USA Swimming has announced some of the big-name attendees entered in the Minneapolis Grand Prix, which will take place next week.
Among the names are Olympic gold medalists Nathan Adrian and Tyler Clary in what looks like a solid field for the opening meet of the Arena Grand Prix circuit.
The Minneapolis Grand Prix, hosted by the University of Minnesota, is one of the more unique Grand Prix stops on the 6-meet series. It’s the only one of the six meets to be swum in short course yards, and is the only one in the fall – the rest of the meets run from January to June.
Other big names attending, according to USA Swimming: Conor Dwyer, Caitlin Leverenz, Elizabeth Beisel, Katie Hoff, Connor Jaeger, Darian Townsend, Shannon Vreeland, Maya DiRado, Melanie Margalis, Becca Mann, Katie McLaughlin and Cody Miller.
The host Minnesota Golden Gophers will also enter a full roster, and typically use the event as their mid-season rest meet, the earliest major mid-season rest meet in the NCAA.
The Arena Grand Prix series has doubled its cash payouts for the top three finishers in each event, with the winner bagging $1000, second taking $600 and third $200. In addition, the overall points winners of the series will earn $10,000 apiece and a 1-year lease of a new BMW. (The car reward is only for American citizens, however). Dwyer and Leverenz earned the car prizes last year.
The Minneapolis Grand Prix runs from Thursday, November 20th through Saturday, November 22nd. Full psych sheets should be out later in the week, and we’ll have a more full preview of the action once those are released.
Good luck Darian Townsend !
In my opinion Beisel will be hard to beat on the women’s side for the car during this Grand Prix season.
Clary vs Dwyer for the men?