Tara Kirk completed the breaststroke trifecta tonight with her win in the women’s 100 Breast. Her time, 1:06.82, was also a personal best which bodes well for Tara with World Championships coming up next month. (We have video of this race, so check back for it in a little while). Joining Tara on the medals stand were Megan Jendrick (1:07.99), in second and Vipa Bernhardt (1:10.35) in third.

On the men’s side, Indiana product Kevin Swander took the title in 1:01.75. Scott Usher claimed second place with a 1:02.93 swim. Giordan Pogioli, of Boilermaker Aquatics took third in 1:03.80. Michael Phelps was out-touched by Pogioli and settled for 4th place with his 1:03.88 performance. (There will also be video of Michael’s race later)

Michael Phelps posted an easy win in the 100 Back in 54.46. As earlier reported, Aaron Peirsol did not compete in the event due to an early departure from the meet. Fabio Santi and Miguel Robles rounded out the top 3 with times of 58.69 and 59.61 resepctively.

Natalie Coughlin had an impressive swim of her own, winning the women’s race in 1:00.13, which stands as the 8th fastest swim of all time. Margaret Hoelzer was the next to finish in 1:01.18, while Mary Descenza was third after a 1:02.70 swim.

Natalie reflected on her performance following her race:

“My stroke felt really strong. I’ve been working on a few things that I think are starting to take shape. I’m very happy with how the meet has gone. My freestyle is on, my backstroke is on. This is my first long course meet in a long time, and since Worlds are long course, it’s good that I’m already swimming fast. It’ll be a fun month getting ready for it.”

Hint: do you really need one? It should be obvious from the BACK

Michael Phelps won the men’s 100 Fly in 54.79. Teammate Davis Tarwater finished in second and Peter Vanderkaay was 8th with a 55.51 swim. In the women’s event, Rachel Komisarz took gold. Natalie Coughlin did not compete in the timed finals of the event.

Most of the event updates posted here on “Swim Stars Live” are being made live from the deck. Because of the setup of the Mizzou Aquatic Center, we are unable to see the scoreboard after events. The acoustics of the competition pool area are such that announcements of times and other relelvant information are hard to decipher. However, we try our best!

There were a lot of scratches during and after this morning’s prelims. A lot of athletes are leaving Columbia this afternoon, thus forfeiting their spots in this evening’s timed finals. The meet announcer was forced to read multiple edits and updates as to who the top 24 swimmers, if applicable, were for finals. We tried to keep up via updates, but they were changing every 5 minutes or so!

So, we will be continuing to update the posts we made while at the pool this morning. Sorry for the convenience!

Aaron Peirsol made his second appearance of the morning prelims in the men’s 200 IM. He posted the second fastest time of the morning (2:03.97) just .04 off of Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli’s top time of 2:03.93. Aaron will not be contesting the event’s final this evening.

Natalie Coughlin’s second swim of the morning session was the Women’s 100 back, where she also turned in the top time. Natalie’s 1:02.98 swim was ahead of Lauren English, who touched in 1:03.48 to earn the second seed for finals. Mary Descenza (1:04.43) and Maragaret Hoelzer (1:04.71) should also be in the mix. Swim Star Megan Romano will also contest tonight’s ‘A’ final of the event after posting a 1:05.10 swim.

To no one’s suprise, Katie Hoff posted the top time during the morning heats with a 2:13.54. Ariana Kukors’ 2:20.17 and Lauren Thies’ 2:22.75 were the next fastest times had the next. Megan Romano swam outside her usual program of backstroke and freestyle by competing in the 8th heat of the 200 IM. She touched in 2:28.96.

The men’s 100 fly featured a slew of Swim Stars. Ian Crocker had the morning’s top time of 52.50, followed by Michael Phelps in 53.44. Elsewhere in the prelim session, Davis Tarwater swam to a 54.69 finish and Peter Vanderkaay in 55.57.

The Longhorn swimmers will not be competing at finals tonight. They will be heading back to Austin after prelims wrap up. So Michael Phelps will be the top seed this evening.