USA Swimming Grand Prix, Minnesota: Ryan Lochte Doubles Up, Rachel Komisarz Posts Quick 100 Free

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, November 11. THE first stop of the USA Swimming Grand Prix came to a close in Minneapolis, Minn., as Ryan Lochte picked up two more gold medals on the final night of swimming. Meanwhile, Rachel Komisarz posted a quick time in the 100 free to move up into the top 25 in the event.

Women's 1650 freestyle
Chloe Sutton, 15, of Mission Viejo turned the tables on teammate Micha Burden in the women's distance event after coming up just short of qualifying for the 10K World Championships in Seville with a third-place effort at Trials in Fort Myers. In Florida, Burden wound up winning the event to move on in her pursuit of a berth in Beijing.

Sutton ripped through the 1650 freestyle event with a top time of 16:11.90, while Burden settled for second in 16:22.47.

Minnesota's Yuen Kobayashi (16:26.00), Erin McCleave (16:35.68), swimming unattached, Minnesota's Christine Jennings (17:02.84) and The Fish's Caylyn Tate, 16, (17:19.12) placed third through sixth, with Savannah's Erika Wozniak, 14, (17:19.28) and Minnesota's Amy Funk (17:32.98) rounding out the top eight.

Men's 1650 freestyle
Mission Viejo's Chad La Tourette kept on rolling in the distance events as he added the 1650 free title to his 1000 free from the first night. La Tourette cruised in his victory with a sub-15:00 time of 14:58.82. While not close to his personal-best time of 14:50.48, it still is a solid time at this point in the season.

Gator's Ricardo Monasterio wound up second in 15:07.22, while Mission Viejo's Charlie Rimkus, 16, (15:24.58) and Minnesota's Mike Holmes (15:24.84) placed third and fourth.

Lewis' Jared Zimmer (15:50.74), Balazs Gercsak (15:53.09), Minnesota's Michael Daup (15:57.15) and The Fish's Matthew Benecki, 17, (15:58.20) concluded the top eight finishes.

Women's 200 backstroke
Athens Bulldog Mary Descenza dominated the field with a top time of 1:57.29. Minnesota's trio of Jenny Shaughnessy (2:01.27), Deidre DeWall (2:01.65) and Emilia Nilsson (2:03.37) placed second through fourth in the event.

Meanwhile, Minnesota's Katie Wind (2:03.84), Cedar Rapids' Katharine Anton, 14, (2:04.59), Minnesota's Castina Wabeke (2:06.07) and Andrea Hanson (2:07.06) nabbed the rest of the top eight spots.

Men's 200 backstroke
Ryan Lochte, the quickest man ever in the event with a 1:37.68 in 2006 as well as six of the top 15 times in the 200 back, nearly dipped under 1:41 again with a winning performance of 1:41.18.

Peter Marshall, who upset Lochte in the 100 back yesterday, came up short in the longer event with a second-place 1:45.83.

Suburban's Ian Clark (1:46.11), Tim Liebhold (1:47.51), Minnesota's Joshua Griffey (1:51.03) and Jared White (1:51.58) touched third through sixth, while Paul Young, 16, (1:51.71) and Minnesota's David Plummer closed out the championship final.

Women's 100 freestyle
Lakeside's Rachel Komisarz cracked into the top 25 in the world in the event with a time of 48.46, which puts her behind a trio of 48.40s from Tammy Thomas, Emily Kukors and Courtney Shealy.

"I'm really pleased," Komisarz told USA Swimming. "I swam a couple of best times. It's really starting to come around. Today, I beat my best time by more than a second and a half."

Meanwhile, Trojan's Jessica Hardy continued to demonstrate her sprint ability, this time with a second-place effort of 48.80. Athens Bulldog Kara Lynn Joyce, the second-fastest swimmer of all time in the event with a 47.24 behind only Natalie Coughlin, placed third in 49.99.

The Fish's Kate Ziegler, a dominant force in the distance events, threw down a fourth-place readout of 50.52 as she continues to make her case for a spot on the 800 freestyle relay in Beijing.

Minnesota's Yuen Kobayashi (51.83), Meredith McCarthy (52.04), Stacy Busack (52.23) and Meagan Radecke (52.44) completed the rest of the top eight.

Men's 100 freestyle
In one of the most exciting finishes of the night, Trojan's Kicker Vencill touched out Mike Alexandrov in the men's 100 free by the slimmest of margins, 44.74 to 44.75.

Minnesota owned the rest of the championship heat as Mike Woodson (45.27), Curt Carlson (45.42), Tyler Schmidt (45.74), Stephen Miller (45.96) and Matt Engel (46.26) rounded out the rest of the top eight along with sixth-place Tim Liebhold's 45.86.

Women's 200 butterfly
Athens Bulldog Mary Descenza, the eighth-swiftest swimmer in the event all time, easily uncorked a first-place clocking of 1:56.43. Kim Vandenberg, meanwhile, picked up second place with the only other sub-2:00 of the heat with a time of 1:58.18.

Boilermaker's Carlene Takaki (2:00.69) and Minnesota's Molly Belk (2:02.95) took third and fourth, respectively, while The Fish's Kate Ziegler kept on having fun in off events with a fifth-place time of 2:04.91.

Minnesota's Alicia Jensen (2:06.23) and Emilia Nilsson (2:06.26) as well as Trojan's Vanessa Williamson (2:08.16) comprised the rest of the championship heat.

Men's 200 butterfly
Ryan Lochte doubled his pleasure by adding the 200 fly title to his win in the 200 back, this time with a readout of 1:48.30. He had to hold off Balazs Gercsak, who snared second place with a time of 1:48.63.

Minnesota's Alex Wold (1:49.65) and Mike Alexandrov (1:49.94) touched third and fourth, respectively, while Minnesota's Russ Payne (1:51.54) and Mission Viejo's Fran Crippen (1:51.66) placed fifth and sixth.

Minnesota's Adam Weiss (1:52.16) and Kevin Baseheart (1:52.71) grabbed the rest of the top eight finishes.

"I did pretty well getting up and racing," Lochte told USA Swimming. "It will help me even more when I go to Short Course Nationals."

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