Katie Ledecky is back at Stanford and back to pulverizing distance races.
The sophomore and five-time Olympic champion won a 1,650-yard freestyle by 54.45 seconds at a meet at Texas A&M on Saturday night. The runner-up was in a different heat; Ledecky won her heat by 1:02.16.
Ledecky lowered her own American record, clocking 15:03.31. She had the previous mark of 15:03.92 set last Nov. 20.
Ledecky had every swimmer lapped in the 25-yard pool before the halfway point and ended up lapping everyone twice.
The 1,650 is the longest race on the NCAA program, while the longest race at the Olympics and world championships is the 1500m.