Now that we all raged out, who has a coherent thought about the upcoming meet?

Texas looked really good against Arizona. They got a lot of big performances from surprising places, and I still don't think they've swum a full lineup at a dual yet. They might be the only team in the country that can knock off Cal this year.

A&M should swim a lot of best times. Right now, the top-50 in the country lists don't have many Aggies on them, but I would imagine that this is the meet where they'll start showing up.

NOT RAGED OUT YET!!

long order definitely helps the bad guy in my opinion, but yes we should see some breakout performances from the ags on friday

relays are gonna be super key (even more so than usual). the big thing for the guys is going to be splitting up the horns. we can afford to not win an event (well, sorta) IF we can keep them from going 1-2-3-etc. taking that 1st spot in a few events would help too, even if the horns do take 2-3-4-etc. they have the depth, but if we can sneak up there and surprise them in some events, it could be interesting.

Grant and Cam are gonna need to have a great showing on the boards also, which is no easy task agains the sip divers.

I havent really followed the horns much at all this year, but judging from years past it is going to hinge on the first half of the meet. if the Ags can jump out early and surprise the hell outta them, get them on their heels from the start, THEN we could be in for a show. Usually dual meets are all about the sprinters and less about the distance guys, but that mile/thousand thrown in their early (if memory serves me correctly on the order) is gonna be a super important race to watch. not sure if we can pull the W out there, but taking a 2-3 spot away from them would be huge for momentum.

Dual meet scoring makes wins huge. Remember the scoring is 9-4-3-2-1.

tu's #1 is 2 secs faster in every 200 length event.

I think Balasz could make the 100 free interesting, but Feigen and Dax were very fast last week.

The best chance for a win could be Omar in the 500.

We're too slow in backstroke to contend for the medley relays.

I'd like to see some good swims from Troskott heading into Big12s in three weeks.

It'll be very interesting, the mile should be a good race between the top 3 guys and who knows maybe someone else will be throwing something out there. The relays will be key tho, have to win the relays or the meet could go downhill quick.

Texas is falling apart....Chips in the armor?

Shanteau-Gone
Berens-Gone
Peirsol-Gone
GWG-Big announcement coming...
Dave Walters could be very alone very soon.

Seriously? The filter got me on "Chin ks"?

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 2/1/2011 8:22p).]

mark the loss....but the AGS will swim some good times like they usually do prior to big12's. I'm looking forward to seeing how fast we go! big 12's should be rocking

dp

[This message has been edited by agdawson2006 (edited 2/1/2011 9:33p).]

For the sake of anger, there's my mad face.

I hope some Aggies in Austin can make it out!

[This message has been edited by agdawson2006 (edited 2/1/2011 9:34p).]

chin ks in the armor!
Had to see it for myself

[This message has been edited by favre (edited 2/1/2011 10:47p).]

I bet the Ags swim better against the horns than the basketball team played against them.

overall, they should all swim some better times, but tu's too much for us.
only chances for a w is possibly distance and diving. truth hurts.

With apologies to B.J. Holmes, I could swim better against Texas than the way the basketball team played against them...that was disgusting -- in execution and effort.

Whats this about guys leaving Texas...those guys are training elsewhere now?

Yep. And Klueh.

http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/texas-exodus/

Good article blastoff, great read, one of your better ones!

Thanks! They thought so too...they're all tweeting back and forth about who's the bigger softie for moving to Cali with his girlfriend.

Very good article blastoff...

To be honest, I'm surprised this hasn't happened a little earlier than now, Reese has been seeming a little more detached from the team each passing year. Add to that a polarizing person like Brackin on deck, and some people just won't buy in.

Still a great coach, no doubt about that, but maybe thing's are finally slipping beyond him a bit....

great article

If diving and distance step up it should be a very entertaining meet overall! Very excited about it, always fun to see an aggie team against tu

The article said a few odd things. Why would it be a bombshell that Peirsol retired? For the last year he has been in and out of the pool, training "just enough" to be ready for big meets.

Brendan Hansen is coaching age groupers at Lost Creek Aquatics now. I hear that Peirsol is also interested in coaching. Neil Walker has been coaching in the Dallas area for two years now.

The non-Eddie part of TXLA is in a slow decline that began while Randy was still the head coach. Nitro is taking over the city age group scene in a big way.

As for Klueh moving - jeez how does a distance guy stay motivated to swim 100K yards a week without a change?

I hope our Ags have a great meet though in any case.

Thought it was a great read

THAT WAS A FANTASTIC MEET!!

EVERYONE came prepared to do their best -and the men did just that. Excellent job, coaches, for getting the crew mentally and physically ready.
I think we caught tu off guard with that opening W. -what a HUGE swim by troskot! And what about B.M's swim in the 200??!! HUGE!
Omar and the divers were all business (as usual).

WHAT'S A FULL TAPER GOING TO LOOK LIKE??

-i'm skipping work for the next two meets!-

Some very nice swims in the meet. I wasn't there to watch but I just looked at the times. What a great start with the 200 medley relay. Troskott's first sub-20 split this year, right? And he out-split Feigen.

Nice 200 free win by Balasz and 1650 by Omar. Four "real" swimming wins by the Ags and both diving events.

Hopefully they were pretty happy with the times leading in to Big12s.

Texas went to the locker room for their suits and made wholesale lineup changes in midstream. Jackson Wilcox celebrated his 500 win (which i highly doubt he was slated to swim) like he won a race at the Olympics. There was some serious looking around after we won four of the first five races. It was greatness. Great job guys and coaches.

WOW! The score wasn't that close, but I got emails from more than one high-profile person in the swimming world saying that they had no idea how good the A&M Men were. We might not have won, but people definitely sat up and took notice of this meet. Well done Ags.

swim of the meet in my mind was balazs as usual in the 200 free, he took it to the horns in arguably their best and deepest event. fonua also had a great meet, that 100 breast and the leadoff 50 back were both bright spots. those texas guys are just too deep, they can swim the 200's of the strokes a lot better than we can.

Totally agree on Fonua and Makany. Those guys were monsters tonight. Hope some more guys jump up and join them as the year finishes up. We could do big things at NCAA's if that happens.

Looks like a great meet! When they have a full taper I'm expecting huge things from them. Looks like some best times were thrown in there, some times very close to best times. Wow! seeing the Aggies step up like that against the longhorns is always a good sign!

Spicewood, I thought the ags didn't have a shot at that medley because they didn't have a backstroker..?
Fonua out touched both tu backstrokers with Ariens being very close behind.

How likely is it that relay will get picked up to go to NCAAS?

Oh and where is Pludo on this post...Lindau was on fire post with a 21.24 and 48.54 in his 50fly and 100fly. Fonua looks like he can step into any stroke with his 100fly just .1 behind Lindau's.

[This message has been edited by longtimeswimagfan (edited 2/6/2011 11:11p).]

Longtimeswimagfan, I think we've also discussed many times on here that in the 200 medley relay, whoever has the best underwaters can make an effective 50 backstroker. Not discounting that Ariens has shown big improvements (his 49.66 seems to be a career best, though he was seeded earlier this year at a 48, but can't find that time anywhere) it will show up more in the 400 medley.

Last year, there were only two finalists (A or B) in the 400 medley with backstroke splits slower than 47.5, and they were the 14th and 15th qualifiers. LSU, who was the next slowest time at 47.52, was 16th. But can't be upset at Ariens' improvements, especially if they continue.

quote:

---

his 49.66 seems to be a career best, though he was seeded earlier this year at a 48, but can't find that time anywhere)

---

Ariens was 48.27 at Big 12's last year.

Ah right, in prelims. Missed that one (didn't show up on his collegeswimming.com or usaswimming.com profiles). Hopefully he can improve off of that time at NCAA's this year.