Olympians, national team swimmers and members of both the Missouri men’s and women’s swimming teams showcased their talent at the fifth annual Missouri Grand Prix over the weekend in the Student Recreation Complex.
Highlighting the weekend’s events were dominating performances from several Olympic gold medalists, the return of a five-time, 43-year-old legend and a gold medal finish from a member of the Missouri women’s swimming team.
The notoriously fast-water pool was in full flow this weekend, as Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Soni broke two pool records with a 1:05.89 finish in the 100-meter breaststroke and a 2:23.27 finish in the 200-meter breaststroke. Soni ended the weekend with two gold medals and one silver medal.
Tunisian Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli also had an impressive performance, finishing first in all five races he competed in, with notable finishes in the 400-meter IM at 4:13.38 and a 15:01.65 finish in the 1500-meter freestyle.
Five-time Olympian Dara Torres, 43, made her anticipated debut Saturday evening after reconstructive knee surgery. Torres qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials with a time of 25.90 in the preliminary round of the 50-meter freestyle, but finished sixth in the finals with a time of 26.13.
Torres, who is trying to make her sixth Olympics games, was very pleased with how she swam.
“My goal really was to break 26 seconds, and I did that this morning (preliminary round), so that was good,” Torres said. “There’s a ton of room for improvement, so I’m excited about that. It’s a great start. I have a little less than a year and a half to do the things I need to do to get where I need to be.”
Where Torres needs to be is also where Missouri sophomore Dominique Bouchard deserves to be, after her impressive gold medal finish in the 100-meter backstroke. Bouchard beat out Olympians Amanda Weir and Kathleen Hersey in the event, finishing with a personal best time of 1:01.14.
“It is amazing to show myself that I can be at their level, and it really brings my hopes up to hopefully go to the Olympics in 2012 and even maybe make a final there,” Bouchard said.
Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh said he was impressed with how his swimmers performed in this weekend’s competition, which also included junior Lisa Nathanson and senior Jordan Hawley.
“You know, something they’re not used to, is really performing on this kind of stage,” Rhodenbough said. “I think they’re excited, but I think their confidence level has gone through the roof. That is the neat thing to watch.”
A perfect time for confidence levels to be high is right now, as both Missouri teams are preparing themselves for conferences.
“I am so excited for conference and NCAA’s, because I know that this team has come so far and that we are going to swim so fast,” Bouchard said.
Missouri swimmers leave for the Big 12 Conference Championships on Tuesday morning.
