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Avon’s Kennedy is top 10 seed in two events at Grand Prix in Charlotte

Avon's Madison Kennedy

Avon’s Madison Kennedy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The fifth of sixth Arena Grand Prix swim meets will be held this weekend in Charlotte and Avon’s Madison Kennedy is seeded in the top 10 in two events. 

Kennedy, who swims and trains with SwimMAC’s Team Elite based in Charlotte, is seeded third in the Saturday’s 50 meter freestyle event and seventh in Sunday’s 100 meter freestyle event. 

Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps, new SwimMAC teammate Ryan Lochte and Allison Schmitt, who have combined to win 39 career Olympic medals, are expected to headline the four-day meet that begins Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center. 

Other multiple-time American Olympic medalists expected to compete in Charlotte include Elizabeth Beisel, Anthony Ervin, Jessica Hardy, Cullen Jones, Nick Thoman and Amanda Weir. Over 50 members of the USA Swimming national team are expected to compete and 60 athletes from SwimMAC. 

Kennedy tied for second in the 50 freestyle as last year’s Charlotte Grand Prix with Megan Romano in 25.12 seconds. Hardy won the event in 25.09 seconds. In the 100 freestyle, Kennedy was sixth a year ago with a time of 56.50. 

This year, Kennedy is the third seed in the 50 free with a time of 24.93 seconds behind Hardy (24.50) and SwimMAC teammate Arianna Vanderpool-Walla (24.64). Kennedy is seeded seventh in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.45 seconds. 

A live webcast of the meet will be available over usaswimming.org. The meet will be broadcast over Universal Sports Network, which isn’t available in Connecticut. 

The Arena Grand Prix at Charlotte is part of USA Swimming’s 2013-14 Arena Grand Prix Series, which provides the nation’s best swimmers six opportunities to face top-flight competition on U.S. soil. The series concludes June 19-22 with the Arena Grand Prix at Santa Clara (California).

 

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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