I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to watch the Grand Prix last night because of coaching and my talk with Garrett McCaffrey on Split Time, but in looking at the results, it was another great evening of swimming!  So, let’s take a run-down of what happened as well as a look at my – hopefully improved – predictions.

The Ladies

As anticipated, Katie Hoff and Ariana Kukors were battling for position in the 400 IM.  Kukors took the fly out hard and fast leading Hoff by nearly 2 seconds at the fly-back transition. Hoff then started to work her way up during the backstroke to be in contention pending the breaststroke and freestyle.  However, Kukors didn’t allow that to happen as she kicked it in during the breaststroke and finished hard on the freestyle for a first place finish of 4:37.63 ahead of Hoff (4:38.59). 1 Wrong…Already!

The remaining 6 in the top 8 were: Justine Mueller, Rebecca Soni, Nicole Vernon, Kirstie Chen, Taylor Nanfria, and Annie Zhu.

In the 100 breaststroke, Rebecca Soni beat out her Trojan teammate Jessica Hardy by 1.29 with a time of 1:06.43.  Megan Jendrick was able to take third as Justine Mueller came in fourth.  Corrie Clark touched in fifth just ahead of Megan Molner, and Torrey Bussey out-touched Caroline Burckle for seventh. I am going to count this as 3 right since I anticipated Soni in 1st, Hardy in 2nd and Jendrick in 3rd. SO, 3 Right!

In the 100 backstroke, Natalie Coughlin took the event with a 1:01.08.  However, in looking at the final results, I have to say that I am rather impressed with Henriette Stenkvist – a 16 year old swimmer out of Raleigh Swimming!  Yes, she lost to Coughlin by over a second, but she was able to catch up to one of the best (and one of my favorite) backstrokers, Margaret Hoelzer, for second place!  Hoelzer was at the turn .11 ahead of Stenkvist, but Stenkvist ended up making a pass and finishing .11 in front of Hoelzer.

The remaining (and star studded field) were: Sinead Russell in 4th, Whitney Myers in 5th, Ariana Kukors in 6th, Katie Hoff in 7th, and Caroline Rodriguez in 8th. Two Wrong?!

After seeing Chloe Sutton swim the 500 and 400 freestyle, I almost wanted to change my prediction for the 200 freestyle.  However, Dana Vollmer was able to out-swim the rising star.  Vollmer got an early lead and held onto it throughout the race with Sutton tailing in second.  Erika Erndl touched in third with a time of 2:00.89 just behind Sutton, and Kara Lynn Joyce came in a close fourth.  In fifth was Christine Magnuson, sixth was Madison Kennedy, seventh as Jacqueline Keire, and finishing eighth was Jennifer Beckberger. 4 Right!

The Men

FAST truly made a statement with Robert Margalis’ swim in the 400 IM as he out-touched Alex Vanderkaay by over 7.5 seconds with a time of 4:21.14!!  Aside from the blowout victory, the remaining field had a pretty decent competition where Vanderkaay took second, Alexander Gianino finished third, Andrew Ford out-touched William Freeman for fourth, Russell Payne touched in seventh, and Ian Clark took home eighth. Three Wrong!

It was a much closer race in the 100 breast that originally anticipated between Michael Alexandrov and Mark Gangloff!  Alexandrov, Gangloff and Matthew Lowe all came into the 50 turn at relatively the same time, but Alexandrov was able to pull out a very fast back-end 50 time of 32.33 in order to take home first ahead of Gangloff in second and Lowe in third.  Bart Steninger led the rest of the field in 4th as Henrique Barbosa touched in 5th, Vladislav Polyakov finished 6th, Thomas Cole in 7th, and Genaro Prono touching in 8th. 5 Right!

Matt Grevers was able to take home the victory in the 100 back as he finished over a second faster than Nick Thoman.  However, Thoman was in the battle to watch in this event as he went head to head against Aaron Peirsol.  Peirsol tried to make a comeback in the back-end 50, but Thoman was able to hold him off.  The remaining top 8 were: David Russell, Patrick Schirk, Alan Maher, Pontus Renholm, and Nicholas Brunelli (respectively). Four Wrong!

What a race in the 200 freestyle between Peter Vanderkaay and Michael Klueh!  Both of the swimmers hit the 50 turn in relatively the swam time, but Klueh started to pull ahead during the 100 length flipping at the 100 ahead of Vanderkaay.  However, Vanderkaay lit up his rocket booster and took back the lead and was able to hold on to it for the last 50 finishing in first with a time of 1:48.51 while Klueh touched in second at 1:49.24.

Simon Burnett led the rest of the 200 field in third place while Nathan Clark touched in fourth barely out-touching Jay Cormier  by .01!  Steven Hill, William Copeland, and Robert Margalis wrapped up the remaining top 8. Five Wrong!

Today’s pick tally was 5 right and 5 wrong…not bad, but did you have a better day? Let me know!

Another outstanding day for the swimmers and fans at the Austin Grand Prix!  I am looking forward to the last night of finals this evening as we will see another swimming celebrity night in the 200 backstroke, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1000 free (women), and 1650 free (men).