Breaststroke

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- It took more than two months for Anita Nall to return to swimming. It took a little more than two minutes at the Phillips 66 spring nationals for her to discover she's on the way back.The 1992 Olympic gold medalist did not compete from December through the end of February while battling mononucleosis. She returned to the water in February and competed for the first time yesterday. She responded with a second-place finish in the 200-meter breaststroke."Everyone thinks I'm so upset because I didn't win, but I'm happy to get second," said Nall, a senior at Towson Catholic.

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Baseball Savage Boys and Girls Club The Savage Boys and Girls Club's U-12 Screaming Eagles just returned from a successful trip to Cooperstown, N.Y. where they participated in a week-long tournament that included 104 teams from across the country and Canada.

North St. John's The North St. John's Blue Marlins defeated Dulaney, 302-186, in the second meet of the Central Maryland Swim League season. North St. John's had 25 Straehle qualifiers and 173 improvement ribbons were given. Anika Ekanyake, Samantha Ekanyake and Deanna Parsons placed first in all three of their events. Parsons broke another pool record with her 50 breaststroke time of 37.78. Other first-place finishers included Emily Bullock, Alyssa Corb, Brendan Demek, Alex Holland, Matthew Kohler, Aaron Luther, Cassie Meyers, Brendan Rice, Tharen Rice, Jeffrey Roman, Maggie Roman, Benjamin Skopic, Kayla Snyder, Katherine Stagg, Anne Warren, Dylan Wilson, Kevin Zgorski and Kyle Zgorski.

North St. John's The North St. John's Blue Marlins defeated Dulaney, 302-186, in the second meet of the Central Maryland Swim League season. North St. John's had 25 Straehle qualifiers and 173 improvement ribbons were given. Anika Ekanyake, Samantha Ekanyake and Deanna Parsons placed first in all three of their events. Parsons broke another pool record with her 50 breaststroke time of 37.78. Other first-place finishers included Emily Bullock, Alyssa Corb, Brendan Demek, Alex Holland, Matthew Kohler, Aaron Luther, Cassie Meyers, Brendan Rice, Tharen Rice, Jeffrey Roman, Maggie Roman, Benjamin Skopic, Kayla Snyder, Katherine Stagg, Anne Warren, Dylan Wilson, Kevin Zgorski and Kyle Zgorski.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Olympic swimmer Anita Nall won her fifth national breaststroke title yesterday at the 1993 Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships, winning the 200-meter breaststroke.Swimming in her first major championships since the 1992 Barcelona Games, Nall, a 16-year-old from Towson, was challenged by California's Kristine Quance, who swept both breaststrokes and individual medleys at the 1992 Summer Nationals.Quance finished second with a time of 2 minutes, 29.72 seconds. Olympian Megan Kleine was third with a time of 2:30.

Anita Nall, a Towson High freshman, came within 37/100ths of a second of the world record in the women's 200-meter breaststroke in the Phillips 66/U.S. Spring Nationals last night in Seattle.Nall, 14, who swims for the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, won the event in 2:27.08, lopping an astonishing 2 1/2 seconds off the U.S. record of 2:29.58 set by Amy Shaw in 1987. The world mark of 2:26.71 was set by East Germany's Silke Horner during the 1988 Olympics. Nall's time is the second best in history.

BARCELONA, Spain -- For Jill Johnson, the waiting was the hardest part.Her swimming career came down to these excruciating moments yesterday in the preliminaries of the women's 200-meter breaststroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics.Cooped up in a room for 20 minutes before her race, she paced and waved her arms, anything to try to get her blood flowing, her heart pumping. And then, after finishing second in her heat, she climbed out of the water and stood on the pool deck, squinting into the sun, watching for the times of the last heat, finally realizing that she was not going to get to the final.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Anita Nall reappeared at the 1992 Summer Olympics today.The sophomore from Towson Catholic High turned in the second fastest qualifying time in the 100-meter breaststroke heats, finishing in 1:09.32. Elena Roudkovskaia, of the Unified team, had the best time of 1:08.75.The finals were to be held later today.The strong showing by Nall, 16, also qualified her for breaststroke leg of the 4x100 medley relay. The U.S. team will be heavily favored to win that event.Nall was the gold-medal favorite to win the 200-meter breaststroke but ended up winning a bronze medal Monday.

AUSTIN, Texas - The competition in the American Short Course Championships yesterday produced a rarity, a final that Michael Phelps had about zero chance of winning. Phelps' only event was the 200-yard breaststroke. The breaststroke is Phelps' weakest stroke. In the morning, preliminary swim, he finished in sixth place, behind even a couple of 16-year-old high schoolers. And they weren't even his real competition in the final. The overwhelming favorite was Brendan Hansen, a former University of Texas swimmer who is the U.S. record-holder in the event and the bronze medalist in the 200-meter version of the race in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

COLLEGE PARK - His head under water, his lead shrinking, Ed Moses heard the crowd roar. As favorite in the 100-meter breaststroke after his silver-medal performance in the Sydney Olympics, Moses knew most at the University of Maryland for the FINA/USA World Cup last night had come to see him, the hero from another Washington suburb, Burke, Va.. The time had come to deliver. Moses didn't disappoint. He held off Canadian Morgan Knabe for a gold medal with a strong final lap, posting a solid time of 1 minute, 6.06 seconds.

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Gymnastics Docksiders Gymnastics Docksiders Level 8 gymnast Maria Ramsey, of Columbia, competed at the 2012 Parkettes Invitational Junior 12-13 meet Jan. 29, in Allentown, Pa., with the following results: 1. all-around (35.5)

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Swimming Columbia Clippers Columbia Aquatics Clippers swim team participated in two meets in December, the Maryland Suburban Swim Club's Christmas Championship at Fairland Aquatics Center and the Sport Fair Winter Classic at George Mason.

The Springlake Piranhas swim team opened its season in Division II of the Central Maryland Swim League with a meet at Westminster Riding Club. While the Piranhas came up on the short end of the team score, a number of swimmers had great performances. For instance, Katie McComas set a new team record in the 13-14 girls 100-yard freestyle. A number of swimmers improved previous times by 10 seconds or more, led by Noah Williams, who improved more than 33 seconds in the 6-under boys 25-yard freestyle; and Ethan McKenna, who improved his 6-under boys 25-yard backstroke by more than 20 seconds.

Sean Roddy and Hugh Davison helped Loyola make a little history last night at McDonogh. Roddy set two individual school records and was part of two relay teams that did the same while Davison established one mark on his own and another on a relay to help Loyola roll to a 92-73 victory in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference swimming meet. The Dons set five school records at this event - three in individual events and two in relays. Roddy's records came in the 100 breaststroke (56.08 seconds)

Her fourth medal was silver, not gold - but Jessica Long was happy with that. Yesterday, the Middle River swimmer finished second in the women's 100-meter backstroke in a personal best of 1 minute, 19.56 seconds at the Paralympics in Beijing. The performance followed Long's third-place showing Monday in the 100-meter breaststroke - dashing her hopes of winning seven golds in as many races. Monday "was a bad swim for me," Long, 16, said. "I was disappointed, but I came back strong" in the backstroke.

* Archery South Korea won a gold medal in the men's team competition, beating China in the final. France picked up the bronze. * Badminton Competition in women's doubles and women's singles continued without the eliminated U.S. doubles team. * Beach volleyball The U.S. men's team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal started out well with a 21-16, 21-15 win over Emiel Boersma and Bram Rommes of the Netherlands. The pair move on to a Tuesday match against Germany's Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann.

INDIANAPOLIS - Towson's Anita Nall will be a spectator when her American record in the women's 200-meter breaststroke goes down over the next two days. Nall, an Olympic gold medalist in 1992, knew that this year's U.S. trials would be her farewell to competitive swimming. After a labored effort in the 100 breaststroke preliminaries, she decided to withdraw from the 200 breaststroke and begin her retirement two days early. "I don't have much more to put into racing here," Nall said. "My first event was a good indicator that the 200 [breaststroke]

INDIANAPOLIS -- The U.S. Olympic swimming trials were once the threshold of a dream for Anita Nall, who won the women's 100- and 200-meter breaststroke in the 1992 trials and went on to three Olympic medals at age 16. This time, the weeklong Olympic selection meet may be her last stand."

Columbia, MO. -- Michael Phelps didn't sleep well this past week at the Missouri Grand Prix. And he couldn't figure out why. It wasn't anxiety. It wasn't bad dreams. He didn't think, at the time, it was the prospect of swimming morning finals. But each night, he lay awake in bed, staring at the television. His body was exhausted. But sleep did not come easily. "I usually fall asleep better with the TV on," said Phelps, who is from Rodgers Forge. "I fell asleep every night with the TV on this week, but it was hard.

Havre de Grace has only 21 swimmers on its roster this season, but the Warriors are getting plenty of production from them en route to a 6-3 start. Coach Aaron Thompson said that this is the school's smallest team in 15 years. That makes it tougher in meets because it means everyone must do more. But the Warriors keep winning. "A number of factors outside our control have dealt us a [small team]," Thompson said. "Despite those obstacles, our skeleton crew has worked hard and fared well."