Streamlined News

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 14. MICHAEL Phelps was dominant at this weekend’s Minnesota Grand Prix, winning all five events he contested.

Phelps topped results in the 200 free and 100 fly on Friday, defeating the likes of Yannick Agnel and Ous Mellouli in the 200 free. After losing to Wu Peng in the 200 fly several times last spring, he made sure that wouldn’t happen again, crushing the field in that event before using his signature back half to overhaul David Plummer for the win in the 100 back. On Sunday, Phelps won the 200 IM by almost four seconds, posting a time of 1:57.58. Phelps won silver in this event at World Championships this summer, and although he swam almost three and a half seconds slower this weekend, he would still have taken second at Worlds with that time.

Phelps’ teammates from the North Baltimore Aquatic Club all swam fast this weekend, especially Allison Schmitt. Schmitt won the 200 free in 1:55.82, moving to sixth in the world and cutting nearly a second off her time from the World Championships. She swam away from the likes of Missy Franklin, Katie Hoff and Camille Muffat. Schmitt also won the 400 free, while teammate Chase Kalisz, who just committed to swim for the University of Georgia, won the 400 IM and was solid in his other events.

Franklin also had a successful weekend. Now swimming without braces, she continues to make sub-1:00 swims in the women’s 100 back look routine, posting a 59.69. She also won the 100 free and 200 back and finished second in the 200 free and third in the 200 IM. Hoff, meanwhile, jumped back into the IM races with wins in both the 200 and 400.

Dara Torres, now aged 44 and going for a possible sixth Olympics, swam against her domestic rivals for the first time in two years and tied Kara Lynn Joyce for third in the 50 free, which was won by Amanda Weir. Jessica Hardy, who was second in that 50 free, defeated Rebecca Soni in the 100 breast in Minneapolis, marking Soni’s first loss in this event in almost two and a half years. Soni did, however, win the 200 breast. Meanwhile, Brendan Hansen continued his successful comeback with a win in the men’s 100 breast, but Clark Burckle took out Hansen in the 200 breast.

Also at the Grand Prix, 37-year old Brian Jacobson qualified for Olympic Trials in the 50 free. Jacobson clocked 23.42 in the B-final to beat the qualifying standard of 23.49. While in any other year Jacobson would be the oldest male qualifier for Trials, Steve West is older and has already made the cut. Jacobson’s swim bumps me down to the third-oldest male swimmer that will compete in Omaha next summer. Congratulations to Brian.

The FINA World Cup wrapped up this weekend with a final stop in Tokyo, and Chad Le Clos and Therese Alshammar each wrapped up dominant seasons on the circuit, each winning the $100,000 bonus prize. Le Clos won a total of $45,500 in race prize money to go along with his bonus. Hidemasa Sano finished second in the overall tally, earning $50,000, while Marco Koch earned $30,000 for finishing third. Alshammar, meanwhile, grabbed top honors in the 50 and 100 fly to complete yet another season atop the World Cup charts, while Missy Franklin took second in the overall rankings, turning down as much as $71,500 to retain her NCAA eligibility. Hye Ra Choi of Korea posted the top time in the world in the 200 fly and finished third overall in the women’s competition.

Only one world record fell on the circuit, as Franklin took down the mark in the women’s 200 back in Berlin, but Takeshi Matsuda almost took down a second one in Tokyo, swimming 1:49.50 in the men’s 200 fly. That time ranks second in history, behind Kaio Almeida’s world record of 1:49.11 set in 2009 in a polyurethane suit. Matsuda shattered the textile best of 1:50.15 that Le Clos posted two weeks ago in Berlin.

Australian sprinter Cate Campbell won both the 50 and 100 free in Tokyo, continuing her return to form after spending several years dealing with injuries. Meanwhile, countrywoman Libby Trickett, on the comeback trail after a brief retirement, earned her first medal of the World Cup circuit, finishing third in the 100 fly. Ian Thorpe, meanwhile, finished his third meet back to competition without making any finals, but his times of 49.45 in the 100 free and 53.59 in the 100 fly are both much faster than any of his times from earlier in the week.

While Le Clos was completing his World Cup season, he missed Swimming South Africa’s annual awards ceremony, where he won Most Promising Athlete of the Year and Performance of the Year, but lost out the Athlete of the Year award to Cameron van der Burgh, who won two bronze medals at the World Championships in Shanghai. In other notable awards, South Africa National coach and head coach to Le Clos, Graham Hill, took the Coach of the Year award, Chad Ho won the Open Water Swimmer of the Year award, and the popular Natalie Du Toit won Disabled Swimmer of the Year.

The University of Southern California Trojans met the Arizona Wildcats in a dual meet on Friday in Tucson. For the women, USC beat the Wildcats, 156 to 144, with Katinka Hosszu and Haley Anderson each winning two events. Hosszu took the 200 free and 200 breast, while Anderson won the 1000 and 500 free. In the 500, she edged sister Alyssa Anderson, an Arizona standout, by just 14 one-hundredths of a second. The Arizona men, meanwhile, cruised over USC, 193.5-106.5, with senior Cory Chitwood leading the way in winning both the 200 back and 400 IM.

Auburn hosted Georgia on Friday, and the teams split the wins. The No. 1-ranked Lady Bulldogs claimed victory, 133-110, with senior Wendy Trott earning victories in the 500 and 1000 free and sophomore Melanie Margalis also claiming two events, the 200 IM and 200 breast, while defending NCAA sprint queen Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace won both the 50 and 100 free for Auburn. On the men’s side, strength and depth in the sprints and relays allowed the Auburn to cruise to an easy win, 156-87.

Also this weekend, Curl-Burke SwimClub’s Katie Ledecky broke two hallowed national short course yards age group records at a meet in Maryland. The 14-year-old swam a 9:29.81 in the 1000 free to break Michele Richardson’s time from 1984 by almost four seconds. Then, she took down Cynthia Woodhead’s 33-year-old record with a time of 4:35.14, also slashing nearly four seconds off the record. Ledecky will be competing in four of the five freestyle events next summer at the Olympic Trials.

And speaking of records, the Bolles School set a new national high school record in the boy’s 400 freestyle relay with a 3:00.67, which is one-hundredth of a second faster than the time set by Saratoga High School in 2009. The relay team consisted of George Frank, Ryan Murphy, Preston Jenkins and Teo d’Allesandro. Just for the record, Murphy split a 43.88 on the second leg. Bolles was second in the Swimming World national high school rankings last season, and with that relay swim and a near national record time of 1:30.29 in the 200 medley relay, Bolles could return to the top of the national ranks.

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