Theilemann breaks one minute at nationals

Tara Theilemann met her goal by breaking a minute in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Swimming Championships on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, her Carson Tigershark teammate, Lauren Costella, continued to struggle somewhat in the meet.

Theilemann, a Carson High senior, finished the 100 free in 59.82 seconds, breaking one minute for the first time. Her finish helped her to move up to 78th place after coming into the event seeded No. 110.

"I was pretty happy with that," said Tigershark coach Jim Puleo about Theilemann breaking a minute.

Puleo also said the depth of the field was demonstrated by Theilemann's 78th place finish even though she broke one minute.

Meanwhile, Costella, also a Carson senior, placed 38th in the 200 butterfly in 2:19.12. Puleo said that he wanted Costella to break 1:06 in the first 100 and she did with a 1:05.8 split.

"She did what I asked," Puleo said. "She just fell off in the back half."

Costella also had a somewhat disappointing finish in the 800 free on Tuesday, finishing 15th in 8:50.04. Costella's time still met the Olympic trial qualifying standard.

"She was off, but even when she's off, she still gets enough for an Olympic trial qualifying time," Puleo said.

Today, Theilemann will swim in the 200 free while Costella will compete in the 400 individual medley. Also scheduled to swim in the 200 free today is Carson High graduate Julie Hardt, a junior at Georgia.