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Katie Ledecky of Nation's Capital celebrates breaking the world record in the 400-meter freestyle at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine on Saturday night in Irvine.
Katie Ledecky of Nation’s Capital celebrates breaking the world record in the 400-meter freestyle at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine on Saturday night in Irvine.
Dan Albano. Sports HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Staff Mug Shot taken August 26, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER.

IRVINE Katie Ledecky brought the crowd to its feet at the Phillips 66 National Championships after just three laps of the women’s 400-meter freestyle final Saturday night. The 17-year-old was more than a second under world-record pace and the towel-waving and Thunder-Stick-pounding faithful knew a historic swim could be unfolding.

Ledecky rewarded their enthusiasm.

The high school senior-to-be from Bethesda, Maryland smashed the world record by about three-tenths of a second with a rousing time of 3 minutes, 58.86 seconds, becoming the first woman since Orange County’s Janet Evans to hold the 400, 800 and 1,500 world records simultaneously.

Evans first held the triple crown of distance records in 1988 and held it until 2006. On Saturday, Ledecky broke the 2009 world record of Italy’s Federica Pellegrini.

“What she did was amazing!” Evans (El Dorado) said of Ledecky in a text message late Saturday night. “Very proud to have all of those distance records back here in the U.S.!”

It was Ledecky’s aggressive attack of the world record that grabbed the crowd’s imagination.

After 100 meters, she was .92 under Pellegrini’s world record and high-tech suit era time of 3:59.15.

 Ledecky split the 200 in 1:57.72, 1.70 under world-record pace.

At the 300, she touched in 2:58.40, 1.53 under world-record pace.

On the final turn, Ledecky was .38 under world-record pace but thundered her kick in the final lap. She touched the finishing wall with her left hand, turned toward the timing board and splashed and tossed her cap.

“Just pure excitement,” Ledecky said of her emotions. “It never gets old to break a world record. … It’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Janet. She’s a great person and a really great role model.”

Olympic legend and former world-record setter Matt Biondi, 48, was in the crowd and left impressed.

“It was a very aggressive swim,” he said. “It’s rare that a distance swimmer would take it out so aggressively. … I didn’t think she was going to get it (the record). It looked like her stroke was starting to slow but she had saved just enough to bring that last 50 in.”

At about 5-foot-11, Ledecky is several inches taller than Evans but still isn’t one of the taller women on the U.S. team.

“She’s got to earn it with her hard work in the pool and to have that range – 400, 800 and the mile — she’s working real hard all day long, every day,” said the 6-foot-7 Biondi.

Ledecky’s forecasted the world record by clocking a 3:59.89 in morning prelims. But Olympic gold medalist from 2012 was so fast in the evening finals, the men waiting to swim the 400 free were a bit worried.

“Oh, man, she might beat some of us,” thought men’s champion Michael McBroom of The Woodlands, who won his 400 in 3:47.19.

But Ledecky wasn’t the only winner. So was the crowd.

“I’ve never seen a world record in person before,” recent University graduate Corey Okubo of Aquazot said. “That last 50, everyone was just going crazy.”

And while Ledecky won her third title to close out her meet (she won’t swim the 1,500 on Sunday), Michael Phelps, 29, remains in search of his first victory after finishing sixth in the 100 backstroke in 53.95, more than a second behind winner Matt Grevers of Tucson Ford (52.75).

Phelps again mentioned that he needs to train more, even saying that he discussed with Coach Bob Bowman scratching Sunday’s 200 individual medley to practice for the upcoming Pan Pacific Championships.

“Whatever I really put my mind to, I know I can accomplish,” he said. “I’m not going to use the excuse of taking off a year-and-half to 2 years. When there are workouts, I need to be at every one.”

In other races, Jessica Hardy of Trojan and Micah Lawrence of North Carolina’s SwimMAC tied in the 100 breaststroke with times of 1:06.51 while Missy Franklin led a Cal-sweep in the women’s 100 back with a 59.38.