{"id":139033,"date":"2026-01-31T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139033\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T20:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:08:10","slug":"mary-t-erika-braun-and-st-pete-masters-swimming-shatter-world-records-at-rowdy-gaines-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/139033\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary T, Erika Braun, and St. Pete Masters Swimming Shatter World Records at Rowdy Gaines Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 30-February 1, 2026
\nRosen Aquatic and Fitness Center, Orlando, Florida
\nShort Course Meters (25 meters)
\nLive Meet Results<\/a> (also on Meet Mobile)<\/p>\n

Olympic champion and swimming legend Mary T. (Meagher) Plant has dived head first into Masters swimming after many decades away from competition, and she has quickly become one of the sport\u2019s leading figures globally.<\/p>\n

At this weekend\u2019s Rowdy Gaines<\/a> Masters Classic, the 17th edition of one of the country\u2019s biggest annual Masters swimming meets, Mary T. switched her club affiliation to St. Pete Masters. New USMS rules allow swimmers to change their club affiliation 3 times per year, and after that they are locked in until the next year.<\/p>\n

St. Pete Masters is home to some of the country\u2019s best Masters\u2019 swimmers, and the group teamed up on Friday to break the 800 SCM freestyle relay World Record by a whopping\u00a015 seconds.<\/p>\n

Mary T. led off in 2:15.70, and she was followed by\u00a0Alison Hayden (2:23.04),\u00a0Erika Braun<\/a> (2:16.24), and\u00a0Penny Noyes<\/a> (2:36.15). The relay\u2019s final time of 9:31.13 was over 15 seconds ahead of the World Record (9:46.31) for aggregate age group 240-279. That old records was set by British club Harrogate in October 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The World Record setters: Plant, Hayden, Braun, and Noyes. Courtesy: Erika Braun<\/a><\/p>\n

Hayden is 55, Braun is 54, and Noyes is 72 (based on their age at the end of this year).<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t the end of the road for the 61-year-old Olympic legend Plant. She came back on Saturday and posted a 2:36.16 in her specialty event, the 200 meter fly. That swim took almost four seconds off the World Record for the 60-64 age group, which was a 2:39.81 done by Canadian Ilka Lowensteyn in May 2025.<\/p>\n

Fellow Olympian\u00a0Vesna Shelnutt, who is 41 and represented Macedonia at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and was the 2001 European Junior Championships silver medalist in the 200 fly, swam in the same heat and finished in 2:31.39 to win the 40-44 age group.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary T. (Meagher) Plant and fellow Olympian Vesna Tojanovska. Courtesy: Erika Braun<\/a><\/p>\n

Plant is scheduled to swim the 200 free, 50 free, 50 fly, 100 free, and 100 fly later in the meet.<\/p>\n

After decades away from competition, Meagher returned to the pool as a Masters swimmer in 2025, swimming at several meets across the country<\/p>\n

During her professional career, Plant won five Olympic medals, including golds in the 100 fly, 200 fly, and 400 medley relay at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She accumulated nine World Championship medals as well, two of which were gold. She held the World Record in the 100-meter fly from 1980 until 1999 and the 200 fly from 1979 until 2000, setting those records when she was 15 and 14, respectively.<\/p>\n

Her 200 fly time of 2:05.96 from 1981 remains the U.S. National Age Group Record in that event 44 years later, one of the oldest records on the books.<\/p>\n

The Rowdy Gaines<\/a> Masters meet usually attracts a number of swimming celebrities each year from across the Southeastern United States. Gaines himself swam on Saturday, touching in 28.33 in the 25 free. He has an entry in the 50 free yet to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January 30-February 1, 2026 Rosen Aquatic and Fitness Center, Orlando, Florida Short Course Meters (25 meters) Live Meet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[67732,67733,67734,67735,67736,67737,67738,67739,202,204,203,199,201,200,67740,67741],"class_list":{"0":"post-139033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-alison-hayden","9":"tag-erika-braun","10":"tag-ilka-lowensteyn","11":"tag-mary-plant","12":"tag-mary-t-meagher-plant","13":"tag-mary-t-meagher","14":"tag-penny-noyes","15":"tag-rowdy-gaines","16":"tag-st-pete","17":"tag-st-pete-headlines","18":"tag-st-pete-news","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news","22":"tag-vesna-shelnutt","23":"tag-vesna-tojanovska"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}