A foot fracture turned out to be a good break for Arden Pitman.

She made it that way, at least.

The 15-year-old Baylor School sophomore missed out in qualifying for the U.S. Olympics swim trials after breaking a bone in her right foot when she was accidentally bumped down some stairs on campus on April 23. The fall also stretched a ligament across the top of the foot, so she lost the ability to flex it.

But a couple of weeks ago, she set a 100-meter backstroke time that easily would’ve got her in the Olympic trials if it had come three weeks earlier, and Thursday she set two Baylor pool records and shattered a 23-year-old Southeastern Swimming record for the 200-yard backstroke with the fastest U.S. time by a 15-year-old girl this year.

Pitman’s 1:57.22 in the Baylor Swim Club Last Chance Meet was 2 minutes, 54 seconds faster than 1988 Olympian Andrea Hayes’ previous Southeastern record for the 200 back. The time qualifies Pitman for every U.S. Swimming national championship meet through 2009 as well as the U.S. selection trials for the 2009 World Championship, according to Baylor club and school coach Dan Flack.

And she isn’t the only Baylor record-holder in her family. Sloane Pitman, a 6-foot-1 Baylor senior who turns 17 in September, set a school standard of 4:55.84 in the 500 freestyle Thursday. The first high school girl from Chattanooga to break the five-minute barrier in the event, she added to her schedule for the Aug. 4-8 Junior Nationals in Minneapolis and qualified also for the Winter Short Course Nationals.

Sloane will do the 50-, 100-, 200- and 400-meter freestyles in the Junior Nationals, where Arden will be in the 50 and 100 frees, the 100 and 200 backs and the 200 individual medley. She qualified for another event there and also earned spots in next week’s U.S. Open in Minneapolis but is bypassing that along with Baylor Swim Club teammates Brett Roberson and Reese Shirey to focus on the Junior Nationals, which also will include Spencer Rowe and Nathan Vredeveld.

BSC members Alison Lusk and Stephanie Napier will be in the U.S. Open along with McCallie School and Scenic City Aquatic Club standout Sean Ryan.

Vredeveld and Shirey also had Junior Nationals qualifying times Thursday, and Lusk and Josh Sosna set pool records.

Eleven weeks after breaking her foot, Arden Pitman won five events and finished second in two others in the Southeastern Swimming Championships in Nashville. It was the first time she beat her sister head-to-head in the 50 and 100 frees, but Sloane was sick that weekend.

Their competition has made both better, they and Flack agree. Even their mother, Laura, a Baylor assistant coach, is OK with it now but admits she “cringed” when Flack made the decision to pit the Pitmans against each other.

“It was just a mom not wanting one to be over the other in any way,” said Laura Pitman, who was a backstroker at the University of Tennessee. “But they handle it well and I can see it as one or the other.”

Said Flack: “Honestly, I dodged it as long as I could, but it just became apparent to me that there are certain events where those two are better than anybody else around — especially in the sprint freestyles, in Tennessee and throughout the region. Eventually, the numbers don’t lie.”

Arden actually had the passion for swimming before her older sister, but Sloane’s interest increased when they came together to Baylor from Loftis Middle School when she was a ninth-grader.

“She really got into it then, and she caught up quickly,” Arden said. “I’m a very competitive person, but she got faster than I in the freestyle events. Going against her really does help my times.”

Said Sloane: “Coach Flack says that something about racing her makes me come alive, and it’s true that I’ve done some of my best swims with her right next to me. I’m appreciative of that and I’m proud of her.”

Arden’s comeback from the injury has made others proud. She first had to overcome her disappointment about the Olympic trials. But she decided that swimming one heat, likely, at the trials would not be as satisfying in the long run as continued development in several events, and she took pride in improving her upper-body strength.

When she returned to the pool, that translated into improved times.

“I just thought it was a great lesson for all the kids in our program to see, because it was a serious blow and she was crushed for a little bit,” Flack said. “But we talked with her and got her regrouped and refocused, and she bought into the notion that this was not the end of the world.”

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