Did they post the new freshman men's swimmers anywhere?

School hasn't even started yet -- meaning they probably haven't taken them

I'm asking about the roster, is that posted yet?

Again, school hasn't started yet...

A little anxious, are we?

Did the webmaster forget to fix the men's roster? The women's got updated

somebody needs to chillax

comments from Steve Bultman

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234105/73211-am-olympians

men's roster is up now

Sehn is back in the house along with another canadian diver that made finals at their olympic trials

Makany now being eligible is HUGE...49.2 LC 100 free is BIG TIME...immediate impact player

Couple of other surprises on there...Atkinson is a 2008 Jamaican Olympian who was going 20 low at W. Kentucky...great pick-up by the staff...looks like a new zealander is in the fold to replace jacobo at breastsstroke...if lavery can get eligible that would be a nice new 1-2 punch in area that looked like would be a big hole after the end of last season

Denisyako will also get a full yr of training this year as opposed to 3 months last year since he was a mid-season signee...he should be even better and he was VERY solid last year

Even with the tough losses of Gardner and Jacobo, this might be the best team since Holmes' first year...if both divers produce at NCAA's could there be a top 10 this year at home? definitely a possibility...can't wait to see how this thing pieces together

What happened to the 200flyer?
Small team of 20 swimmers this year, is there potential to grab a few guys at semester again?
Makany's times are awesome

(edit 20 swimmers)

[This message has been edited by Aggie Athlete Involved (edited 9/17/2008 10:26a).]

That roster is way low at 20 swimmers. Did some of the recruits fall through?

We still need help in 200 free.

How does a guy (freshman) get on the roster with times like these:

22.25/50.36 50/100 free?

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/17/2008 12:30p).]

I heard Duran is gone. No big deal with Welch and Loncaric coming back. Might hurt a little in Dual meets but oh well.

As for the 22.5/50.3 kid, he's actually 21.2 in the 50. Not to say that this time makes him an automatic roster spot, but he's also about 6'8 from what I hear. Sounds like old-school Aggie recruiting to me.

They get 9.9 scholarships...you have to assume the foreign kids -- divers included -- get big money...but if they produce it's all worth it...I'm sure the coaches would love for the big-time Americans to come here but you have to do what you have to do to be successful when that doesn't happen

smarter - maybe you know this kid. But in 2007 the USA swimming database shows 22.32/50.11 as his best times. The times I listed above were high school regionals. He didn't get to 5A state.

I guess I should trust Jay. Maybe he's a tall, strong, undertrained kid they can turn into a sprinter. Based only on past history he isn't a Div I swimmer.

For LOB - what happened to Duran? The Olympics are over and he's done?

we all have responsibilities to live up to and when we don't live up to them things can change for us....that's all I'll say on that

I'm told the walk-on kid is 21.2 also but def. does need work...he is a legit 6-7 to 6-8...we will see how it goes

also, with addition of McLean, atkinson, the new zealand kid and denisyako all in the last 8 months, I think the coaches did do an admirable job of trying to make the team better...that's 3/4 of a medley relay that could potentially make NCAA's along with a diver that will likely make it there as well...if the coaches recruit that well every year we will be in the top 10 every year...it doesn't take much to get things going if you get some good ones in the fold

http://www.inswim.net/b50fr07.html

21.2 was last year. Never seen the guy myself but apparently he grew a few inches last year so I'll be on the wait-and-see side of things for now.

I don't see Duran in the Olympic results. Doubt that had anything to do with it.

Ya, the 22.25/50.36 can't be right because I would be willing to bet there are easilly a dozen guys on campus right now that did that in HS and aren't even thinking about swimming. Even at 21.2 there must be more to the story. Like on poster mentioned earlier, sounds like old school Aggie recruiting of finding the long sprinters with potential to build relays to score at NCAA's.

It sounds like the rest of the class is really strong even if it lacks a little depth. Here's to hoping the guys can follow the ladies lead and take the next step!

how fast is the new zealand kid?

Fonua's best 100 LC converts to 55.5 (which is easily the team's fastest after losing jacobo and chambless) but you've got to assume he'll be faster...pretty much everybody Doug and Jay get are markedly faster once they are here (for instance Chambless was only 57.1 as a freshman and dropped 3 seconds; Jacobo dropped 2.5 seconds in the 100 during his time here too)

Fonua finished second in the NZ OLY trials in the 50 breast, 3rd in the 100 breast...I'm guessing he'll be better in the shorter races than the longer ones (as opposed to Jacobo 2.0 who was more of a 200 breast guy when he came to A&M)

The Texas men's roster has 39 people on it - with 5 divers. They have 19 more swimmers than A&M? 11 freshmen.

What's your point? All our men will compete at Big 12's while Texas will have double-digit people that train all year just to sit out their taper meet.

You'd think at some point those mid-range to lower-end Texas kids would learn their lesson and end up at a school where they could contribute. Eddie's not going to put all 39 kids on the Olympic team...

My point is that perhaps 20+ kids are willing to walk-on at Texas. Since Eddie has 9.9 scholarships too - most of these kids must get nothing to go to Texas. Most of the scholarships must be allocated to the stars and the out of state kids since they don't get to pay resident tuition.

I simply do not understand how we cannot convince more boys/men to come swim for A&M. It really boggles my mind that we can't get more Texas 4A/5A finalists from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Austin to come to College Station.

Did we recruit someone like Jack Dwyer - 20.95/46.15 from Flower Mound - now a freshman at Missouri?

I hope we are bearing down on Cole Cragin, Dax Hill, Jared Nix, etc. for next year.
Why do we need five divers using up perhaps 2 of our scholarships?

I don't know where the sweet spot is, but A&M might be stuck in deadman's land between two types of teams. I do not claim to be knowledgable, but here's my take from watching the team recruit for the past decade or so...

UT can get just about anyone they want, plus they will let would-be top recruits walk-on because the kid thinks (rightfully so) that they will have the best chance to improve by training with the best every day; even if it means that they are on the non-scoring conference squad at first. Let's face it, swimming is a personally gratifying sport. I would be happier going a lifetime best and swimming in the bonus heat than not improving but getting to tell people I scored at conference.

Then you have Mizzu. MU can't get the top guys, so they don't try for the most part. They will make the solid state HS finalist feel like a superstar and throw scholarship money or attention his way. At the end of the day they will get enough mid-top guys to stay competitive.

We're stuck in between because we have been floating arround 10-20 for almost 2 decades and are trying to break into the top 10. Therefore, we have an outside shot at the top guys, and we're not going to "waste" time and money on the dime-a-dozen 20.7 freestyler unless they are willing to walk on because there's already a full relay of them who can also do a 49 fly or 2:38 200 free(hypothetically). So that solid sprinter either takes money from MU (or SMU, or Michigan St., etc...) or is left to decide between our walk-on offer or UT's walk-on offer. So we lose out on that guy 75% of the time. He may turn into a 19.5 sprinter or quite after 2 years, who knows. Instead, we try for that international find or an underdeveloped diamond in the rough. Oh and by the way, we'll still get 1 or 2 of the 20-low 21 sprinters who we didn't try that hard for anyway.

So I don't know if that makes sense at all, but Steve has done an amazing job on the girls side and I know it took him time to figure out how to win the recruiting game. I don't know if his last few classes were luck or just hitting his stride, but I trust Jay knows what he's doing and has a chance to do the same with the guys.

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Note: my "dime-a-dozen" comment is saying that 20.7 isn't anything special in college. I am aware that it is a very good HS recruit time.

'Since Eddie has 9.9 scholarships too - most of these kids must get nothing to go to Texas.'

Bingo.

'I simply do not understand how we cannot convince more boys/men to come swim for A&M.'

Bingo again. I'm confident any and every decent kid in the state is on A&M's radar. The problem is A&M tends to not be on theirs because they'd rather go swim for the Olympic coach for free or leave the state. Why? I can't really say. It's not like Eddie has magic pixie dust that automatically makes all his kids Olympians. The only ones he has that are were damn good before they got there. I would even be so bold to say that the A&M kids are, on average, getting more out of their potential with Jay and Doug than Eddie's kids are. All of A&M's top guys generally peaked at NCAA's. I wouldn't say that is true for the Texas guys.

'Why do we need five divers using up perhaps 2 of our scholarships?'

I would venture to guess only two divers are getting money and my answer would be because they have, can, and will score individual points at NCAA's and be threats to win Big 12 titles. When A&M gets swimmers that can do that (and A&M does have some now) I would bet they would and do get the same treatment. It doesn't take a ton of guys to be top 10 but it does take top flight ones.

quote:

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It doesn't take a ton of guys to be top 10 but it does take top flight ones.

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This is the point that prevents us from going after the "other" guys that final at HS state more agressively. We need a few guys that WIN HS state. We get enough of the others to stay in the top 20 already.

[This message has been edited by H2OPoloAg02 (edited 9/18/2008 6:03p).]

LOB and H20 - you both make very good points. I think you are both probably correct in your assessment. A lot of those Texas swimmers must be swimming for the experience because most of them will not be winning NCAA titles.

Somehow - we don't have the charm/charisma/magic/package to convince the state champions to come here. I wish I knew what the answer was.

There is no chance of Dax Hill attending A&M, he is considering Texas at the moment. Chad Sorenson is someone we should be recruiting hard, he is looking great right now.

Agswim15 - that's too bad about Dax. Why? I have watched him swim since he was 12.

Sorensen is a nice BR/IM guy - he's a junior this year. The guy I'd like to see in maroon is Cole Cragin. 48 back stroker/49 fly as a junior last year. Superb technique. His 50 back in the medley relay was 22.79.

Chris Griffin in Austin is a junior this year. He won 200 free at 4A state as a sophomore with a 1:42. Junior National 200 flyer (2:06 LCM).