Day 5 Morning Recap

Women's 100 free:

Downstairs the rabid media waited. Then they waited some more. Then the word came- "Dara will be out in thirty minutes". Torres was one of the biggest stories coming into the meet but all the attention so far has been on the world record performances by younger stars. Today she posted the third fastest time and seems poised to make the team amid a slew of mediocre swims. Only Natalie Coughlin seemed ready to make a statement in the event with her 53.69 while others, many of whom are competing in their third or fourth event, paced themselves in preperation for tonights semi-finals

Men's 200 Back:

Ryan Lochte had toyed with the idea of expanding his program to Phelps-like proportions before the meet started. After scratching both the 100 and 200 free and missing the 100 back he has just this event to expand from his 2004 schedule. It is the only event in which Lochte is seeded first, but Aaron Piersol looks primed to take the record back. Both clocked times well under two minutes and they were joined in doing so by surprise performer Nick Thoman.

Women's 200 Breast:

Rebecca Soni must have been disappointed to miss out on the 100 breaststroke. After a some time off, she returned with a strong preliminary swim to lead all qualifiers in the event. Amanda Beard had a strong swim and she looks like a strong possibility to make the team after many left her for dead.

Men's 200 IM

In many of these prelim races, the most exciting performances can come from lower seeded swimmers who just want to crash the party. Thats exactly what Nick D'Innocenzo did today when he dropped an astounding 4.67 seconds to jump out of the early heats into the semi-final. While many in the arena may have been stunned by D'Innocenzo's performance, he said afterwards that he was swimming with a purpose: World Youth Games. The usual suspects, Phelps and Lochte, led qualifying while Eric Shanteau was a surprising competitor considering his 200 breaststroke final tonight.

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