Santa Rosa's Molly Hannis takes 7th in U.S. swim finals

Molly Hannis, a Santa Rosa High graduate who swam collegiately at the University of Tennessee, took seventh in the 100-meter breaststroke Saturday night at the National Championships in Irvine.

Hannis was timed in 1 minute, 8.82 seconds in the final. She had qualified seventh in the prelims earlier Saturday at 1:08.32.

Her best finish in three events at the meet was fourth place in the 200 breaststroke. The top two women in each event earned spots on the U.S. team for the Pan Pacific Championships, set for Aug. 21-25 in Australia.

Earlier, Katie Ledecky, 17, of Bethesda, Md. broke the world record in the 400 freestyle, becoming the first woman since Janet Evans to own world marks in the 400, 800 and 1,500 free at the same time. Ledecky won in 3:58.86 and was under world-record pace the entire race.

Ledecky swam the third-fastest time ever in the morning preliminaries, clocking 3:59.82. She joined Italy’s Federica Pellegrini as the only women to break 4 minutes in the event, with Ledecky dipping under that barrier three times now. She is the current world champion.

Windsor High grad Alexa Davis swam in the 400 free prelims Saturday morning, finishing in 4:19.47 to place 47th. She had entered the event seeded 72nd.

Maria Carrillo High grad Maya DiRado, who earned a spot on the U.S. team going to Australia with her second-place finish Friday in the 400 individual medley, will swim in the 200 IM today. She had the ninth-fastest time (1:01.76) in the 100 backstroke prelims Saturday morning but elected not to compete in the ‘B’ final Saturday night.