U.S. National teamer Chad La Tourette (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and Amber McDermott (Mill Creek, Wash.) placed first in the men’s 800m free and women’s 1500m free, respectively, on the first night of competition at the Swimnetwork.com Santa Clara International Grand Prix. The meet, which is the sixth and final stop of the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series, runs through Sunday, June 14.

La Tourette, a standout open water swimmer, finished in a meet-record time of 7:53.56. The Stanford swimmer finished just three tenths ahead of Australian swimmers Robert Hurley and Ryan Napoleon to take home the gold. Hurley finished the race in 7:53.87 for the silver and Napoleon earned bronze in 7:54.44.

On the women’s side, Longhorn swimmer McDermott beat the field by the more than eight seconds to take home the gold in 16:38.06. Jennifer Narum finished second in 16:46.33 and Jamie Marks was third in 16:51.15.

Competition continues Friday with the men’s 100m free, 200m breast, 400m free, 100m fly, and 400m free relay and the women’s 100m breast, 200m free, 400m IM, 200m fly, and 400m free relay. Prelims will begin at 9 a.m., and finals begin at 5 p.m. PT. 

Footage from the meet the will be broadcast by both Swimnetwork.com and Universal Sports. Swimnetwork.com will provide a LIVE online stream of the finals and the prelims from each day of competition and Universal Sports will broadcast finals footage Friday through Sunday. To view live footage of the meet, visit www.swimnetwork.com. For complete results, click here.