Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) was the top individual performer of the meet, winning six gold medals overall. He capped his performance Saturday when he steamrolled the competition in the men's 200m IM, winning in 1:54.43, the third-fastest time in history and a Pan Pac record. Teammate Tyler Clary (Champaign, Ill.) finished more than three seconds behind in 1:57.61 to claim silver, while Brazil's Thiago Pereira was third in 1:57.83.
"I wasn't focused on the world record or anything," Lochte said after the 200m IM. "I was just focused on racing tough. I knew I had it in my sight, but I think all the races I had this week kind of tired me out a bit. But I put up a really good time, and I'm really happy."
Rebecca Soni (Plainsboro, N.J.) won the Americans' last individual gold Saturday, cruising to a Pan Pac record in the women's 200m breast in 2:20.69. Australia's Leisel Jones finished second in 2:23.23, followed by Annamay Pierse in 2:23.65. Soni won three gold medals this week and earned Women's Swimmer of the Meet honors for her efforts in the 200m breast Saturday.
Team USA owned the men's and women's 50m freestyle Saturday, with Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.) and Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash.) snagging gold in both events in Pan Pac record times of 24.63 and 21.55, respectively.
Hardy out-touched teammate Amanda Weir (Lawrenceville, Ga.) by seven-hundredths of a second for gold, while Canada's Victoria Poon was third in 24.76. Adrian upset world record-holder Cesar Cielo of Brazil for the second time this week, first beating him in the 100m free on day 2 then taking the 50m free tonight. Cielo finished two-hundredths of a second behind Adrian in 21.57. Canda's Brent Hayden was third in 21.89.
Hardy finished the night by anchoring the women's gold-medal-winning, Pan Pac record-setting 4x100m medley relay. She, Soni, Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif.) and Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas) bested the field with a time of 3:55.23. Australia was second in 3:56.96, while Japan was third in 3:57.75.
Like Hardy, Adrian finished the night by anchoring the Americans' gold-medal-winning men's 4x100m medley relay. He, Aaron Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.), Mark Gangloff (Akron, Ohio) and Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md.) pulled off the win in 3:32.48. Japan was second in 3:33.90, while Australia was third in 3:35.55.
Also winning medals for Team USA Saturday included Chad La Tourette (Mission Viejo, Calif.) with a bronze in the men's 800m freestyle (7:51.62), Ariana Kukors (Auburn, Wash.) with a silver in the women's 200m IM (2:10.21); Caitlin Leverenz (Tucson, Ariz.) with a bronze in the women's 200m IM (2:11.21), Eric Shanteau (Atlanta, Ga.) with a bronze in the men's 200m breast (2:10.13) and Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.) with a silver in the women's 1500m free 16:03.26.
Results and rosters for the 2010 Pan Pac Swimming Championships are available on-line.
USA Swimming is the host of the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. It's the first time the U.S. has hosted an International meet since Short Course World Championships in 2004 in Indianapolis. The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, which takes place once every four years, was last held in Victoria, British Columbia in 2006. That year, the USA Swim Team captured a total of 48 medals - 26 of them gold - and smashed five world records and 20 meet records. The last time this meet took place in the United States was in 1995, when the meet was held in Atlanta, Ga.
The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships are held under the oversight of the Pan Pacific Swimming Association. The Association was established in the mid 1980s and is made up of the four founding swimming federations - Swimming Australia, Swimming Canada, the Japan Amateur Swimming Federations and USA Swimming. These charter nations developed the concept of the swimming competition to provide their national teams with first class international competition between the two major international swimming competitions - the Olympic Games and the FINA World Championships.
*By agreement of the charter nations, the 50m races, with the exception of the 50m freestyle, do not count in team scoring or medal counts.
