IU's Lilly King breaks own American record, finishes 4-year sweep with another NCAA title

It wasn’t enough that Lilly King was the first woman to swim the 100-yard breaststroke in less than 56 seconds. Or that she already had three NCAA titles in this event.

This is her event, and she underscored that Friday night in the NCAA Championships at Austin, Texas.

The Indiana University senior completed a four-year sweep, clocking 55.73 seconds to lower her own American and NCAA records. On Feb. 22, in the Big Ten meet at Bloomington, she became the first under 56 with a time of 55.88.

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The Evansville native won by 2.10 seconds, the largest margin in NCAA history for the 100 breaststroke. The previous largest was 1.73, also by King, last year. Eastern Michigan’s Delaney Duncan was second in 57.83.

King became the second to win four NCAA titles in this event, joining Stanford’s Tara Kirk (2001-04). King is the first Big Ten woman to achieve a four-year sweep in any event and first seven-time national champion ever from the conference. She has nine of the fastest times ever in the 100 breaststroke.

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Another former Indiana high school swimmer making history was California’s Amy Bilquist, a senior from Carmel. She finished second in the 100 backstroke in 50.05, climbing to 10th on the all-time list. Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson was first in 49.18, breaking the American record of 49.66 set earlier this month by 17-year-old Regan Smith. Texas junior Claire Adams, also of Carmel, was 10th in 51.43.

On Thursday, Bilquist swam on Cal’s winning teams in the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relays.

Minnesota diver Sarah Bacon, a Cardinal Ritter graduate, broke a 12-year NCAA record to win 1-meter with a score of 363.20 points Thursday. She was fifth on 3-meter Friday.

Heading into Saturday’s final day, Cal leads Stanford 328-299.5 in team standings. Indiana is 10th with 122 points.

Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com or call 317-444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.