BATON ROUGE — LSU junior swimmer Amanda Kendall and her United States teammates posted a gold medal finish and a Pan America Games record in the 100-meter freestyle relay with a mark of 3:40.66.
Kendall swam the third leg of the record breaking relay that was led off by Madison Kennedy. Anne Pelton swam the second stretch and Erika Erndl swam the final leg.
The 4x 100 free relay team won the event by nearly four seconds over second place Brazil. Kendall posted the fastest 50m split in the final with a time of 25.91
The relay squad first set the record in the preliminary event with a short lived record time of 3:40.85. Kendall matched her lifetime best in the 50m free in her first relay split (25.84), another sign of her blossoming international campaign.
As of Oct. 15, the United States led the medal count with nine and was followed in second by Brazil with four medals.
The Pan American Games are hosted in Guadalajara, Mexico and is staged every four year prior to the summer Olympics. The Pan Am Games serves as a measuring stick for possible Olympic qualifiers and participants.
The USA Swimming and the United States Olympic Committee chose Kendall to represent her country in the 100 free relay after her spectacular performance at this past summer’s ConocoPhillips United States Nationals, August 2-6.
At the event, Kendall qualified for the ‘A’ final after posting a 100 free time of 55.30. She went on to finish seventh in the final round with a top-50 in the world for the 2011 cycle and lifetime best of 55.08.