OMAHA, Neb. — Ryan Lochte outswam rival Michael Phelps on opening day of the U.S. Olympic trials today, even if it was only the preliminaries of the 400-meter individual medley.

Lochte was the fastest qualifier in 4 minutes, 13.38 seconds — fourth best in the world this year.

"Not bad," he said. "I felt really good and smooth the whole way. It was a good first swim of the meet."

Swimming in the last heat, Phelps touched in 4:13.43 to be second quickest, well off the world record of 4:06.22 he set at last year's world championships in Australia.

"I'm not really too happy," he said. "That was slower than I went in worlds in the morning. Hopefully I'll be faster tonight."

Katie Hoff took the lead on the breaststroke leg of the women's 400 IM and cruised to the fastest time of 4:34.59, bettering her trials record from four years ago.

Elizabeth Beisel, a 15-year-old from Saunderstown, R.I., flirted with the world record one heat earlier before qualifying second in 4:35.76. Two-time Olympian Kaitlin Sandeno, silver medalist at the Athens Games, finished 10th — 9.22 seconds off her best time — and didn't advance to the eight-woman evening final.

Lochte is entered in a whopping 11 events and Phelps in nine, but the six-time Olympic gold medalist has already dropped the 400 freestyle.

Also advancing to the eight-man evening final in the temporary pool at the Qwest Center was Alex Vanderkaay, one of four brothers from the same family competing at the trials.

There are only two Olympic berths available in each event, and the 400 IM figures to come down to Lochte and Phelps.

"Ryan is a great competitor," Phelps said. "I'm definitely looking forward to tonight, getting in and going head-to-head with him."

Lochte is competing in the eight-day trials just more than a month after spraining his left ankle while chasing his Doberman named Carter, in honor of Lochte's favorite rapper, Lil' Wayne. He felt some twinges during the breaststroke portion of the four-stroke event.

"The hardest part was the dive," Lochte said. "As soon as I dived in, it was like, 'Ugh.'"

Peter Vanderkaay, Alex's older brother and the American recordholder, was the leading qualifier in the 400 freestyle with a time of 3:48.06. Two-time Olympian Erik Vendt was second in 3:48.25.

Vendt is named in a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by TYR Sport against Speedo, USA Swimming and U.S. national team coach Mark Schubert involving the companies' rival swimsuits. Vendt has a TYR contract, but he's wearing Speedo's LZR Racer suit at the trials.

"It's hard not to think about it. The first week after it happened was a real emotional roller coaster," he said. "Swimming is keeping me sane."

Larsen Jensen, fourth at the 2004 Olympics, was third.

"I think you'll see four people under 3:45 tonight," he said.

Klete Keller, seeking his third Olympic berth, qualified fifth for the evening final. He's looking to rebound from a poor individual showing at last year's world championships, where he failed to get out of the prelims in two events.

"I've been through a lot since then, but I'm at my best right now," he said. "I was expecting everyone to go a lot faster. I guess everyone is saving up for tonight."

NCAA 100 butterfly champion Christine Magnuson emerged from a strong field with the fastest prelim swim, touching in 57.84 seconds. The Tennessee swimmer has just one minor international meet to her credit.

The 100 fly is one of nine events that had more than 100 swimmers entered, with 148 women competing. Six of the women's events drew at least 100 swimmers.

Elaine Breeden, a Stanford swimmer whose cousin is TV journalist Diane Sawyer, was second fastest in 58.03. Among the 16 advancing to the evening semifinals were three 2004 Olympians — Rachel Komisarz, Dana Vollmer and Margaret Hoelzer — along with Mary Descenza and Whitney Myers.

Myers became the first confirmed Nike defector when she showed up on deck in Speedo's full-length LZR Racer suit. She broke her personal best in the 100 fly by eight-tenths of a second and qualified eighth-fastest.

"I really respect Nike as a company to allow their swimmers to wear whatever suits they feel most comfortable in and most confident in," Myers said. "As we all know, the Speedo has produced some amazing results over the last six months. Nike realized that their suit is not quite up to par, so they're choosing to allow their athletes to wear a different suit."

Nike also sponsors top Olympic hopefuls such as gold medalists Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol and Sandeno, as well as sprinters Jason Lezak and Cullen Jones. Hansen joined Myers in wearing the Speedo suit for the 100 breaststroke.

As expected, Hansen led qualifying for the evening semifinals as the only man to break 1 minute with a time of 59.84. Mark Gangloff and Scott Usher, both 2004 Olympians, also moved on.

Phelps and Lochte are among the top swimmers who are above the suit-switching fray since both signed long-term Speedo contracts.

"I'm confident that Nike will soon come out with a suit that's equally as good or even better than Speedo's," said Myers, who plans to wear yet another company's suit for her freestyle event.

"Being a sponsored athlete, you're used to products just showing up at the door and wearing whatever you get," she said. "The hard part about this has been just trying to get ahold of the different suits so you can try them at practice and try them at the meets."