That was a great meet against SMU tonight great job to that team! A one loss meet is definitely a heart breaker. But I was wondering why Nikita Denisyako and Jensen Ried have not swam this semester? Nikita would be amazing in the IM and backstroke he has shown that he could have won some events. Also from watching Ried in the past he has potential to be a player in the distance events and maybe win some events. Does anyone know why? A coaching decision?

Nikita not being in the pool the last two weeks cost the A&M men two victories.

I heard the officials overturned a scoreboard result tonight in the 50 thus eventually screwing the Aggie men out of a win. Any truth to this?

All that said, ridiculous in-season times by the men today and great performances by the divers. The guys are on pace to threaten for top 10 status even without Nikita.

Keep up the hard work. It will pay off.

Ried had shoulder surgery again

LOB - you heard correctly. officials overruled the touchpads decision in the 50 free

[This message has been edited by texagg09 (edited 1/30/2009 10:42p).]

what was the deal?

From what I understand, the SMU coaches disputed the result, so the officials consulted the buttons, which said the kid from SMU won.

The ruling on whether there's supremacy in the touchpad is basically when there's greater than .3 difference between some combination of the buttons, touchpads, and stopwatches, then the results must be investigated and adjusted, if the officials find a reasonable issue.

It's really complicated once you get into how they adjust the times, so if you really want to read it, go to page 60 of the NCAA rule book. The gist is that if it's a 1 lane error, they figure which of the backups is valid (buttons or watch), and adjust that time by the average error between that same backup (buttons or watch) and the touchpad in all other lanes.

If the issue is deemed to be in the electronic timing of the whole heat, then whatever backup (buttons or watch) is deemed reliable for every lane is adjusted by the average of the errors of all lanes between the backup (buttons or watch) and what the touchpads actually registered.

Clear as mud?

The rule book is online here: scroll down to page 61 of the PDF. they have examples and all.
http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/Swimming_Diving_ReadyforWeb7b42da3b-b35a-43bd-bba0-0b7323b5561b.pdf

We can only assume that the officials used correct procedure, and the discrepancy probably came from one of the Kines 199 all-stars doing the manual timing. It happens. At least it wasn't a qualifying cut, because then it likely wouldnt've counted because there were only 2 timers for each lane.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 1/31/2009 12:53a).]

What happened to Nikita?

So how are they saying the touchpad triggered early? My girlfriends mom is an official, so I will have to see if she can explain the rule to me. To me, doesnt seem right to put the stop watches/buttons ahead of the touchpad.

Again they must've assumed that there was a touchpad malfunction given the .3 difference issue. They don't know that it was the touchpad, but they have to assume that the two times that agree (in this case it was probably the pad and the button) are the more correct times. If I recall correctly, it was the SMU kid in lane 7 that ended up getting the win, and they were certainly having problems with it in the race after (time didn't show up) and then replaced it during the diving break, although per proper protocol they should've replaced it immediately. That means that Casey's time was probably accurate on the pad and the SMU kid's was wrong, at least according to what they decided.

What level does your friend's mom officiate at? Is it Mrs. Maxville? It's likely that highschool officials don't know this rule, my dad was one and he has no idea.

All levels, she worked the Texas/Arizona meet Friday and Saturday, and the District meets at the Texas Swim Center. Last name Ballo.

Blue - the smu kid that won was in lane 5, casey was in 6, and they replaced lane 7s touchpad after the 200im

ok my mistake. In that case, they screwed up. If they decide it's an equipment malfunction, then the pad has to be replaced. They must've declared it a "judging error" aka the timer screwed up, which in this particular instance means that the touch pad is still valid. So yes, the officials blew it.

Which is not to say that they didn't rightfully declare the kid the winner, it's just that if they think it really was an equipment error then that equipment should've been fixed/replaced. You can't just declare something equipment failure in one race because it's close and assume that the rest of the times will be ok as long as the race isn't close.

And now that I look at the results, it appears that they changed both swimmers' times versus what was on the scoreboard. I thought Casey was a 20.21 on the pad? Maybe I'm wrong. That means both lanes would've had an error. It seems as though these officials don't know the rules. Even if they adjusted the other kid's time correctly, it shouldn't affect the rest of the field.

That's too bad for the guys, it would've been a nice win. Hopefully they get some legitimate officials in here for NCAA's. Does anyone know the explanation that the coaches were given by the officials?

I too would like an explanation.

If both the pads worked and the results showed immediately on the board and looked feasible, why the f would you overturn it? The naked eye can't see the difference if it was less than a tenth, especially if the two swimmers touched the wall in a different fashion (fingertips vs. palms). That's one of the reasons you use the pads.

I don't think many people thought Phelps beat Cavic in the 100 fly at the Olympics by eyeballing it. Even after seeing the photos it's still tough to tell. The pads don't lie if they are working properly. What a disgrace.

At least the guys know if they are good enough to beat SMU now, they should pummel them come taper time.

I didn't see the finish myself, but the board read:

Casey - 20.18
the smu kid - 20.31

The official results list the smu kid's time at 20.15, but Casey's time remained unchanged.