USA Swimming Grand Prix, Missouri: Day One Prelims Feature Plenty of Pool Records

COLUMBIA, Missouri, February 15. THE first day of the USA Swimming Missouri Grand Prix opened up with evening prelims in Columbia, Mo. Among some of the definite storylines throughout the weekend are the U.S. competition debut of new swimsuits as well as Michael Phelps going after a possible world record.

Women's 100 free prelims
Natalie Coughlin, the American record holder in the event with a 53.40, smoked prelims with a top qualifying time of 54.47. That performance put her behind Britta Steffen's 54.28 as the top effort in the world this year.

Katie Hoff, showing her versatility, placed second in personal-best time of 54.60, down from her 55.21 set at the 2006 National Championships.

Kara Lynn Joyce clocked a third-place effort of 54.68, just off her best of 54.38, while Kim Vandenberg finished fourth in 54.87.

Other top eight qualifiers included Jessica Hardy (55.75), Leila Vaziri (56.16), Tanica Jamison (56.65) and Rachel Komisarz/Anna Vanderpool-Wallace, who tied for eighth and are up for a swim-off with matching 56.67s.

Komisarz wound up showing some veteran experience when she knocked her prelim time down to 56.48 during the swim-off, while Vanderpool-Wallace touched in 56.72 to be relegated to the consolation heat.

Men's 100 free prelims
Matt Grevers' metamorphosis into a full-time freestyler, after making a name for himself as a backstroke specialist in college, is pretty much complete. With a preliminary pool-record time of 48.59, which destroyed his previous best time of 49.61 set at the World University Games last summer, Grevers leapt into the top 20 all time after sitting in the mid 60s.

The time also gave Grevers the second-fastest time of the year thus far, behind only Eamon Sullivan's sterling time of 48.28 set during the NSW State Open Championships in Australia earlier today.

Cesar Cielo joined Grevers under the pool record of 49.66, previously set by Simon Burnett in last year's Grand Prix, with a smoking time of 49.07 – half-a-second off his best effort of 48.51.

The championship final will be loaded with some all-star sprinters as Roland Schoeman (49.92), Bryan Lundquist (49.97), Neil Walker (50.00), Nick Brunelli (50.01), Lyndon Ferns (50.01) and Ryk Neethling (50.06) make up the rest of the top eight.

Women's 200 fly prelims
Mary DeScenza edged out Kim Vandenberg for the top seed in the women's 200 fly as DeScenza stopped the clock in 2:10.19. Vandenberg touched just a bit slower with a second-place time of 2:10.44. Both are pretty quick in-season times, but no where near the 2:07s posted by Natsumi Hoshi and Felicity Galvez thus far this year. It will be interesting to see if morning finals sees and improvement.

Felicia Lee, 15, who continues to show promise as being another in the long line of teen stars produced by North Baltimore Aquatics, finished third in 2:11.11, while Dana Kirk took fourth in 2:12.20.

Caroline McElhany (2:13.14), Abbie Fish (2:14.69), Whitney Lopus (2:14.99) and Julie Stupp (2:15.31) completed the rest of the championship eight.

Men's 200 fly prelims
With everyone in attendance wondering if Michael Phelps might pop a world record, even during prelims, in the event he shocked the world in last year with an unshaven, untapered global standard, he gave the crowd something to cheer about with a quick 1:55.26.

While not near his incredibly fast world record of 1:52.09 set at the 2007 World Championships, or even his world record of 1:53.71 set last year at this meet, Phelps will be looking to prove he has morning finals figured out as he guns after the standard tomorrow. Even so, his preliminary time still blew away the previous best time this year of 1:56.06 set by Pawel Korzeniowski at the test event in China.

Club Wolverine teammate Davis Tarwater joined the top five in the world this year with a swift time of 1:57.53 for second, while Dan Madwed, soon to be a Michigan Wolverine but still wearing the North Baltimore cap, took third in 1:58.35.

Stefan Gherghel touched fourth in 1:59.34, while Kaio Almeida registered a fifth-place 1:59.64 as the final sub-2:00 times.

Tamas Kerekjarto (2:00.00), Todd Cooper (2:01.18) and Bobby Bollier (2:01.20) grabbed the last three transfer spots into finals.

Women's 200 back prelims
Kirsty Coventry obliterated the pool record with a splendid time of 2:08.89, just a second off her personal best time of 2:07.54 and two seconds faster than the previous best time in the world this year of 2:10.92 set by Elizabeth Beisel.

Mary DeScenza held the old pool record with a time of 2:15.32 set last year at this meet. Meanwhile, DeScenza also far surpassed her old standard with a second-place time of 2:13.72, while Elizabeth Wycliffe joined her with a time of 2:13.88 for third.

Margaret Hoelzer checked in with a fourth-place time of 2:14.50, while Hayley McGregory took fifth in 2:15.58.

Jacque Fessel (2:16.17), Leila Vaziri (2:16.58) and Katharine Anton (2:17.29) comprised the rest of the title contenders. Tomorrow morning should be interesting for Anton, as the 14-year-old from Cedar Rapids Aquatics will face off against nothing but 20-somethings.

Men's 200 back prelims
Aaron Peirsol clocked a 1:59.08 as the lone sub-2:00 time of the preliminary session. With the pool record at 1:56.27, set by Peirsol last year, the facility might need to post another standard after tomorrow morning. Peirsol moved into second in the world during the young year, behind only Ryosuke Irie's 1:56.33 from last month.

Matt Grevers, who already put on a show with a scintillating swim in the 100 free to put his name among relay-spot contenders for the U.S. Olympic Team come Omaha, came close to his personal best in the 200 back of 1:59.99 with a time of 2:00.22.

Doug Van Wie checked in with a third-place time of 2:02.57, while world-record holder Ryan Lochte settled for fourth in 2:02.60.

Other top eight qualifiers include Peter Marshall (2:03.02), David Cromwell (2:03.08), Jayme Cramer (2:04.00) and Brett Fraser (2:04.14).

Women's 400 free prelims
Katie Hoff threw down the gauntlet in the 400 free with a personal-best time of 4:04.44. That effort not only crushed the pool record she set last year at 4:09.47, it put her two seconds ahead of the top time in the world this year previously held by Kate Ziegler with a 4:06.17. Additionally, Hoff inched closer to Ziegler's U.S. Open record of 4:04.24 as well as Janet Evans' American standard of 4:03.85.

Ziegler clocked a second-place time of 4:07.44, while quickly improving Chloe Sutton finished third with a personal-best time of 4:11.36. Sutton, who has returned some focus back to the pool after finishing outside of the top two to continue her bid to make the open water Olympic team, knocked three seconds from her best effort.

Jessica Rodriquez took fourth in 4:12.78, while Katie Carroll placed fifth in 4:14.12.

Elizabeth Goldson (4:15.19), Allison Schmitt (4:15.45) and Ashley Chandler (4:15.67) claimed the last three transfer spots to the championship heat.

Men's 400 free prelims
Erik Vendt continued his recent surge in performance with a personal-best time of 3:46.39 to lead qualifying in the middle distance event. He cut his previous best of 3:47.53 set at the national championships, and now has the third-best time in the world this year behind Zhang Lin's 3:45.04 and Grant Hackett's time of 3:45.24 set today at the NSW State Open.

Klete Keller, working towards his third Olympics, placed second in 3:47.04, while Peter Vanderkaay hit the wall in 3:52.81. Vanderkaay is fresh off an American record over short course yards in the 500 free.

Sergiy Fesenko pocketed fourth with a time of 3:52.84, while Chad La Tourette finished fifth in 3:52.91.

Fran Crippen (3:53.08), Robbie Renwick (3:53.47) and Robert Margalis (3:55.35) completed the rest of the top eight.

Erik Vendt at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Whitney Myers at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

David Cromwell at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Klete Keller at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Ryan Lochte at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Peter Vanderkaay at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Aaron Peirsol at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Kim Vandenberg at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

Mary DeScenza at 2008 Missouri Grand Prix

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