April 30, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M freshman swimmer Rita Medrano (Aguascalientes, Mexico) ran roughshod over the Mexican Long Course National Championships in Tijuana this past week, winning five events and setting two national records.
Medrano, who qualified for the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Italy, thanks to her national record performance in the 100-meter butterfly on Sunday, did likewise in the 200-meter butterfly on Tuesday night. The A&M school record holder in the 200 fly destroyed her own previous national record of 2:14.62 in the event, set at the 2007 Pan Am Trials in Boca del RÃo, by going 2:12.06 on Tuesday night. Medrano has set the Mexican record in both the 100 and 200-meter butterfly at both the long and short courses distances in the past five months.
Medrano made it a clean sweep of the butterfly races, winning the 50-meter butterfly on Monday in 28.35, finishing only .31 off Teresa Victor's national record of 28.04 set in April of 2004. She closed out her remarkable meet by winning the 200-meter individual medley in 2:21.17 on Wednesday night, giving her a sweep of both medley races in addition to her trio of butterfly wins. Medrano opened the meet with a win in the 400 IM in 4:55.17 on Saturday.