC swimmer Erik Vendt, who is now in Ann Arbor, Mich., with Phelps and his coach Bob Bowman. Vendt resumed training in April and surprised many by winning the 1,500 freestyle in 15:05.41.

“A year ago at this time I was in Europe, backpacking with my best friends,” he said. “Enjoying the good life there in Europe, and I said, ‘Looks like I’m done with swimming.’ The thought didn’t creep back into my mind until December of this past year, and when it did, I couldn’t get it out. And that’s when I realized I wasn’t done with this sport.”