Feb 23, 2010 8:46:11 AM

Swarthmore's Travis Pollen broke a six-year-old American record Sunday for Paralympic swimmers in his physical-disability category.

The sophomore physics major and above-knee amputee posted a time of 54.80 seconds in preliminaries for the 100-yard freestyle at the Centennial Conference championships, beating the record of 54.98 set in the S9 class in January 2004.

Pollen will compete in the U.S. Paralympic spring swimming nationals March 25-27 in San Antonio.