Any word on when the NCAA invites go out?

Women's should be out later this week, since the last chance to qualify was today. The men have next weekend to qualify, so theirs will be later next week

Thanks for the info BigPapa. Based on the top times from USA swimming, we'll need that last meet.

Do they get bonus events for swimming relays?

Agreed Wolverine. If both women's teams suited up full, healthy squads, A&M kicks t.u.'s *** by triple digits. This meet shouldn't have even been close based on the two teams' lineups that actually competed. Get your facts straight sharpdressedman. The Aggies far exceeded expectations.


[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 3/1/2009 4:20p).]

The girls would clearly have beaten tu with if we had Alia and Patrick diving. Missing Alia was huge since it cost us 2 1sts in individual races and possibly 1sts in both medleys.

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Get your facts straight sharpdressedman. The Aggies far exceeded expectations.

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My point was that tu won the trophy and, with their number of outstanding young swimmers, will have regained their dominant position going forward. It is yet to be a proven fact, but I don't think it is an unreasonable opinion.

I understand that our girls swam very well; I never said they didn't. We didn't have all of our best people available. That is unfortunate for us, but it happens sometimes and you can't wallow in self-pity. Woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn't put points on the scorecard.

I think you read too much into my brief comment.

Just looking at the expected rosters next fall tu's women should be slightly faster than A&M's women. We lose more good seniors than tu and their incoming class is stronger than ours (even though ours is very good). Texas loses two very good divers.

Getting Heiss and Wilkinson back is huge. But how will they recover from surgery? And will tu's fast freshmen keep improving as sophomores?

Any by the way I'm just gonna say it sucks that our best diver leaves the country when we need her the most. I may be a hard ass about this - but short of home country Olympic trials I think the priority of our scholarship athletes should be with A&M.

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My point was that tu won the trophy and, with their number of outstanding young swimmers, will have regained their dominant position going forward. It is yet to be a proven fact, but I don't think it is an unreasonable opinion.

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This is probably more accurate. They will likely dominate us for the next several years, between Bispo, Hersey, Reifenstahl, and their recruits.

They are getting 3 6-star recruits next year, which means swimmers that have already achieved what would've been A cuts, or several B cuts, in highschool, including 2 girls which go 1:00 100 breasts, and a girl that goes a 53 hundred back. Our coaches, however, have shown a prowess for turning unheralded swimmers into stars. Hopefully Canadian swimming continues to improve, as we seem to have a serious pipeline coming from there these days.

I think Texas will win a national title over the next couple of years. But for now, even excluding our injured swimmers, if you add Alia and Jaele back into the mix, we are still a better team, and I expect that this will show at nationals.

goblu - good assessment. Big12s showed once again that Bultman and Duchac can develop great swimmers. The difference in the next few years is that 5-6 star recruits are already at Olympic trials levels of performance as high school swimmers.

No matter what I look forward to some great A&M swims at NCAAs. I'd really like to see Aljan, Marshall, Hansen, etc finish their careers at A&M in a big way.

wow ...for a couple of reasons

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/mar/01/finest-hour-for-mu-swimmers/?sports

Like how the article says A&M's women beat Texas?

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http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/mar/01/finest-hour-for-mu-swimmers/?sports

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Stay classy Mizzou...Lets get "The Eagle" to print articles about the last 11 2nd place finishes for A&M...

Not saying they didn't earn or deserve the..."win"...but the celebration seems a tad excessive

That article seems perfectly fine for a partisan paper. Jeez, we expect local papers to be unbiased? I'm happy for them. We had a lot of those types of articles last year in a bunch of our sports. We just need to make sure we have the same type of coverage from the Eagle when we beat tu men next year (I hope!)

not as much the paper but the contestants

...this as well...

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/feb/28/swimming-story/

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When UT’s monopoly on the top seven spots in the 200-yard freestyle finals relegated top-seeded Aggies swimmer Balazs Makany to last place, the No. 24 Tigers men erupted in cheers.

Nevermind no MU swimmer was in the race. Standing in the bleachers at the Mizzou Aquatics Center, the black-and-gold teammates high-fived while many flashed the “Hook ’em Horns” sign.

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cheering hard for the sips and celebrating second place ...kind of pathetic



they were focused on A&M and that was about it:

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/feb/26/mu-men-women-get-off-to-strong-start-in-home-pool/

[This message has been edited by bogustrumper (edited 3/2/2009 5:07p).]

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when we beat tu men next year (I hope!)

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Do you realize this will not happen for a very long time. It will be a special day when this happens. When it happens ESPN may write about it.

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Do you realize this will not happen for a very long time. It will be a special day when this happens. When it happens ESPN may write about it.

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But you're forgetting about the taper! [/Men's swimmer whining about texagers not proclaiming them the world's greatest swim team]

The girls do lose four solid freestylers in Aljand, Hansen, Jasek and Marshall but, from a conference standpoint, they get Atkinson, Heiss, Wilkinson and Patrick back next year. They also will have a second eligible diver in Janie Potvin that might possibly be in Patrick's league which, with Texas losing their best two divers, could cause a huge point swing in those two/three events... The Aggies lose no divers from this year either...A&M also adds the fastest junior Canadian backstroker and butterflier in their country, as well as 6-8 others that might have the possibility of going 'Lindsey King' at any time. Steve Bultman is as underrated a swim coach as there is in the country. Period.

While A&M will lose a tremendous amount of talent in certain areas (sprint freestyle), it will bolstered in other areas (diving, backstroke will be DEADLY, butterfly will be a little deeper)...Hopefully Bultman and Duchac are out pounding the pavement for a freestyler or another breaststroker...

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 3/2/2009 11:24p).]

Isn't it ironic how you GoBlue are back to antagonizing people the way you blasted "mens swimmers" for alienating their fans?

The NCAA meet has not started, and I dont really think A&M is too concerned about how MU swims. I am sure they are more concerned about what happens next.

Also, dont remember anyone here saying A&M was the worlds greatest swim team. Like I said, before it seems OK for you guys to critical, but if someone comes back at you, you will threaten to not by an A&M fan. Gee.

Well said Anonymiss...the men clearly did not quite meet their high (albeit very realistic) expectations for conference, but the season isn't over yet

LOB - sounds like the future is bright for the women. They might take a hit next year, but it sounds like they won't be down for long. Looks like the A&M-tu womens battle will be very close for years to come

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Also, dont remember anyone here saying A&M was the worlds greatest swim team. Like I said, before it seems OK for you guys to critical, but if someone comes back at you, you will threaten to not by an A&M fan. Gee.

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Double standard. People donate money to the athletic program to pay for your equipment/travel/scholarships, and the exchange is that you guys are expected to represent the University in a positive manner, both in the pool and out of the pool. That's the way athletics work, get used to it.

ANYWAYS

Forgot that Alia was only a junior. She should still have the 200 locked up, but those two girls from t.u. could push her in the 100. We can hold out the utmost hope for the two returning from shoulder injuries, but until the race it's uncertain how they've recovered. I'm sure we all know how devastating shoulder injuries can be to a swimmers' career.

We should also continue to get better in the distance events, between Casey, Melissa, Alyssa, (I'm sure I forgot someone), and it appears we've got some pretty good distance recruits coming in. Maybe swap sprint freestyle for distance? Not a perfect trade, as there's no distance relays, but still something to look forward to. I predict we'll get a huge recruiting boost in the class of 2010, though.

It's great to see diving becoming one of our strengths. It always seemed so silly to me that Houston could have such a great diving program when those girls could've just driven 100 miles up north and gotten a much better education to go with it. Especially back before UH opened the new rec center, as our facilities were much better at the time.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/2/2009 9:51p).]

"positive manner" yet you are free to be immature?

Please take your money back if you give anything at all...these are kids...that doesnt give you the right to criticize their passion for their school.

[This message has been edited by Anonymiss (edited 3/3/2009 2:11a).]

[This message has been edited by Anonymiss (edited 3/3/2009 2:26a).]

I really wish you guys would stop hijacking every single swimming thread and turning it back into being about you and how we should all be on our knees worshiping you. This is why athletes need to stay off Texags.

LOB - I agree Bultman is underrated nationally (maybe even internationally) as a coach. He has been superb.

tu is losing their two best divers - but they signed two, both with Nationals experience. They are very solid so we can't assume we will suddenly swing the points our way. Scoggin is every bit the coach Wright is. And it doesn't matter if our athletes don't compete at conference.

Blu I hate to say it, but you were the one who hijacked this thread. You can't expect guys not to react when you criticize and make fun of them. They have just as much right as anyone to read & post on TexAgs

That being said, the guys might wanna put their pride on the shelf for a bit, and not rise to the bait of said antagonizers (aka goblu).

BACK TO THE THREAD

Bultman is no slouch recruiter, he's one of the best in the business, so I'm not terribly worried about the future classes. Ya Brackin is bringing in the studs now, but Steve will be back up there soon. And we might not take the edge in diving, but at least the Ags won't get slaughtered there like the past, so that's a plus

Blu, I am not a swimmer. Excellent attempt. I forgot, this forum is about you. The fan. My apologies.

LOB - looking at the times across the country, do you think the girls will get all the swimmers & relays to the meet that they had hoped/expected to get there at the beginning of the season?

The relays are all in, or at least the people that could be on them to make them A final threats, for sure. I'd say 10 swimmers are in for sure. Four are on the bubble. I also think the Ags could send 1-2 divers to the meet as the zone has 10 qualifying spots this year. 12-16 would be an excellent number considering the 2-3 sitting out this season.

Last year, the "invited" cut off ranking was 27-30th for events where B cuts were invited, however last year there was an extraordinary number of A times (only 10 B times were invited in the whole country for girls), although A cuts pushed the invites in some events closer to 40. That shouldn't happen again this year, with the faster time standards that were put in place to account for the faster suits, and so all events should have a more similar number of competitors. Apparently a few weeks ago they added 61 total swimmers to the pool, soby rough estimation (aka without spending hours going through all 383 swimmers) will be somewhere around 35 or 36.

These are only rough estimations, of course, until the official ncaa psych sheets are released (which should be soon)

The cutoff for guys is typically much lower, around 21-22 place. Then swimmers get additional entries in events that they have a B cut in.

There is no max on the number of swimmers per event, just a limit on the number of events per swimmer, and the total number of individual competitors in the meet.

Hope that all made sense, let me know if it didn't, and I'll try to clarify.


To put it in basketball standards,
Locks-Top 30 in each event+A cuts
Should be in's- 30-35th in each event (of those with B cuts)
Bubble- 35-38th in each event (of those with B cuts)

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1054&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

These are the most up to date time rankings that I know of, although all rankings are unofficial until the invites are officially released. Also to complicate things a little more, each coach has to pick a max of 18 competitors for NCAA's, which I believe happens before the invites are sent out.



[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/3/2009 5:30p).]

Picking through the times, it looks like the only times we have that are going to be sweating it out are-

Maria Sommer 50 free
Christine Marshall 100 free
Casey HZ 1650 free
Lindsey King 100 Back
Rita Medrano 200 Fly
Melissa Hain 400 IM

Lindsey and Christine are both in in other events, so for them it's just the semantics of being invited in that event or not, or swimming it as an optional event.

Rita is on the bubble at 36th, and Casey, Melissa, and Maria should be ok at 33rd, but we won't know for sure until they officially announce.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/3/2009 5:31p).]

Looks like the guys' only individual invitee will be Nathan Lavery(T-20 100 BR), although others will obviously swim in optional events.

Edit: Also depends on the outcome of the last chance meet this weekend. Casey and Boris are next closest.

Edit edit: 100 Breast

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/3/2009 5:16p).]

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/3/2009 5:32p).]

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/3/2009 9:44p).]

Men's Pac-10s haven't been swum yet. They are this weekend, along with all the Time-trials/last chance meets for the men

And thanks LOB

Good try Goblue. The only girls that will be "sweating it out" are Casey and Rita. Lindsey was on the 400 med relay, which will get picked up, so she will swim the 100 back. Maria was on the 200 free relay, which will get picked up, so she will swim the 50. Melissa was on the 800 Free Relay so she will be able to swim all her B cuts, including the 400IM. Christine is in the same boat as Melissa.

And I highly doubt Lavery will be invited to the meet in the 200 with a 2:03 haha. The 100 is a little more likely

[This message has been edited by finaswim (edited 3/3/2009 6:54p).]

Sorry, totally blanked about the girls on the relays.

Freudian slip on Nathan's 100 breast.

For the girls, one thing to consider is that your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th diver is going to score WAY more points than your last swimmer. Divers count either 1/3 or 1/2 of a swimmers, so the top 2-3 divers replace the "last" swimmer on the conference team, and the 3-6 diver(s) replace the "next to last" swimmer on the conference team. A&M women should regain the title next year, but it will be close.
For the men...the small number of teams allows a lack of depth (in the field) to produce a kind of "illusion" in the results. Several years ago, a Houston high school got second at states, but was the "mythical" national champion. How did this happen? The state depth that year was a little light, so the state champs were able to pick up a LOT of points at the bottom of the scorers. Mirroring this, A&M should pound Mizzou at NCAA's.
For both teams, it is easy to look at their conference results, with missing swimmers, taper, etc and know that the absolute mandate from the athletic dept. is the national championships. It explains a lot of their actions.