I admit I am a swimming geek. But after eating too much today I decided to play around with results.

Last year the Aggies had their best NCAA finish but they did not swim their best times of the year. As I posted before they only swam a total of 7 season best times vs. 37 races. Only twice did we swim better in finals than we did in prelims.

This year:

36 races in prelims - 21 season best times

Made 19 A or B finals; 14 A finals

Of 19 finals - 11 swims were better than prelims.

Of 19 finals - 6 swims were better than season bests, either swum in prelims or this year. Great clutch swimming when it truly counts.

So we swam a total of 27 season bests.

Other highlights:

Every girl except one swam at least one season best. The one that didn't was within .19 in a 400.

EVERY girl who raced 200 free swam a best time.

EVERY girl who raced 100 free swam a best time.

We medaled (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) in 7 events.

Only 1 DQ (and I don't know what happened).

No matter how you look at it - just a superb performance, season, coaching job, and we are positioned to be just as good next year. Steve and Tracy deserve all kinds of credit for the year. Hopefully top girl swimmers know world caliber swimming happens in College Station Texas - not just Palo Alto, Berkeley, etc.



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/23/2008 7:17p).]

Great info. you put together! Great job ladies.

Do we know anything about recruiting for next year? Obviously we will have a really strong team again with our returning swimmers, but are any all stars coming in?

I thought last year's results were strange too. I remember you talking about it. We've obviously got the process down for preparing for the nationals. The girls make us very proud. Maybe the guys can catch up shortly. Nah, this is A&M. We'll never be good in men's sports.

LOB and others may have a few thoughts on why we did so well this year....but I think:

1. We were so much better than Texas this year that we could afford to train most of the girls to peak at the NCAAs instead of Big12s. Bultman probably REALLY wanted to win Big12s last year and without divers he had to go all out to beat Texas. Swimmers really can't swim their best two times in a row three weeks apart.

2. Our girls are more experienced and not in awe of the NCAAs anymore. They swam strong in prelims, and came back to swim even better in finals.

3. A few teams, like Cal and Florida, just weren't awesome this year. Georgia was relatively awful this year. Georgia's head coach is the USA's Olympic women's coach.

4. Really though - our girls just kicked ass. I bet the trip home from Columbus was lively.

The DQ was not really a DQ...based on her seed time, it would have taken a Herculean effort to score in the mile so I have a feeling it was decided to rest her in order to try and qualify for Olympic Trials on Sunday (which she did easily according to the newest story on the girls' swimming web page)

The Ags had to have known they could beat Texas handily at Big 12's so they were likely more prepared for NC's this year than any other, but the bottom line is -- when push came to shove -- they just wouldn't be denied, from the 200 free relay on Thursday morning all the way to the 400 free relay on Saturday night...they swam to their potential by believing in their coaching and believing in themselves and just flat out wanting it more than just about anybody else...this group has been doing it steadily more and more for the last three years...the sky is the limit next year in their home pool...

Once again, spectacular job ladies...we're all incredibly proud of you!

here's a fun fact for those that may not understand the significance of a top 5 finish at the women's swimming and diving championships. the following is a list of teams that have finished in the top 5 at least once in the past THIRTEEN ncaa seasons.

Texas A&M
Auburn
California
Michigan
SMU
Stanford
Texas
Florida
Georgia
USC
Arizona

that's 11 teams TOTAL out of 65 spots. i'd bet if you looked back even to the early 80's you wouldn't add more than a handful of other teams. what bultman and the lady swimmers accomplished is a true feat of teamwork and great leadership.

congrats

[This message has been edited by apoColyPticus (edited 3/24/2008 9:54a).]

Incredible job by the team!

Question: What will it take to win the national championship next year?

Arizona having travel issues...lol...seriously though, they are really strong and return a lot of their points next year...they beat us by 150+ points...we'd have to find 3-4 swimmers/divers capable of winning the national title in 3 events each to be able to compete with them...however, should we be able to find just one girl like that, we would have a really good shot at second next year...we were only 33 points or so away from that this year

It would be very cool to get some points in distance events and diving. I'd like to see someone step in breaststroke other than Alia. And it would be great to find someone other than Wilkinson who can final in 100 back.

If we can move up a place or two in each of the relays that might be enough to take 3rd assuming the other big teams stay where they are.

Texas will likely improve significantly next year because Kathleen Hersey and Leah Gingrich, even though they are in high school now, would have finaled in several events at the NCAAs. They have the potential to take points from everyone. Texas still won't have the depth to go top 5.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/wildcats/231160

Good article about Busch at Arizona...yep they will be very good next year.

It will be fun to watch the progress Sommer, Woods, Neal, Hain, and Dodds make and how much more they will contribute next season!