IRVINE Katie Ledecky stood mostly still with a focused glare toward the pool while one lane away, Missy Franklin, danced as the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody” blared before the women’s 200-meter freestyle final.
America’s two best female swimmers could not have looked more different but the teens were simply being themselves before their anticipated duel at the Phillips 66 National Championships.
“I like to call her quiet like an assassin,” said Bruce Gemmell, Ledecky’s coach at Virginia-based Nation’s Capital Swim Club.
Ledecky continued to show Thursday night that the competition has reason to fear.
The 17-year-old captured her first national title in the 200 freestyle by blazing past Franklin, 19, in the second half of the race to reach the wall in a lifetime-best 1 minute, 55.16 seconds at William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center.
Franklin, the defending national champion in the middle-distance event, touched more than a second slower at 1:56.40, good for second.
And while the bubbly Cal sophomore-to-be soon began to ponder her 200 backstroke final later in the evening, Ledecky’s accomplishment took some time to soak in. She is the world-record holder in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles by considerable margins but claimed this 200 by first slightly leading Franklin at the 100 with a 56.64 split.
Franklin won the 100 free on Wednesday.
“It’s phenomenal,” Olympian John Mykkanen (El Dorado), a member of the U.S. team in 1984, said of Ledecky’s range. “I think Katie is capable of having the world record in the 200, 400, 800 and mile (1,500) in her career and I can’t think of anyone in the modern era that has been that versatile.”
Ledecky’s effort summoned a few legends. Names like Shirley Babashoff (Fountain Valley) and Australia’s Shane Gould surfaced in conversation. Gould’s range featured world records from the 100 to the 1,500 free.
“She’s not there yet but certainly the standard is Shane Gould,” Gemmell said of Ledecky. “It was pretty clear from when I first started working with her that she had more speed than a lot of distance swimmers have.”
Ledecky said Franklin is pushing her to improve in the pool but admits a dance-off is futile. “She’ll beat me,” Ledecky said.
Franklin returned about 80 minutes later to capture a 200 backstroke final that featured another major miscue by a veteran Olympian.
Franklin dominated her world-record event in 2:08.38 but top-seeded Elizabeth Beisel’s feet appeared to slip off the starting wall and she quickly fell behind the field. Beisel, 21, hung tough to finished sixth in 2:12.37, well off her prelims time of 2:09.65, which would have been good for second. Teen Kathleen Baker of North Carolina’s SwimMac capitalized to finish second in 2:10.42.
Cal’s Melanie Klaren (Aliso Niguel) placed fourth in 2:11.58, one one-hundredth of a second out of third and a likely spot on the U.S. team for the Pan Pacific Championships.
In prelims, NCAA stalwart Kevin Cordes of Arizona set the U.S. Open record (fastest time on U.S. soil) in the 200 breaststroke with a world record-challenging 2:07.86. The 20-year-old won the final in 2:09.48. Former FAST standout Tyler Clary rallied past Ryan Lochte to take the men’s 200 backstroke in 1:54.73 and was awarded his gold medal by world-record holder Aaron Peirsol (Newport Harbor).
Amanda Beard (Irvine), another Orange County Olympic gold medalist, presented awards after the women’s 200 breaststroke, won by Micah Lawrence of SwimMAC in 2:23.05.
