Including Grevers and Lochte, American Olympians took gold in six of the 10 individual events contested Friday, including Elaine Breeden (Lexington, Ky.) in the women's 200m butterfly (2:08.60), Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md.) in the men's 200m butterfly (1:55.34), Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas) in the women's 50m freestyle (25.09), Jason Lezak (Irvine, Calif.) in the men's 50m freestyle (22.59) and Chloe Sutton (Mission Viejo, Calif.) in the women's 400m freestyle (4:06.04).
Grevers led the men's 100m back after the first turn, but Lochte chased him down in the final 50 for the tie. U.S. National Teamer David Plummer was third in 54.25. "On the turn I saw I had a slight lead, and that's not enough when racing Ryan, so I knew it was going to come down to the very end," Grevers said. "Luckily I have that 7-foot wingspan that keeps saving me."
Vollmer came out on top of another tight race, out-touching U.S. National Teamer Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.) in the women's 50m free by a hundredth of a second, 25.09 to 25.10. National teamer Melissa Franklin (Centennial, Colo.) was third in 25.26. It was Vollmer's second win of the meet after taking the 100m fly on Thursday. "I kind of had a long finish, which made me nervous, because I thought that extra stroke would take slightly too long," Vollmer said. "I put as much body into it as I could, and it worked out by a hundredth. It was a best time. My best time before that was a 25.2, so I can't ask for much better than that."
The medalists in the women's 400m free were separated by less than a second, with Sutton touching first, followed by Olympians Katie Hoff (Towson, Md.) in 4:06.42 and Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.) in 4:06.94. The three are now the top three swimmers in the world this year in this event.
Phelps won his third race of the meet in the men's 200m fly, holding off a charging Taio de Almeida in the final 50. His time of 1:55.34 was the fastest in the world this year. Almeida was second in 1:55.85, while Wu Peng was third in 1:57.86.
Other swimmers winning gold Friday were Franklin in the women's 100m backstroke (59.56); Tunisian Olympian Ous Mellouli in the men's 400m freestyle 3:48.23; Ashley McGregor (Pointe-Claire, QC Canada) in the women's 200m breaststroke (2:30.96) and Sean Mahoney (Rio Vista, Calif) in the men's 200m breaststroke (2:11.47).
The 2011 Indy Grand Prix finishes tomorrow at the IU Natatorium. Prelims begin at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, finals at 6 p.m. For more information about the meet, including complete results and live webcast, go to www.usaswimming.org/indianapolisgrandprix.
2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix Swim Meet Series
- Minnesota Grand Prix 12-14 Nov, 2010
Minneapolis, MN - Austin Grand Prix 14-17 Jan, 2011
Austin, TX - Missouri Grand Prix 18-21 Feb, 2011
Columbia, MO - Indianapolis Grand Prix 3-5 Mar, 2011
Indianapolis, IN - Michigan Grand Prix 8-10 Apr, 2011
Ann Arbor, MI - Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix 12-15 May, 2011
Charlotte, NC - Santa Clara International Grand Prix 16-19 Jun, 2011
Santa Clara, CA
Television and online coverage will also be provided of all 2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix events. Universal Sports will broadcast the Austin Grand Prix (January 14-17), the Missouri Grand Prix (February 18-21), the Indianapolis Grand Prix (March 3-5) and the Michigan Grand Prix (April 8-10). Online coverage of all seven events will be provided by Swimnetwork.com and Universalsports.com.
This is the fourth year in a row that prize money has been awarded to the overall point leader of the Grand Prix Series. In its inaugural year in 2008, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps took home the prize. The 2009 purse went to National Team swimmer Mary DeScenza and Chloe Sutton took home $20,000 in 2010.
The scoring system awards swimmers points based on gold, silver and bronze-medal performances at each of the eight meets. A gold medal earns a swimmer five points, a silver medal is worth three points and a bronze medal is one point. The standings integrate male and female participants, recognizing the swimmer with the highest cumulative point total. In the event of a tie, the winner will be the swimmer who earned the highest single-race FINA power point ranking. Leaders will be tracked online at www.usaswimming.org and in Splash magazine, the official magazine of USA Swimming.
