US National Team shines at Grand Prix

The team held a meet at the Mizzou Aquatics Center over the weekend.

By Evan Glantz

Published Feb. 17, 2009

For the second year in a row, swimmers from the U.S. National Team brought their show to the Mizzou Aquatics Center. These athletes and many others took part in the Missouri Grand Prix, a four-day tour of record-setting times and crowd enjoyment.

The meet began Friday, with some familiar names taking the hardware. In the very first event, National Team members Katie Hoff and Mary Descenza squared off in the 200-meter freestyle. Descenza barely clipped Hoff, placing first by .01 of a second.

Descenza placed first in three events and second in one. Hoff holds the American long course record in the event and also set the Mizzou Aquatics Center record last year in the Grand Prix. But this year she received second.

"This is my first long course meet of the season," said Hoff, who had taken a five-week break from training. "I had done a short course meet, but you can be out of shape and still do pretty well at short course. I'm definitely in shape and hit the paces that (coach) Bob (Bowman) wanted me to do. So if he's happy, I'm happy."

Many participants in Beijing this summer opened the Grand Prix on Friday as well. Gold medalist Ous Mellouli from Tunisia placed first in the men's 200 free. American Eric Shanteau, who had surgery for testicular cancer after the Olympics, won the 100 breaststroke.

"I was back in the pool probably the end of September," Shanteau said. "So I only took about five weeks off. It was a pretty quick turnaround. And that was just based on not wanting to sit around and think about what I had just been through or dwell on it. I wanted to get back in and get into the groove of things again."

Saturday offered even more highlights. Hoff and Descenza squared off again in the 200 individual medley. This time, Hoff got the best of her National Team teammate, with a time of 2:13.21. The very next race proved to be a suitable encore, as it featured Olympic medalists Shanteau and Ryan Lochte, as well as National Team member Alex Vanderkaay. Lochte took the men's 200 individual medley with a time of 2:00.59, barely faster than Shanteau's 2:00.88 and Vanderkaay's 2:01.27. That was one of Lochte's four wins during the weekend.

"I've always been around the pool, so it's kind of like home," Lochte said. "There's still a lot more I think I can accomplish in the sport of swimming. Hopefully more golds and different events for the next Olympics."

In the men's 50 free, French Olympian Fred Bousquet set the Aquatics Center and Grand Prix record with a time of 21.59. The previous record of 22.01 was set last year by Cesar Cielo.

Sunday featured more of the same. As the stars of the weekend took the blocks, both fans and competitors craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the event. Onlookers were rewarded with autographs and even medals from swimmers like Hoff and Lochte. And even though the swimmers were not at their peak, the weekend was an overall success.

"This is sort of like the beginning of our season," North Baltimore Aquatic Club coach Bob Bowman said. "We're just using it to see where they are. If you come to a meet like this and they swim really poorly, you know you've probably killed them in training. If they swim really great, you probably know you haven't trained them hard enough, so I wanted to be kind of medium. It's just about what I like to see."