Race Day Recap of Day 1 at Arena Grand Prix in Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota November 14. THIS is the first stop in the grand prix series and some big athletes are in attendance. Unfortunately Ryan Lochte is not competing due to his most recent injury. Swimming World will keep you updated on Ryan’s time in the water. Click to Watch Race Day Video

The big news of the night wasn’t even in the water! Michael Phelps himself graced the Minneapolis pool deck for warm ups. He was in the water as well as seen talking to coach Bob Bowman. Swimming World just broke that Michael has re-entered the testing pool at USADA. In light of these steps, he will be eligible to make the summer National Team if he chooses to do so. Will he or won’t he is the question. Swimming World will keep you updated first.

We saw some great racing night number one. Megan Romano is still pushing away at the 200 freestyle. She was about four seconds off what she went last year at her final NCAA competition but she won the first final of the series with a 1:45.2. Interestingly breaststroker Kaitlin Leverenz topped out the final 8. In the men’s 200 freestyle, North Baltimore’s Connor Dwyer and Yannick Agnel battled to the finish. Agnel clocked a 1:31.9 just out touching Dwyer.

We almost saw some sub one minute swims in the ladies 100 breaststroke from Haley Spencer and Kierra Smith. But the battle was on the men’s side. Four swimmers finished between a 52.5 and 52.9. BJ Johnson came out on top just in front of Eetu Karvonen, Mike Alexandrov and Carlos Almeida.

Claire Donahue showed she has maintained her butterfly speed winning the 100 butterfly in a 51.8. Once again it was another close race for the men but Cesar Cielo took the W 46.1.

The 400 IM was the last event of night number one and Olympians Caitlin Leverenz and Connor Dwyer finished comfortably in front of the field, 4:07 and 3:40 respectively.
Day Two includes the 200 butterfly, 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 500 freestyle and 200 breaststroke and the heats are stacked. For full Arena Grand Prix coverage go to SwimmingWorld.com. You can also get live coverage and results on Twitter so make sure to follow @SwimmingWorld.

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