SWIMMING: Hoff Claims Double Gold on First Night of Toyota Grand Prix at the Ohio State University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, April 4, 2008 Contact: Jamie Fabos (719-866-2340 / jfabos@usaswimming.org) Columbus, Ohio- 2004 Olympian Katie Hoff (Towson, Md.) won two events, leading a field of Olympians on the opening night of the Toyota Grand Prix at the Ohio State University tonight. Olympic medalists Brendan Hansen, Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay, and Kaitlin Sandeno were also winners as action got underway in Columbus. The meet continues tomorrow with prelims and finals in the 400m IM, 50m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle. The 400m medley relay will be swum with finals. Hoff earned her first gold medal of the night in the 800m freestyle, besting the field by more than 11 seconds with a time of 8:19.70. The world champion in the event, Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.) swam a time of 8:31.34 in an earlier heat for silver and Alicia Mathieu took bronze in 8:50.22. Hoff added to her medal count later in the evening winning the 100m fly in 1:00.15. Second place went to Jacque Fessel (1:00.42) and Pan American Games gold medalist Kathleen Hersey took third in 1:00.80. On the men's side, world record-holder Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Pa.) started things off, cruising to a comfortable win in the 100m breaststroke. Hansen's time of 1:01.10 was over a second ahead of the field. Second place went to Hansen's Longhorn Aquatics teammate Eric Shanteau (Lilburn, Ga.) in 1:02.46 while Team Mexico's Alejandro Rodriguez was third in 1:02.72. Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md.) won his first of two medals on the night with a win in the 100m fly. The reigning world champion finished in 51.90 while Auburn duo Fred Bousquet (52.29) and Alexei Puninski (52.61) took silver and bronze respectively. In the 200m freestyle, 2004 Olympian Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.) was the winner, touching in 1:46.78. Phelps took silver in 1:47.09 and North Baltimore's Dan Madwed (Stamford, Conn.) claimed bronze in 1:49.17. Phelps now leads the 2007-08 Toyota Grand Prix Series with 59 points. The swimmer with the most points at the end of the eight-meet series will win a $20,000 purse courtesy of Toyota and USA Swimming. In the women's 200m IM, an stroke-for-stroke battle resulted in a tie for the gold medal. Two-time Olympian Kaitlin Sandeno (Lake Forest, Calif.) and Princeton's Aemisegger posted matching times of 2:14.52 to share the win. Germantown's Teresa Crippen (Conshohocken, Pa.) took bronze in 2:16.48. The medal pushed Sandeno to 39 points and third place in the Grand Prix scoring race. The men's 200m IM featured an unusual field including backstroke specialist Aaron Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.), distance star Erik Vendt (North Easton, Mass.) and breaststrokers Hansen and Shanteau. Shanteau emerged the victor with a time of 2:01.74 while Vendt took second in 2:02.42 and Peirsol rounded out the medalists with a third-place time of 2:03.37. In other events Club Wolverine's Allison Schmidt won the 200m free in 1:59.37 while Germantown's Katie Riefenstahl was second (2:00.65) followed by Ziegler in 2:00.70. The women's 100m breaststroke went to Southeastern's Lindsay Rogers (1:10.23) while Aemisegger took second (1:11.04) and Dallas Mustangs swimmer Spindrift Beck was third (1:11.84). Meet action continues tomorrow with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. For coverage and results of the Toyota Grand Prix at the Ohio State University and other Grand Prix meets, click here. About USA Swimming As the National Governing Body for competitive swimming in the United States, USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports medicine information and selects athletes to represent the United States in international competition. USA Swimming has more than 300,000 members nationwide and sanctions more than 7,000 events each year. For more information, visit usaswimming.org.

Tags: Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Kaitlin Sandeno, Kate Ziegler, Katie Hoff, Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay, Teresa Crippen