Hoff to Face Considerably Tougher Heats on Day 1 than Phelps in Major-Meet Comebacks

The heat sheets for the 1st day of the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix are out, and Michael Phelps will have about as comfortable of a heat around him as one could hope for as the top seed in a meet like this, while Katie Hoff in her return to elite action will face a considerably tougher lineup.

See the heat sheets here.

In Phelps’ lone day one entry, the 100 fly where his pre-retirement 50.86 leaves him in lane 4 of the last heat, he’ll face Matt Grevers, defending National Champion Eugene Godsoe, and former NCAA Champion Albert Subirats. Also in Phelps’ heat, in lane 7, is one of his training partners Tom Luchsinger and backstroke standout Arkady Vyatchanin.

This comes out as probably a very good heat for Phelps. To one side, he has a pair of backstrokers, including his long-time national team teammate Matt Grevers for some comfort, as well as his training partner Luchsinger. Not that a prelims heat in a Grand Prix race would ever make Phelps nervous, but there’s not much unknown in that last heat. Almost the entire heat are ‘known quantities’ who Phelps is used to racing against, and equally as importantly for those other swimmers, they’re all veterans who will unlikely be shaken by this heat. The youngest swimmer in that heat 14 is 22-year old Marcus Schlesinger, who has traveled internationally to compete at the Maccabi Games.

The big stars, Ryan Lochte, Tom Shields, the hot-handed matthew Josa, young gun Justin Lynch, and Jason Dunford are all in other heats.

As for HOff, she’s not so lucky. In heat 13, out of 15, of the women’s 100 free, she faces an absolutely stacked field (though there’s no easy heats in the last three of that event). She faces Olympic medalist Sara Isakovic, Olympic medalist Jessica Hardy, Olympic medalist Allison Schmitt, multiple-time NCAA Champion Margo Geer, Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky, USA Swimming National Champion Gillian Ryan, and Cheyenne Coffman.

There’s so many different types of swimmers in that heat, so many different styles and stories, that Hoff will very much just have to kind of be in her own world and swim her own race. Next to her will be 2008 Olympic silver medalist Sara Isakovic, who very similarly to Hoff is making her return to elite competition at this meet after having not competed at an elite-level meet since the 2012 Olympics.

Isakovic raced lightly about a month ago in Mission Viejo where she looked solid with a 57.9 in her 100 free in long course.

See more about Isakovic’s comeback here.

Hoff’s second race of the day, the 100 fly, will be a significantly tamer crew as she’s qualified in with just a “B” standard. The best-known names in that heat are primarily freestylers like Tristin Baxter and Nina Rangelova.