July 29, 2008

Berkeley - Ten current California Golden Bear women's swimmers will headline the 2008 U.S. Open, July 29-August 2, in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The U.S. Open will serve as the selection meet for the 2009 World University Games, to be held from July 2-7, 2009, in Belgrade, Serbia. The highest placing athlete in each event will to be invited to the World University Games Team. Additional qualifying procedures can be found online at www.usaswimming.org. USA Swimming will post online results as well.

The meet will follow the traditional schedule of morning preliminaries, followed by the finals in the evening.

Amanda Sims (200-meter butterfly, 100-m butterfly), Courtney Eronemo (200 fly, 400-meter IM, 200 IM), Blake Hayter (800-meter freestyle, 200 free, 400 free), Heather White (400 IM, 100-meter backstroke, 200 IM), Madison Kennedy (100 free, 200 free, 50 free), Tara Thomas (100 free, 100 fly, 100 back, 50 free), Lauren Rogers (200 back, 100 back, 50 free), Emily Verdin (200 back, 100 back), Amanda Larson (200 free) and Erica Dagg (50 free) will be competing against a large contingent of other swimmers from around the country (including 24 U.S. National Team members) in the five-day event