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Schneider Takes $10,000 Sprint Prize

Oct 17, 2010  - Phil Whitten

Tiburon, California:  Josh Schneider, the unheralded 2010 NCAA 50-yard freestyle champion, pulled off an upset victory at the inaugural Tiburon Sprint Classic, held in a private two-lane,  25-yard backyard pool owned by Bob Placak.

Originally on the entry list, Cesar Cielo and Ryan Lochte withdrew, their sights set on bigger prizes at the world short-course championships come December.

A last-minute replacement for world record-holder Cesar Cielo, Schneider qualified for the two-man final with the fastest prelim time, 19.77.  Second fastest, in 19.79, was former University of California star Will Copeland, a last-minute stand-in for Ryan Lochte.  Two of the remaining eight contestants broke 20 seconds: Nathan Adrian (19.85) and Fred Bousquet (19.88).

In the final, Copeland equaled Schneider’s prelim time of 19.77, but Schneider took command of the race at the start and stroked to victory in 19.50, earning the $10,000 prize.  (That comes to over $1.8 million per hour.)

The individual race was followed by a 4x50-yard relay race, with $500 per swimmer going to the winning team.  Nathan Adrian (19.62), Nick Brunelli (20.18), Matt Targett (19.55) and Schneider (19.39) clocked 1:18.74 for the win.

The team of Bousquet (19.77), Copeland  (19.84), Garrett Weber-Gale (19.64) and Matt Grevers (19.02) touched in 1:18.20 but was DQ’ed when one of the swimmers jumped.

Sunday brings more action: a field of 850 swimmers will compete for the $10,000 prize for both men and women in the 11th RCP Tiburon Mile.