Santa Rosa's Maya DiRado punches swim ticket to Australia

Maya DiRado of Santa Rosa finished second in the 400-meter individual medley race Friday at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine to qualify for the U.S. team that will swim in the Pan Pacific Championships, set for Aug. 21-25 in Australia.

DiRado, who prepped at Maria Carrillo High and is a former NCAA champion in the 400 IM for Stanford, finished in 4 minutes, 35.75 seconds, the seventh-fastest time in the world this year.

Santa Rosa High grad Molly Hannis finished eighth in the 50-meter breaststroke. She narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. Pan Pacific team after placing fourth in the 200 breaststroke Thursday. She has one last shot today in the 100 breaststroke.

Elizabeth Beisel of Saunderstown, R.I. won the 400 IM in 4:32.98, the fourth-fastest time in the world this year. She drew motivation from a miscue in the 200 backstroke on Thursday. She entered that final as one of the favorites but slipped off the wall on her start and finished sixth.

In the 400 IM, Beisel and DiRado both were in the middle of the pack of eight finalists after the opening butterfly leg, but starting with the backstroke leg, they were the top two competitors for the remainder of the race.

In men’s finals, Tyler Clary won the 400 IM, Tom Shields edged Michael Phelps (51.29 to 51.30) in the 100 fly, Brendan McHugh won the 50 breaststroke and David Plummer claimed the 50 backstroke. In other women’s finals, Kendyl Stewart won the 100 fly and Rachel Bootsma captured the 50 backstroke.