Just read Bill Byrne's weekly....and he said Julia Wilkinson and Kristen Heiss both had shoulder surgery and are out for the year.

That is a huge blow. I wish them the very best recovery.

On a related note - I saw that Mary Beck formally committed to Cal. She will not swim for Texas. That is good news for us.

The losses will hurt but it will provide opportunities for others to step up where they might not have had the chance before

...and Triin Aljand will have a monster senior year this year...you heard it here first

LOB - that's good to hear.

What worries me is Texas. Kathleen Hersey, Leah Gingrich, Riefenstahl, and Bispo are all on the roster now. These four are VERY fast. 1 Olympian (Hersey), two Trials finalists, and national high school record holder.

Hersey is already the fastest 200 fly in the Big12 and probably top 3 200 IM.

Bispo's 1:45 200 free is faster than every Aggie except Wilkinson and Marshal.

Gingich's 500 free is faster than all but Stratton and Heiss.

Texas didn't improve their sprints much.

We need some big swims this year to make up for the loss of Wilkinson and Heiss.

Don't forget they added Livingston, the 2007 NCAA platform champ, back to the mix, another girl that finished fourth at world juniors in diving, and an Australian that has some very impressive freestyle times

It will take a Herculean effort to beat Texas this year however there are some areas where we can hurt them (sprint free, breaststroke, possibly some relays)...While we are shorter, compared to the past few year's, in the super-high-end talent dept., there are no glaring weaknesses and there is pretty much solid depth across the board, particularly in sprint freestyle

This could be a year where we win the Big12 due to depth, but Texas finishes higher in the NCAAs - where a few superstars make a big difference.