Future looks golden for U.S. swimmers

Whether it was the night sparkling with consistent 1-2 finishes for the United States or victories in both swim relays, it was an emphatic statement for the future.

Not only for next year at the World Championships but for that meet known as the Olympics, looming in 2012.

“Every race has been a dogfight,” Michael Phelps said. “We’re having new guys step up and race, having the veterans step up and show some strength and put up some good times. Going into next year, we could very well have one of the strongest World Championship teams we’ve ever had.”

Where to start on Friday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine?

Phelps is usually the headliner, and he set a meet record in winning the 100-meter butterfly in 50.86 seconds, looking less than thrilled. Not much later, he put down an impressive 48.13 in the opening leg of the 400 freestyle relay, also a meet record and the fastest time in the world in the 100 freestyle this year.

Hard to say if that was the headline because it would be overlooking Ryan Lochte, who won the 200 backstroke, and was part of the winning relay, swimming the second leg. He has won five golds at the Pan Pacifics, three of them individual.

Lochte edged teammate Tyler Clary, winning in 1:54.12 to Clary’s 1:54.90, despite smacking into the lane line near the end of the race.

“I felt I could have gone maybe a half a second faster if I didn’t hit that lane line,” Lochte said. “I was focusing the whole race on not hitting the lane line. And what do I do at the very end of the race? I hit it.”

Apparently, this is not a one-time thing for him.

“I think I hit it all the time when I’m outside,” Lochte said. “There’s some reason I’m looking up at the sky and I lose it. I go off in my own world.”

That was one of four 1-2 finishes for the United States. The others were Phelps and Tyler McGill in the 100 fly, Dana Vollmer and Christine Magnuson in the 100 fly, and Elizabeth Beisel and Elizabeth Pelton in the 200 backstroke.

Among the other winners: Jessica Hardy in the 50 breaststroke in 30.03, the third-fastest time ever, Tae Hwan Park of South Korea in the 400 freestyle, and open-water swim star Chloe Sutton in the women’s 400 freestyle. Sutton was so thrilled by her first victory in a major international meet she was jumping up and down in the mixed zone.

The U.S. women won the 400 freestyle relay in a meet-record 3:35.11, and the men’s winning time, of 3:11.74, was also a meet record. Jason Lezak, a fixture on the relays, was the third leg and said it was the first time since 2001 he was not the anchor.

Lochte, always irrepressible, loved the swimming the relay.

“I don’t get tired,” he said. “I touch the wall and we get out of the water and I see Jason Lezak and Nathan Adrian and they’re all like dying, need some oxygen and I’m like do-di-do, like it’s so short, ‘What do I do now?’”

This meet is a qualifier for next year’s World Championships and there was plenty of suspense. Katie Hoff had to sit by and watch two agonizing heats of the 400 freestyle, hoping her time from the recent U.S. nationals would hold up.

It did.

Hoff won the 400 free earlier this month in 4:05.50 but didn’t make it out of the morning heats at Irvine. Two Americans would have had to put down better times to knock her off the World squad, and only the winner, Sutton did so, going 4:05.19.

The closest call came from Hoff’s teammate Kate Ziegler, who went 4:05.52 to win the B Final. Hoff later joked in the mixed zone that she had finally stopped shaking. “Totally nervous,” Hoff said. “I knew it was going to be close, but not two-hundredths close.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter.com/reallisa