• IPC Swimming World Championships live results (wcswimming2010.com)
• Kelley Becherer in swim (bostonherald.com)

Northeastern sophomore swimmer Kelley Becherer got her IPC Swimming World Championships off to a good start with a gold-medal winning performance in the 200 IM with a time of 2:30.32, which sets a new American record. Becherer followed up with a bronze medal in the 100 butterfly and a gold medal in the 50 freestyle.

Becherer bested Canada's Valerie Grand-Maison by 0.76 seconds. She fell to Great Britain's Rhiannon Henry in the 100 meter butterfly by 2.45 seconds, but came back to claim the 50 freestyle with a time of 28.00, 0.18 seconds ahead of Ukraine's Iryna Balashova.

Becherer, who is in Eindhoven, Netherlands for the competition, still has three more events to compete in this week. She will be in the 100 freestyle, 400 freestyle and 100 backstroke later this week.

The Sheboygan, Wisc., native is currently ranked first in the world for the S13 classification in the 100-meter backstroke. She is also ranked second in the world in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle. She is ranked third in the 100-meter butterfly.

During her freshman campaign for the Huskies, Becherer set four American Paralympic records. Her performances in the 50-yard freestyle (24.77) on Nov. 20, 2009, 1000-yard freestyle (11:11.28) on Feb. 6, 2010, 500-yard freestyle (5:22.02) on Jan. 30, 2010, and 100-yard backstroke (102.02) on Jan. 30, 2010 now stand alone atop the S13 (swimmers with a visual disability) record books.

At the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, Becherer earned gold in the 50m freestyle S13, and bronze in both the 100-meter freestyle S13 and 400-meter freestyle S13. Her upcoming performances will go a long way toward her reaching the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.