Torres is No. 1 again at 40

INDIANAPOLIS -- They were working on swimmer Dara Torres almost the same way a pit crew attacks a car but this was unfolding post-race on a mat on the floor in the press room. One handler worked on her shoulders. Another was punishing her right thigh with his feet, attempting to work out the lactic acid.

Welcome to age 40.

And, most inexplicably, another national title for the mother of a 15-month-old girl. It came nearly seven years after her last major competition, the 2000 Summer Olympics and is her 14th national title.

At this time a year ago, Torres was swimming in Masters international competition a couple months after giving birth. On Wednesday, she won the 100-meter freestyle at the USA Swimming National Championships in 54.45 seconds against a field sprinkled with teenagers, bringing her mother to tears in the stands.

Even Torres, who won her first national title at 14, would have doubted the sanity of someone predicting this result in 2006.

“I would have said they’re nuts,” she said. “I really wasn’t expecting this. I just really wanted to go fast. To win in the 100 is definitely a surprise. My mom didn’t say anything. She just started crying.

“Now the bar is set a little higher. I sort of have to change my goals. I just wanted to swim close to my fastest time. It really gives me confidence heading into the 50.”

The second-place finisher was Amanda Weir (54.79), age 21.

Not only did Torres swim one of the 10 fastest times in the world this year, she was under world-record pace at 50 meters, energizing the crowd at the Natatorium. Her split time at 50 was 25.79, and Britta Steffen of Germany went 25.84 on her way to the world record, 53.30, in 2006.

Torres won from Lane 2, a product of a nervous morning swim when she false-started and had to restart conservatively.

“Now I come to the pool and I feel like I’m going to throw up before I swim,” she said. “I’ll never forget my last swim at the Olympics when I was on the awards platform and we’re getting our relay medals, thinking, ‘It’s so nice I’ll never have to feel this nervous again in my life.’

“And I wake up this morning, here I am again feeling like I’m going to throw up. I think I was more nervous now than I was at my last Olympics.”

After the preliminaries, Torres told stories about swimming and lifting on the very day she gave birth to her daughter Tessa, and mentioned that she asked to be drug-tested more often because of the pointed questions she faced in 2000 about that comeback.

Katie Hoff, who won the 200 backstroke, was born in 1989, seven years after Torres won her first national title. She first became aware of Torres at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

“I remember hearing about a 33-year-old,” said Hoff. “I was like, ‘Wow, she’s really old.’ ”

Said Torres: “But you can’t put an age on your dreams.”

Torres’ performance ended up overshadowing Michael Phelps, a rare occurrence at any meet. Phelps made a determined charge at the world mark in the 200 backstroke, winning in a personal best 1:54.65. His was the third-fastest time in history.

Phelps’ improvement was remarkable considering his previous best in the 200 backstroke came in 2004 when he went 1:55.30.

Form did not hold in the men’s 100 freestyle with a surprise winner, David Walters of Longhorn Aquatics, in 48.96. World champion Ben Wildman-Tobriner was eighth.

Cullen Jones, silver medalist at worlds, didn’t even make the final. He has been hampered by a bad back.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com