Santa Margarita senior swimmer and reigning Register female athlete of the year Katie McLaughlin claimed a major international medal Thursday at the Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia.
The 17-year-old from the Mission Viejo Nadadores club finished third in the 200-meter butterfly with a lifetime-best time of 2 minutes, 7.08 seconds, eighth fastest in the world this year.
McLaughlin’s time also ranks second all-time for U.S. girls in the 17-18 age-group, just off the Kathleen Hersey’s 2008 age-group record of 2:06.96.
American Cammile Adams, 22, won in 2:06.61 while Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi, 24, took the silver in 2:06.68. Adams became the first U.S. woman to claim gold in the 200 fly at Pan Pac’s since Summer Sanders in 1991.
McLaughlin also likely claimed a spot on the U.S. team for next summer’s FINA World Championships in Russia. The Register’s reigning female swimmer of the year emerged from the Phillips 66 Nationals Championships and Pan Pacific Championships — the two qualifying meets for Worlds — as the No. 2-ranked American woman to Adams in the 200 fly.
In other O.C. news from Australia, Tom Shields (Edison) was disqualified in the prelims of the 200 butterfly but his winning time from the Phillips 66 meet (1:55.09) wasn’t toppled by an American in finals, so he also appears headed to the World Championships in the 200 fly.