Nationals Tuesday Prelims

Brendan Hansen wearing the hottest cap ever! Hansen and Horns on the same cap!

Brendan easily finished first this morning in 2:11.50 in the 200 Breaststroke. That was a pretty sweet prelim time.

He wasn't the only member of his family to have a nice day at the today. Bren's cousin Caitlin Meehan won her heat this morning In the 200 Breaststroke with a personal best time of 2:33.94! She also earned herself a return trip to the pool tonight for finals and qualifying time for Olympics Trials next year.



Caitlin Meehan earns Olympic Trails Cut!

Go FAST tonight Brendan and Kaitlin. And Have Fun!

You can follow the meet tonight live either on Omega Timing or you can Watch the video feed direct and LIVE from IUPUI Natatorium at USA Swimming! Gmom pointed out that there was a timeline on the program, so if you want to see Caitlin's final, tune in at 6:30pm Eastern time. While you are there, hang around for Brendan's final at 6:43pm Eastern time. The broadcast begins at 6pm.

Thanks to Jessie for the link to the article in USA Today.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY SARAH!! Woooo Hooooo! Why are you not here letting me buy you a drink?

Summer Nationals Prediction Contest

Predictions time!!!
This is going to be a really tough one. There are a lot of people who are competing at World University Games or the Paris Open. We will get to see some new National Champions. Exciting Stuff! Predict wisely.... Aaron Peirsol is on this list, but rumors say he is not swimming this meet... or is he?

The Rules:
Name the top 3 finishers for each race, or you can name 4 in case one of your picks is a no show for that race and I'll move the others up. You get 10 points for each correct placement, 6 points if you get the athlete right but the placement wrong and 3 points if they make the finals but don't place. -5 if they DQ. (even in a prelim!)

Predictions must be posted on this thread prior to the first preliminary swim on Tuesday morning.
!Psych Sheet Here!

Day 1 - Tuesday, July 31
Event 1 - Women's 200 Butterfly
Event 2 - Men's 200 Butterfly
Event 3 - Women's 200 Breaststroke
Event 4 - Men's 200 Breaststroke
Event 5 - Women's 800 Freestyle
Event 6 - Men's 1500 Freestyle

Day 2 - Wednesday, August 1
Event 7 - Women's 400 IM
Event 8 - Men's 400 IM
Event 9 - Women's 100 Freestyle
Event 10 - Men's 100 Freestyle
Event 11 - Women's 200 Backstroke
Event 12 - Men's 200 Backstroke

Day 3 - Thursday, August 2
Event 15 - Women's 400 Freestyle
Event 16 - Men's 400 Freestyle
Event 17 - Women's 100 Butterfly
Event 18 - Men's 100 Butterfly

Day 4 - Friday, August 3
Event 20 - Women's 200 Freestyle
Event 21 - Men's 200 Freestyle
Event 22 - Women's 100 Breaststroke
Event 23 - Men's 100 Breaststroke
Event 24 - Women's 100 Backstroke
Event 25 - Men's 100 Backstroke

Day 5 - Saturday, August 4
Event 27 - Women's 1500 Freestyle
Event 28 - Women's 200 IM
Event 29 - Men's 200 IM
Event 30 - Women's 50 Freestyle
Event 31 - Men's 50 Freestyle
Event 32 - Men's 800 Freestyle

Prize:
Bragging rights to say you are the "Best Predictor Ever!" (But just for now. Jessie's victory might be very short lived.) And Michelle says there might be something else when she returns from her amazing trip to Italy. Let's see if Jessie, our Santa Clara winner, has the stuff to hold her title.


Do it!

Duel in the Pool Photos and Archery

I know it took me forever but I have finally gotten my Brendan photos from the Duel in the Pool up here in the Gallery. If you want to see my other Duel photos go here.

If you haven't been following the the blog, I just want to announce that Lena's fiance, Ariel Bilbao, will be competing for their country of Argentina in the Pam American Games in Rio. The Archery competition begins on July 24th. The schedule and result can be found here. I know that we don't follow archery here on BHO, but this is a dream come true for Lena and Ariel, So GO ARIEL!

USA Men and Women swept the Medley relays in Rio today. Longhorn Ricky Berens swam the fly leg of that games record setting team. Great work Ricky! Congratulations!

Also USA Swimming National Championships, which run from July 31 to August 4th, still have tickets available.

Brendan Hansen Makes History... Again!!

So you all know Brendan Hansen is a double world record holder. And World Champion Breaststroker several times over. Historically other men have been able to say the same. But not this time. This one is only his.

Last night Brendan Hansen became the first person in history to swim under one minute in all four strokes (100 Back, 100 Fly, 100 Breast and 100 Free)in a 50 meter pool. His prelim time yesterday in the backstroke of 1:00.41 showed that he was going to be close. The backstroke was the only event left that he had yet to prove.

So as Brendan took the blocks in the B final of the 100 Back, the announcer told the crowd what was about to happen. I'll bet it was the first time in history a B final had such crowd support! His time of 59.98 sealed his place in the books.

Congratulations Brendan! This one was completely unexpected and unanticipated. You make it so easy to be your fan.

Brendan Competes at 2007 Texas Senior Circuit Championships

Hey Everyone! Get yourself down to the UT pool tonight to see Brendan swim the 100 Backstroke! He didnt swim any of the breaststroke events, but this is a perfect opportunity to see him swim those pesky other strokes ;)


The Longhorns have been showing themselves to be very strong at this point in the season.

Here is a little bit about what has happened at the meet so far:
Stars Come Out to Play at Texas Senior Circuit Championships

Hy-Tek results are also available HERE.

Finals start at 5pm tonight.

Where Were You on July 11, 2004?

I know where Brendan was. He was breaking his second World Record in three days and putting his name in the books as the greatest Breaststroker out there. It was Olympic Trials, and he was on fire! All the work he had put in, bit by bit taking down all the guys who beat him at trials in 2000, ended with these immaculate swims. He has since taken down both of those records. One of them twice. There isn't really any Brendan news right now, but there is history.

I would love to hear from people who were either there, or remember these swims. I was a wuss and didn't go because I am afraid of Long Beach bleachers.

Also, Happy Birthday to Blair!

Prediction Contest Winner ~ Jessie!

It was pretty tight this time. It was all the fault of that Brent Hayden. He wasn't on the heat sheet, and he is fast! He knocked a few races off our plans by putting himself on the podium.
Also the loss of Simon Burnett and Ryan Lochte sent things spinning a bit too. But Jessie squeaked out a nice win here. Poor Timmay is the fair loser.

Jessie - 420
Terrie - 415
AimsRos - 394
lala - 390
blairbecky - 388
TimTheSwimmer - 386
Florence DQ!! - Single handed touch on her final turn. (She left out 7 events )

We will see when Michelle gets home if there are any actual prizes for Winner Jessie and Loser Timmay. But until then the two of you should wallow in deep feelings of victory and loss.

We are now in the last few weeks leading up to Nationals, and Brendan feels pretty great about how that will be going. After seeing his races this last weekend, I am even more excited to see what he does this summer.

Phelps refines his formula for winning

Kidding aside, he did lose to Brendan Hansen in the 100 breaststroke in Long Beach in January. (Hansen, who was in Santa Clara, won his second race of the meet, the 200 breaststroke, in 2:13.49.) So having lost to Hansen is hardly a black mark, considering Hansen is the world-record holder.

"Honestly, I think Michael hates to lose. I think about 90% of swimmers love to win and 10% hate to lose," Bowman said. "Brendan Hansen and Michael are in the 10%."

Record form for Phelps

"We use these meets to figure out where we are in the season," Hansen said. "I think come the next couple of weeks, we're going to work on speed work, which isn't too hard to do. It's harder to get into shape. I definitely feel like I'm in shape, I just didn't have the speed tonight or on Friday."

Congratulations to Jessie! Nice Work!

EDITED TO ADD: Hey guess what?! I have been remiss to mention a few very important birthdays.....
Happy belated Birthday to the following bloggers:

BeachGirl - July 1st
Ms of Arc - July 3rd
Crackinup - July 3rd
Schembsie - July 4th

I hope you all had fantastic birthdays! July babies get to celebrate all summer!! Woot!

Sixth Win in a Row for the 200M Breaststroke!

Brendan won the 200 Breaststroke tonight despite the crappiest announcer in the world doing his best to keep him down at the Santa Clara Invitational. This is the sixth time he has won this event in Santa Clara. The fun thing about knowing that Brendan would win, was waiting to hear that announcer man eat his words. But enough about him. We'll let Brendan's times speak for themselves.


1 Hansen, Brendan 25 Longhorn Aquatic 2:15.83 2:13.49 TRLS
30.89 1:05.22 (34.33)
1:39.52 (34.30) 2:13.49 (33.97)
2 Shanteau, Eric 23 Longhorn Aquatic 2:16.06 2:13.73 TRLS
31.36 1:05.66 (34.30)
1:40.05 (34.39) 2:13.73 (33.68)
3 Rickard, Brenton 23 Australia 2:18.96 2:15.04 TRLS
30.39 1:03.94 (33.55)
1:38.91 (34.97) 2:15.04 (36.13)
4 Usher, Scott C 24 Boilermaker Aqua 2:16.34 2:15.83 TRLS
31.01 1:05.30 (34.29)
1:39.93 (34.63) 2:15.83 (35.90)
5 Spann, Scott W 19 Club Wolverine-M 2:17.32 2:16.30 TRLS
31.38 1:06.29 (34.91)
1:41.94 (35.65) 2:16.30 (34.36)
6 McDonald, Robert 25 Australia 2:17.17 2:16.57 TRLS
30.62 1:05.04 (34.42)
1:40.48 (35.44) 2:16.57 (36.09)
7 Versfeld, Neil 22 Athens Bulldog S 2:18.68 2:16.87 TRLS
31.22 1:06.14 (34.92)
1:41.37 (35.23) 2:16.87 (35.50)
8 Pogioli, Giordan 23 Boilermaker Aqua 2:19.11 2:18.93 TRLS
31.32 1:05.89 (34.57)
1:41.98 (36.09) 2:18.93 (36.95)
9 Hurley, Ryan P 21 Curl Burke Swim- 2:18.42 2:20.83 NATS
32.81 1:08.57 (35.76)
1:44.73 (36.16) 2:20.83 (36.10)

Brendan was a vision in white tonight as took to the blocks for the 200IM and improved his prelim time of 2:05.50 by .29 going 2:05.21. A pretty nice show for this point in the season. This meet made me very excited about nationals.


Just sick about a bad show at world championships
Elite swimmers are enjoying summer's calm waters

Brendan should always wear white...

Sunday Prelims - Brendan Rocks

Yes, we all already knew that Brendan rocks, but he really rocked this morning!
Not only did he finish with the fastest prelim swim...

1 Hansen, Brendan 25 Longhorn Aquatic 2:15.83 TRLS
30.96 1:05.77 (34.81)
1:40.48 (34.71) 2:15.83 (35.35)
2 Shanteau, Eric 23 Longhorn Aquatic 2:16.06 TRLS
31.56 1:06.15 (34.59)
1:41.44 (35.29) 2:16.06 (34.62)
3 Usher, Scott C 24 Boilermaker Aqua 2:16.34 TRLS
31.34 1:05.40 (34.06)
1:40.54 (35.14) 2:16.34 (35.80)
4 McDonald, Robert 25 Australia 2:17.17 TRLS
31.36 1:05.27 (33.91)
1:40.89 (35.62) 2:17.17 (36.28)
5 Spann, Scott W 19 Club Wolverine-M 2:17.32 TRLS
31.18 1:06.06 (34.88)
1:41.87 (35.81) 2:17.32 (35.45)
6 Hurley, Ryan P 21 Curl Burke Swim- 2:18.42 TRLS
31.91 1:06.74 (34.83)
1:42.37 (35.63) 2:18.42 (36.05)
7 Versfeld, Neil 22 Athens Bulldog S 2:18.68 TRLS
31.46 1:06.13 (34.67)
1:41.79 (35.66) 2:18.68 (36.89)
8 Rickard, Brenton 23 Australia 2:18.96 TRLS
31.51 1:06.55 (35.04)
1:42.91 (36.36) 2:18.96 (36.05)
9 Pogioli, Giordan 23 Boilermaker Aqua 2:19.11 TRLS
31.71 1:06.93 (35.22)
1:42.64 (35.71) 2:19.11 (36.47)

He also swam the 200IM and won his heat by MILES! He went a 2:05! What?! That time gave him an spot in one of the inside lanes for the "A" final!