Irvine Meet Has Olympic Flavor

Six Olympic medalists will compete at the Speedo Grand Challenge Swim Invitational beginning today at Heritage Aquatics Park in Irvine.

Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol, Anthony Ervin, Misty Hyman, Scott Tucker and Staciana Stitts are among those competing in the three-day event, hosted by the Irvine Novaquatics.

Lezak and Ervin will highlight Day 1 in the 50-meter freestyle. Lezak, who swims for the Novaquatics, has the fastest seed time in the event, 22.34 seconds.

In the women’s 200 individual medley, Kristen Caverly, of the Irvine Aquazots, will battle Auburn’s Maggie Bowen, who won the event at the Spring Nationals. Caverly set a state record in the 200-yard event at the high school level in 1:58.86, just missing the national record.

Peirsol, the Olympic silver medalist in the 200 backstroke, will swim against Auburn’s Jeff Somensatto, who comes in with the fastest seed time (1:49.99). Peirsol, from Newport Harbor High, enters with a 1:56.56.

Preliminaries begin each day at 9 a.m. with the finals at 5:30 p.m. Admission for the preliminaries is free; finals cost $5 for adults. Children are admitted free.