Shauna O’Brien Takes Down National Record On Day Three of Irish Championships

In the first event of the evening American swimmers went 1-2-3 in the 100m freestyle with Katie Drabot claiming gold in 55.52. Second was Caroline McTaggart in 56.06 followed by Alexandra Wooden in 56.70.

The Irish champion in that race was 19-year-old Bethy Firth who swam a 56.80 to finish fourth overall. With her finals time she took a decent chunk off her semi-final time of 57.15 from the day before.

In the men’s 100m freestyle it was an Irish swimmer who took the crown with a 50.97. Curtis Coulter was the leader at the wall, taking down USA’s Mark McGlaughlin who rocked a 51.12. David Prendergast, another Irish swimmer, was third in 51.25.

Americans went 1-2-3-4 in the women’s 100m breaststroke. Olivia Anderson led the way with a 1:09.30 to finish half-a-second ahead of Alexis Wenger’s 1:09.82. Riley Scott and Alexandra Preiss shortly followed with Aisling Haughey being the top Irish swimmer in 1:13.44.

For the second straight event in a row for the men, an Irish swimmer claimed gold as Alex Murphy clocked in at 1:02.41 to top the field by over a second. Dan Sweeney, also Irish, was second in 1:03.43. Ross Palazzo of the USA was third in 1:04.18.

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Martin from the States won the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 4:16.57. Grainne Murphy, 22, finished second to be crowned the Irish champion. She was a 4:17.48. Fourteen-year-old Irish swimmer Antoinette Neamty was also in the mix sporting a 4:18.93 to grab the bronze.

Matthew Hirschberger of the USA won the men’s 400m freestyle by a long shot, posting a time of 3:55.50 to be the only swimmer under four-minutes. Fellow American Josh McDonald was second in 4:00.43, just slightly holding off Ireland’s Brendan Gibbons.

In the first semi-final of the night Shauna O’Brien put up the fastest time in the women’s 100m fly with a 1:00.21. That time took a big chunk off what she was in prelims. Not only was it a huge improvement for O’Brien, but it broke the previous Irish national record of 1:00.53. Caroline McTaggart of the USA was the second fastest qualifier with a time of 1:01.05.

Irish swimmer Brendan Hyland threw down a decent 100m fly this morning with a 54.40. With that time he just fell 0.13 seconds short of his own Irish record, something he’ll likely attempt to tackle in finals. He’s the leader going into the final now by a huge amount, as Jonathan Burkett who qualified second was only a 55.78.

Alice Treuth, Carrie Boone, and Casey Franz of the USA finished 1-2-3 in the 200m backstroke today, with the winning time a 2:14.04. Danielle Hill, 15, of Ireland was just kept out off the podium as she was a 2:18.37 to Fanz’s 2:18.23.

The men’s 200m backstroke went to Michael Taylor as he beat Ireland’s Conor Ferguson by exactly a second. Taylor was a 2:02.12, Ferguson a 2:03.12. With that swim Ferguson lowered his own Irish national record and secured a spot on the World Junior Championships roster. Alex Lebed was third in 2:03.91.

The competition will end tomorrow, full meet results can be found here.