ANN ARBOR, Michigan, May 16. THE summer season is set to heat up, beginning with this weekend's Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix (May 19-21) at Canham Natatorium, on the campus of the University of Michigan. The meet is the first stop of the summer Grand Prix Series and will feature a loaded field, headlined by the presence of Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Ian Crocker and Katie Hoff.<\/p>\n
The meet is named in honor of two-time Olympic silver medalist Eric Namesnik, who died in January after suffering injuries in an automobile accident. Namesnik was a standout at the University of Michigan and a former assistant coach with the Wolverines. The event is the first of five Grand Prix competitions, joining the Charlotte UltraSwim (June 8-11), the Santa Clara International Meet (June 22-25), the Texas A&M Invitational (June 22-25) and the Janet Evans Invitational (July 13-16).<\/p>\n
With the United States Nationals scheduled for early August and the Pan Pacific Championships slated for two weeks later, the Grand Prix meets will serve as tuneups for those major competitions. With a number of big-time names expected to compete during the circuit, top-flight racing is expected to be the norm, especially with several Olympic medalists in the mix.<\/p>\n
Aside from the presence of Phelps and Coughlin, who combined for 13 medals at the Athens Olympics, the Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix will mark the return of Erik Vendt to competition. The silver medalist in the 400 individual medley at the past two Olympic Games, Vendt recently came out of retirement and began training with Club Wolverine. <\/p>\n
Other major names expected to race in Michigan include Klete Keller, Mark Gangloff, Kara Lynn Joyce, Peter Vanderkaay, Maritza Correia, Laura Conway, Jayme Cramer, Mary DeScenza, Jessica Hardy, Robert Margalis, Emily Silver and Davis Tarwater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, May 16. THE summer season is set to heat up, beginning with this weekend's Eric Namesnik Memorial Grand Prix (May 19-21) at Canham Natatorium, on the campus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n