{"id":141599,"date":"2026-02-03T04:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141599\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T04:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:10:08","slug":"mary-t-breaks-another-masters-world-record-to-finish-rowdy-gaines-classic-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141599\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary T. Breaks Another Masters World Record to Finish Rowdy Gaines Classic in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 30-February 1, 2026
\nRosen Aquatic and Fitness Center, Orlando, Florida
\nShort Course Meters (25 meters)
\nLive Meet Results<\/a>\u00a0(also on Meet Mobile)<\/p>\n

Mary T. (Meagher) Plant broke a second individual World Record and contributed to a second relay World Record on Sunday at the Rowdy Gaines Masters Classic.<\/p>\n

In the 100 fly, she swam 1:06.30, to crack almost a second and a half off the old record of 1:07.79. The prior record was set in 2024 by American\u00a0Ellen Reynolds<\/a>, a Masters swimming legend who dominates the 60-64 age group record books.<\/p>\n

That swim followed Plant\u2019s 200 fly World Record of 2:36.16 in the 200 fly on Saturday, which knocked almost four seconds off that World Record.<\/p>\n

Plant also swam 28.95 in the 50 free, missing the World Record of 28.13, and swam a leg of a winning and Meet-Record setting 200 free relay on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Plant ended her meet combining with teammates to break a World Record in the 240-279 (combined ages) 400 meter free relay. The team\u2019s final time of 4:20.00 crushed the old record of 4:23.64 set by American relay Team Redbird in 2024.<\/p>\n

Plant, 62; Alison Hayden, 55;\u00a0Erika Braun<\/a>, 54; and\u00a0Penny Noyes<\/a>, 72; combined for the new record setting relay. Their combined ages are 243, based on ages at the end of the year (Plant has not actually had her birthday yet this year, but Masters swimming uses ages at the end of the year).<\/p>\n

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

Mary T Meagher, Erika Braun<\/a>, Alison Hayden, and Penny Noyes<\/a> combined to break another World Record on Sunday. Courtesy: Erika Braun<\/a><\/p>\n

That same quartet broke the record in the 800 free relay on Friday by more than 15 seconds.<\/p>\n

After decades away from competition, Plant 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","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":141600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67732,68746,67733,67736,67737,139,141,140,67738],"class_list":{"0":"post-141599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-alison-hayden","9":"tag-ellen-reynolds","10":"tag-erika-braun","11":"tag-mary-t-meagher-plant","12":"tag-mary-t-meagher","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news","16":"tag-penny-noyes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141599","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=141599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}