Mary Beck lowered the national high school record in the 200 IM this past weekend to 1:56.45. She also went 53.58 in the 100 back. I do not believe she was tapered for Regionals. Mary has Trials cuts in multiple events. A huge early (Mary is a junior) commit for the Horns.

Those two times are faster than our season bests from either Wilkinson or Heiss and well under the NCAA automatic times.

Brackin is doing a mindnumbingly good job recruiting considering how bad their team is at the moment...

Brackin is doing very very well. Kathleen Hersey and Beck could be the two best IMers in the USA in two years. A bit like Bultman's class from a few years ago - but Texas' 08 class and Beck (09) are genuine superstars.

It will be interesting to look at the upcoming Texas state championships and see where the seniors are going to college.

She broke the record that she had held until this gal broke it earlier in the day and then she broke it again.

Something like that! Where is McKeehan going?

Anyway...this team has won the Indiana state championship for 22 consecutive years...WOW!

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080210/SPORTS0209/802100391

Bogus - good find. I knew Beck and McKeehan traded the record last year. Beck has one more big meet coming to lower it again.

McKeehan's 100 breaststroke time is faster than our Alia Atkinson.

The Texas state meet could see two high school records - if Beck breaks it again and if Jimmy Feigen breaks either his 50 free or 100 free records (again).

McKeehan signed with Georgia...she visited A&M as did another girl who broke a national record last weekend: Jenny Connolly, who signed with Tennessee...

I cannot imagine why someone would choose Tennessee over A&M (even if they are just behind us in current rankings).

Maybe Bultman didn't have enough scholarship to give these superstars?

Maybe that's part of Brackin's success now - she is saving some scholarships for people like Hersey and Beck.

Serious talent! Bultman was kind of close to signing these gals...I guess that shows just how far the program has come. Were we even considered by Beck?

Beck isn't even technically allowed to be recruited until July as she is a junior.

If you're looking for reasons, Tennessee just built a new facility, they are also a top-to-bottom big-time college athletic program and their coach is, from what I can tell, a very, very good recruiter

Yep ...last night I read an interview Swimming World did with the Tennessee head coach. He seems like a dynamic coach that will be able to attract that kind of talent to the team and obviously a new facility won't hurt the cause.

I was in Knoxville this past summer. Nice campus and the facility will be great. The old one isn't bad but Tennessee is really behind the men's and women's programs.

Will this one even go to college?

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=775785

Nice article. 6'2 height. Wow. Her 200 free time is really really good. Some superstars go pro and don't swim NCAA.

Just a guess - if she makes the Olympic team (she has to be 1st or 2nd in an individual event or top 8 in 100 free or 200 free for relays), a sponsor might want her. If she medaled somehow that could happen. The problem is not many sponsors care about swimmers. Mostly Speedo or Tyr.

question: why is she any more likely to go pro than say mary beck? just because shes 6'2? Codie Hansen was that fast out of h.s in the 200free, and dana vollmer was even faster, and those are just 2 names from texas. Vollmer has that kinda size, and Hansen is not short by any means (5'10?). I'm not saying shes not fast, cuz by looking at her times she definitely is, Im just not sure what makes this girl any more of a "superstar" than half the other ridiculously fast young girls who are trying to make the olympics.

top 6 go to the olympics in 100/200 free assuming there's extra spots on the squad.

Meg Romano's results from the Florida State Championships.

http://www.fhsaa.org/guest/swim/state/2A/

I didn't mean to imply she is more likely to go pro than Mary Beck.

Her size has nothing to do with it. Her height has impact on her swimming performance, which matters.

I think if she doesn't medal - Speedo won't see any value sponsoring her. She won't help them sell swimsuits. A swimmer turning pro has probably been approached by a potential sponsor or they have some reason to believe they can make a living as a swimmer. Very few can. If you look at Speedo's website you can see their entire list of their athletes. It isn't really very long considering the global nature of their business.

A few - like Phelps and Coughlin, make good money. Coughlin is attractive and looks good in ads.

Romano is faster than Codie was. Vollmer was about the same speed as Romano. Another issue that might have an impact is continuing improvement.

There are not many elite swimmers that skip college swimming. Phelps did. So did Katie Hoff and Kate Ziegler. But those three include the best all-around swimmer in the world, and at least two world records. Those three could earn 10 individual golds in Beijing.

Interesting that those Florida results list the Men's 100 free national record at 43.43 but Jimmy Feigen at Churchill has a seed time for this weekend's state meet of 43.41.

Those records get updated very slowly. They won't even try until the HS championship seasons are finished this spring. The NISCA group that keeps score has old data on their own web site.

Even FINA, the international swimming body, is very slow to update the world record lists.

Re: Feigen - of course he is a fabulous sprinter, but Joe Hudepohl, the old record holder, is one of the great figures in USA high school swimming. Look how old that record was. No Fastskins. His 200 free time of 1:34.96 is one of the great high school swims of all time. He would likely be on the "A" 800 free relay of every Div 1 team.

Spice - hate to nit pick, but Codie was 1:46.93 her Freshman year at state in the 200free, and Vollmer was 1:45.64 her Senior year at State. Romanos went 1:46.70 at her state meet, this is her Junior year? so Vollmer was over a second faster, and Codie was only 2 tenths slower.

I do think youre right that it is VERY rare to see a swimmer skip swimming in college to go pro. and not that shes an unattractive young lady, because she certainly isnt, but she definitely doesnt have the appeal that Coughlin or Beard have when modeling/sponsoring speedo, which i would think definitely plays a part when getting sponsorships

texagg09 - I assumed Codie's time was during her senior year. Lazy checking on my part. Thanks for correcting me.

Some girls peak early....others don't.

Megan Romano is 16? Very young. She will be in six events at the U.S. Olympic Trials. A lot of possibilities.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I think she should just swim for A&M and not worry about it!

[This message has been edited by bogustrumper (edited 2/28/2008 10:28a).]

Spicewood -- Codie didn't peak in H.S.; her best times have all happened in college, including her best-ever 500 free just this Nov...

I'm not predicting anything but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see her record lifetime bests in the 100, 200 and 500 before the end of this collegiate season

Anyone know what happened with Mary Beck? USA swimming has no times for her since 18 April at the TXLA Long Course kickoff. Did she have an injury or something?

Mary Beck took the summer off. I have heard she was burned out, tired of TXLA, and wasn't enthusiastic about swimming at Olympic Trials.

She was probably fast enough to reach semis in backstroke and 200IM.

Note that Randy Reese resigned and is moving to Florida. TXLA is searching for a new head coach. I heard that Beck was very unhappy with TXLA.

oh the irony that she verbals to tu and then "gets burned out, with TXLA"

maybe shell become and Ag just to spite all the sips over there in austin

I heard she wasn't having fun anymore. It must have been serious or shouldn't wouldn't have skipped Olympic Trials. TXLA is not the team it is cracked up to be.

But swimming for Kim Brackin at tu is not the same as swimming for TXLA.

I agree though that Bultman should reach out to her again. What I hear is a very tight team chemistry at A&M and maybe that's the ticket for Beck? She could step right in when Heiss, Wilkinson, etc. graduate and be our backstroker and IMer!

Word on the street is she's still looking around even though she's verbaled...

Interesting, thanks.

The more I am around swimming, the more I think that no club is without its issues. I hope she finds something that works for her. She seems to have amazing talent.

jbeam - you're right. EVERY club swim team has its problems. Some of the problems are just word of mouth bashing. Some have a great operation but bad coaching. Some have great coaching and horrible operations. Some are just bad all around. And I'm just talking about the Austin area.....

Looks like she won't visit us: http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/07/30/0730beck.html

Interesting article on Beck. I don't get the print Statesman so I don't see all the articles. It confirms the split with Reese. Very poor form for Reese to openly criticize Beck's motivation.

BTW - I am not surprised what Beck says about Reese. He is a my way or the highway guy.

It is disappointing that she won't visit A&M. USC's coach is Dave Salo, more than a bit controversial and has been accused of ignoring his college swimmers vs. his USA-S swimmers. Salo is also Jessica Hardy's coach. One of the Indiana coaches (Donnie Brush) is a former TXLA coach.

if beck and brush had any crossover in austin before he left for IU it would have been VERY brief and she would have been 13 years old. doubt that made a difference.

It is interesting that the folks on collegeswimming.com jumped to Randy's defense. I happen to believe that just about everything Beck said in the newspaper article is true. Randy despises high school swimming and makes life difficult for his swimmers if they want to perform well in HS championship meets. If the kids swim for a high school that doesn't excuse their swimmers from HS practice it is even worse.

Inside info:


After what happened with Randy Reese, Beck will not be swimming for UT, but don't get you hopes up because she is not looking at us either.

Randy is an ass, plain and simple. Thank goodness he will be leaving Longhorn Aquatics. Maybe they will promote a class act like Neil Walker to head.