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No performances stood out, but none could have been expected under the circumstances.
After two power outages caused a two-hour delay, another blackout came during the women's 400 free consol. Then the next race, the 100 free featured the bulkhead moving about a foot in lanes six to eight and collapsing the lane lines. After a long consultation, officials decided the race would be reswum following the remaining races.
Bulkhead breaks away In the nullified 100 free, Olympic silver medallist Gary Hall managed just a fourth in 50.10 with Neil Walker and West Florida's Scott Tucker going 1-2. Given another opportunity, Hall slipped to fifth in 50.32. Tucker nosed out Walker with a personal-best 49.68 the second time around.
Officials inspect bulkhead 
Hammering in the starting block "I noticed the lane lines got slack in the first race, causing waves in a few of the lanes," described Tucker, a former Auburn swimmer. "I don't think it was fair to make us do it again tonight. We should have swum it later in the week. All that time waiting and having to come back and swim again 40 minutes later was tough."
Coaches try to make right decision 
Hall pays the price for the chaos Silver medallist Tom Malchow related that he warmed up "four or five times" for the 200 butterfly because of the delays. The Club Wolverine standout hoped to go 1:56 high but settled for a 1:58.37 victory, overtaking leader Ugur Taner of Hillenbrand coming off the final wall.
Tom Malchow, winner of the 200 butterfly The night's commotion changed the plans of 26-year-old veteran Lea Maurer (formerly Loveless). When the U.S. record holder (1:00.82) did 1:01.60 in the morning, the Badger performer felt she had a shot at her mark. But the holdups caused her to take a more conservative approach. She nevertheless went 1:01.53 to beat Olympic gold medallist Beth Botsford of North Baltimore (1:02.13) and produce the fastest 100 back at a nationals in five years.
In the women's 400 free, Brooke Bennett and Diana Munz displayed their distance superiority with another 1-2 finish. But two years ago Bennett went almost a second faster than her winning time of 4:11.34.