Ziegler wins; Coughlin, Hoff upset in L.A. Ziegler wins 800m free with her second meet record at L.A. Grand Prix
By Associated Press | Posted: Jul 10, 7:12a ET | Updated: Jul 10, 7:12a ET
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American distance swimmer Kate Ziegler is one of USA Swimming's bright young stars.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Olympian Kate Ziegler won the 800-meter freestyle with her second meet record at the Los Angeles Grand Prix.
Ziegler won Friday's final in 8 minutes, 25.89 seconds, beating the field by nearly five seconds. In doing so, Ziegler lowered the meet record she set in Thursday's preliminaries on the Southern California campus.
Natalie Coughlin was beaten in the 100 freestyle by Kara Lynn Joyce, who touched in 54.69 seconds, .15 ahead of the 11-time Olympic medalist. Jessica Hardy was third in 54.93.
In the 800, Olympian Chloe Sutton was second in 8:30.50, which was lower than the meet record Ziegler posted Thursday. Chelsea Chenault was third in 8:38.03.
Ziegler, who didn't make the finals of the 800 or 400 in Beijing, said it was her best performance since 2008.
"I've been struggling with my times for a while, and I feel like that was a big confidence booster heading into nationals," she said. "Based off that swim, I'm just going to go back and train hard and hopefully have another great swim at nationals."
Olympian Nathan Adrian won the men's 100 in 48.71. Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or was second in 50.10 and Lars Persson third in 50.28. Less than a half-second separated second through seventh place in the sprint. Olympian Jason Lezak didn't make the final, but his time of 50.03 in the consolation final was second-fastest of the night.
Madison White upset Olympian Katie Hoff in the 200 backstroke, touching in 2:12.15 to Hoff's 2:12.79. Bonnie Brandon was third in 2:13.96.
In other events, Yang Jiao won the women's 200 butterfly in 2:08.40; Yin Chen won the men's 200 fly in 1:56.92; Olympian Markus Rogan of Austria won the men's 200 back in 1:59.46; Kantinka Hosszu of Hungary won the women's 400 individual medley in 4:34.38; and Olympian Ryan Cochrane of Canada won the men's 400 free in 3:50.78.