UCSB alum Katy Freeman continued her impressive work at the U.S. Open Swimming Championships with a personal-best time in the 100-meter breaststroke Friday night.
Freeman, a former UCSB swimmer now competing for Santa Barbara Aquatics, placed second in the race with a finish of 1 minute, 5.35 seconds.
Jessica Hardy won the race in a world-record time of 1:04.45, her second world record in two days.
She set the world record in the 50 breaststroke with a split of 29.95 seconds when she time-trialed the 100 breaststroke on Thursday.
Hardy is competing for the first time since serving a one-year ban because of a failed drug test that caused her to drop off the U.S. Olympic team last year.
“Jessica went out super fast and Katy was catching her at the end but she ran out of pool,” Santa Barbara Aquatics coach Gregg Wilson said.
Freeman won the preliminary heat in 1:07.28. Her spectacular showing in the final helped her jump more than 30 spots in the world rankings for the 100 breaststroke, and now she is No. 3 in the world.
“It was an amazing swim,” Wilson said.
In the final women’s event of the meet, four Gauchos swam their way to a second place in the 400 medley relay. The team consisting of Naomi Javanifard, Freeman, Katie Ure andAnne Marie May finished in 4:07.96.
