Soni, Shanteau steal spotlight at the Mare Nostrum

The U.S. breaststroking duo of Rebecca Soni and Eric Shanteau tore through the water en route to three victories at the first stop of the Mare Nostrum, a three-meet series that takes place over nine days in three cities.

Soni grabbed the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke titles in Monaco over the weekend, while Shanteau shuffled to gold in the men's 200m breaststroke. The pair also netted two second-place finishes: Soni in the 50m breaststroke, Shanteau in the 200m individual medley.

American Jessica Hardy, the world record holder in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, joins Soni today and tomorrow in Barcelona for the second stop of the series in those two events. Australia's Leisel Jones, known as one of the best breaststrokers of all time, will swim the 100m and 200m breaststroke in Barcelona.

With those three in the water -- Jones has eight Olympic medals, Soni owns three and Hardy maintains two world records -- that 100m breaststroke final might be one of the most exciting races of the season.

For Shanteau, success has come in large quantities since he underwent cancer surgery after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He won a trio of medals at the 2009 World championships -- 400m medley relay gold, 200m breaststroke silver, 200m IM bronze -- and has continued to put forth solid swims since.

And, more importantly, Shanteau remains cancer-free.

Elsewhere in Monaco, American Aaron Peirsol picked up a pair of silver medals (100m, 200m backstroke). Countrywoman Dana Vollmer won the women's 100m butterfly and placed second in both the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

A few other notes from the Mare Nostrum:

- Canadian swimmers fared well in Monaco, most notably Brent Hayden and his medals in the 100m (gold) and 200m (silver) freestyle. Teammate Sinead Russell, just 16 years old, turned some heads by winning the women's 200m backstroke in 2:10.93 -- the 19th best time in 2010 -- and bronze in the 100m backstroke.

- On paper, the men's 50m freestyle final between French speedsters Frederick Bousquet and Alain Bernard should have been one of the closest races of the meet. The end result was not as tight as expected, however, with Bousquet touching the wall first in 21.84 and Bernard a distant second in 22.17.

- The biggest bang-bang finish occurred in the last race on the schedule, the men's 50m butterfly. Australian Geoff Huegill narrowly edged German Steffen Diebler, 23.85 to 23.86, in a finish that brought back memories of the men's 100m butterfly final in Beijing between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic.

- This blog post wouldn't be complete without revealing who wins our Best Name of the Meet contest. The award goes to Ranomi Kromowidjojo (try saying that five times in a row). The Dutch swimmer won the women's 100m freestyle and placed second in the 50m freestyle.