Copeland Sweeps Sprint Freestyle Events at 2009 Minneapolis Grand Prix

The first stop on the 2009-10 USA Swimming Grand Prix series was off to a victorious start for TYR’s William Copeland at the Minneapolis Grand Prix in Minneapolis, MN. Beginning on Friday, November 13th and ending Saturday the 15th, the 23-year-old took top honors in the 50, 100, and 200-yard freestyle events to prove his strength in all the sprint distances. Copeland’s first event of the weekend came on Friday with the 200-yard freestyle. Headed into the finals, he was seated second with a time of 1:38.32. Out at the first hundred he flipped third in 47:5. Relying on his newly developed back-end speed, he had the fastest second hundred split in the field to touch the wall in 1:36:16 for the win. Riding on the momentum from the previous day, Copeland qualified for Saturday night’s final in the 50-yard freestyle. The current meet record holder in the event, he was unsure of what would come out of the evening’s race due to the amount of training he is logging in preparation for the USA nationals in the upcoming month. “I didn’t know what to expect in terms of time,” he shared. “Overall, I think the speed will come with more taper. Right now the endurance is there a little more than the sprinting.” Despite needing to fine-tune his speed in time for nationals, Copeland seized the win that night with a time of 19.732. The last event on Copeland list was his specialty-the 100-yard freestyle-held on the final day of competition. “I knew I was going to win,” Copeland stated. “You have to go into every race knowing you are going to win or you don’t have a shot anyways.” It was his confident attitude that helped lead him to his third first place finish of the meet-scoring him 60 points in the Grand Prix Series overall. With the fastest split at the fifty (20.69), he went on to touch at 43.60. Despite the weekend of successes, Copeland still looks to what needs to be improved in time for USA Swimming Short Course Nationals on December 3rd through the 5th. “Once I rest up and my muscles get a little more responsive, everything will be sharper,” he explained. “We will be focusing more on dives and turns in practice to work on getting ready for Nationals.” Be sure to check back on TYR.com to see how Copeland and the rest of the TYR-sponsored swimmers perform at the upcoming USA Swimming Nationals in Federal Way, WA.