The Dunedin Olympian secured double bronze in the women’s 400m and 800m freestyle events in Carmel at the weekend.
She went head to head with former Dunedin swimmer Erika Fairweather in both distances. Fairweather, who races for North Shore since moving to Auckland, won two silvers.
On the opening day, Fairweather produced the fifth-fastest time of her career in the 400m, dipping under the 4min mark with 3min 58.83sec to finish second.
Deans, who produced a plethora of personal bests at the national championships earlier this year, finished in 4min 0.93sec producing the second-best time of her career in the distance. Australian Lani Pallister won in 3min 54.38sec.
The Neptune swimmer was back in the pool on the final day in the 800m to secure bronze in 8min 13.37sec, also the second-fastest time of Deans’ career in the middle distance.
Fairweather claimed silver in 8min 12.57sec. Pallister cruised to victory in 8min 2.02sec.
Fairweather finished fourth in the 200m and Deans finished 12th.
North Shore swimmer Chelsey Edwards broke the national women’s 50m freestyle record twice, lowering the time set by Hayley Palmer in 2009.
Edwards swam 24.27sec in the heats to break the record and lowered it to 24.11sec in the final.
Olympian Lewis Clareburt also broke his own national record in the men’s 400m IM by nearly 1.5sec, finishing in 4min 3.66sec. He narrowly missed the podium and was fourth overall.
Ten Kiwi swimmers raced in Indiana and they will now head to Wesmont, Illinois, for the second stop of the world series — in a short-course format — this weekend.
Deans will compete in the 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle alongside Fairweather, who will also add the 400m IM to her schedule.
