BATON ROUGE — Junior Amanda Kendall posted a top-50 time in the world for 2011 in the 100-meter freestyle as competition came to a close at the ConocoPhillips US National Championships conducted at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Kendall concluded her week in emphatic fashion and registered a 100m free preliminary time of 55.30 that was just enough to qualify her for the ‘A’ Final. In the evening final, Kendall glided to a seventh place finish with a lifetime best mark of 55.08.
Kendall’s performance bodes well for June 2012’s Olympic Trials where she has a strong chance of finishing in the top-6 and making the US Olympic Team.
Kendall made one of three finals in all four of her events and posted four lifetime bests. She finished 23rd in the 100m butterfly (1:00.00), 22nd in the 200m free (2:00.14) and 20th in the 50m free (25.84).
“For Amanda to make her first National ‘A’ final was exciting,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “What impressed our staff the most was her poise in the finals as she competed with some of the world’s best, and still improved her time and place.”
During the final day of competition, junior Nick Kunkel cranked out a 200m backstroke personal lifetime best of 2:10.97.
Sophomore Emily Schwabe posted a 200m breaststroke lifetime best of 2:42.89.
Ten LSU athletes competed in the week’s events. Seven LSU swimmers registered personal lifetime bests.
Junior Sara Haley in the 100m fly (1:01.64), junior Craig Hamilton in the 400m free (3;59.59) and 1500m free (15:57.28), junior Sally Wood in the 200m individual medley (2:19.20) and the 400m IM (4:51.82), junior Chelsea Griffiths in the 100m back (1:00.80), Kunkel, Schwabe and Kendall all posted lifetime bests.
“We are certainly pleased with our performances this week at Nationals,” Geyer said. “There is always a need for us to compete at the highest level possible and to have our athletes compete with a large elite field is priceless. We made some improvements off where we were last summer and are also looking ahead to Olympic Trials in Omaha. The most valuable piece of this competition is all of these athletes are geared and excited for our upcoming collegiate meet.”
For more information, please visit usaswimming.org.