So how about the women? Usually, the girls show some improvement from Big 12's to NCAA's. This year, with so many freshman, do you think they've had a different approach? Maybe just go all out at Big 12's and qualify as many as they can for NCAA's to get them the experience? Or do you think there's still big drops left in them?

You probably saw the interview with Camille and Henry and they said they were rested a bit but not tapered.

So I am optimistic at least some of the girls have more gas in the tank. I keep wondering if/how we can leapfrog tu at NCAAs.

I'm curious about that too Spicewood. Obviously the Texas girls didn't collapse as much as usual at conference though I still think we definitely outswam them. I'm more curious to see what Texas has left in the tank, especially after last year's debacle at NCAA's. All of their relays were strong, Sogar and Bispo will be beasts and Taylor will help them in the diving well. Past that, who knows.

I'm guarded on what we will do. I totally believe Henry, Adams and the others who weren't shaved or completely rested can go faster. That said, the last time we had a monster freshman class the results at NCAA's weren't quite as good as we hoped but I fail to recall how much rest went into some of those girls. I think there were a lot of factors that went into that less-than-hoped-for finish though -- some rested all the way for Big 12's, some got wide-eyed, the staff learning how to taper each individual girl just the right amount for both meets. It obviously got fixed as time went on (see: 4th-place finish two years later).

I'm confident that in certain areas we will be better than what we showed that year (2006). I think we'll go as far as the 800 free & medley relays, Adams, Larson, Henry and Potvin take us. If anyone else, or the sprint relays, chip(s) in significant points elsewhere, it will be icing on the cake. If we finish higher than 10th, I'd consider it a successful meet.

LOB - my memory's not so good on 2006, but I had a sense that our NCAAs were a bit of a letdown mostly because the girls were almost all tapered for Big12s (we had to - to get their cuts), and they were inexperienced at NCAAs.

But this group of freshmen seems much stronger overall at this point - and they are surrounded by veterans that have been there before. We don't have race day beasts like Julia and Alia, but lots of the team should not be too in awe of NCAAs. It is also in Austin, a familiar pool to all of them.

I did a simple tally of scoring opportunities - considering a top 24 seed a scoring opportunity.

.............................t8....t16....t24
200 free relay........(1)
500 free................(1)....(1)
200 im..................(1)....(1)
50 free.................(1)
400 medley relay..(1)
200 medley relay..(1)
400 im................(1)....(1)....(1)
100 fly
200 free..............(1)
100 breast..........(1)
100 back............(1)
800 free relay.............(1)
1650.................................(1)
200 back...................(1)....(1)
100 free............................(1)
200 breast..........(1)
200 fly................(2)..........(1)
400 free relay............(1)

We have girls in the top 24 in every event except 100 fly. Our best scoring opportunities are in 400IM and 200 fly (3 girls each in T24).



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/11/2011 1:19p).]

I think the Aggie freshman will exceed expectations and not have a problem with the "big time venue". Most of those girls have competed and finaled at big national and international meets. I think the Big XII meet illustrated that these girls are gamers. I liked the way they responded to TU when they got a little chippy. These girls will follow the upper classmen and rise to the occassion.

I think that the upper classmen will repond well also. Most have already been to NCAA's and will be tapered for this meet. The fall invitational and Big 12's showed what they are capable of so it will be exciting to see all of them swim fully tapered. We're excited for the diving also!

I hope you're right, maroon swimmer.

I think the girls show up big time at NC's, but freestyle depth (esp. on the relays) is gonna hurt them more than we realize....

It may be a little early for this, but I think the crucial stage for the women's team moving forward will actually come in the recruits that Bultman manages to get after this freshman class. The team is in a strong enough place now that he has to start getting good swimmers (i.e: NCAA qualifiers at least) without having to give them a lot of money or incentive.

If he manages to do that (along with a few other criteria) I can easily see the girls team get into the hunt for future national championships, and staying there!

Excellent points bullet. 100% in agreement.

quote:

---

I did a simple tally of scoring opportunities - considering a top 24 seed a scoring opportunity.

.............................t8....t16....t24
200 free relay........(1)
500 free................(1)....(1)
200 im..................(1)....(1)
50 free.................(1)
400 medley relay..(1)
200 medley relay..(1)
400 im................(1)....(1)....(1)
100 fly
200 free..............(1)
100 breast..........(1)
100 back............(1)
800 free relay.............(1)
1650.................................(1)
200 back...................(1)....(1)
100 free............................(1)
200 breast..........(1)
200 fly................(2)..........(1)
400 free relay............(1)

---

I used this and added 14.75 points for every individual top 8 projection, 5.625 points for every 9-16 finish, 29.5 for every top 8 relay, and 11.25 for every 9-16 relay. These numbers are the total number of points awarded in each final divided by 8. Found our total to be 281 points without diving. not sure how janie will do, but i think she can score some good points for us and hopefully lorena can get in there as well, but i think in all honesty that 30 points is the most we can ask for in diving. that puts us at 311 points, which is exactly the same that we scored last year with jaele.

not having jaele is the difference between flirting with the top 3 and battling it out for 5-8 this year. the girls are really going to have to step up in order to make something really special happen. the swimmers are better this year no doubt, and next year really should be the best year the girls have ever had.

the top 5 in no particular order of florida, stanford, cal, arizona, and georgia is tough to break into no matter what the year. i have faith in the girls to do it, but i really think next year is the year.

[This message has been edited by dbcooper (edited 3/15/2011 11:51a).]

I think top 3 would be ambitious, even with Jaele...USC, Georgia, and Cal are way ahead of the rest of the field. 4th would've been well within range, however. And I doubt that we'll match last year's scoring...using the above methodology ignores bonus points, assumes we're on average middle of the road for each final, etc. Psych sheet scoring just for swimming has us at 208, which is about 20 points behind where we were last season. Even if you assume that this young squad will show the same drops at NCAA's as last year's veteran squad did, that probably leaves us about 50 points short of what we did last year.

But it's a moot point anyways. In all likelihood, we're probably better off having her next season (assuming she does compete next season) since our improvements for returning swimmers + freshman will more than make up for what we're graduating. As fast as this year's NCAA's are going to be, though, I think next year could be even faster...

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 3/15/2011 1:39p).]

What are bonus points?

There is no mention of bonus points in the NCAA championship handbook.

Sorry, they're not true "bonus points," but that's a term (probably not used in all circles) to refer to the extra points you get for winning an event. AKA moving from 2nd to 1st you get 3 more points, rather than 3rd to 2nd you only get 1 more point. Or moving from 9th to 8th. Or 10th to 9th. Ignoring that in the "average placing method" is like saying that in the 18 swimming events, we're going to have 9 4th place finishers and another 4 5th place finishers. I don't see that happening. If we had more swimmers (any swimmers?) expected to win event titles, it would make more sense. I think it's probably more fair to guesstimate about 13/26 points for a top 8 seed and 5/10 points for every B final.

Gotcha. There is a premium for 1st place. And with relays, everything is 2X.

Our relatively weak 200/400 freestyle relays will hurt a bit.

Right. Premium is probably a better word.

The only good news is that Tennessee, who is one of our biggest competitors in the team competition, doesn't have much sprinting either.

IT'S ALMOST GAMEDAY!

Does that mean it's time to get angry again?

Any live streaming?

Streaming for Friday and Saturday finals only.

More info:

http://www.ncaa.com/championships/swimming-women/d1

Live results

What a load of crap. I know for a fact that there's plenty of places that they would be more than happy to live stream the sessions that nobody else wants...and plenty of volunteers to go stand on deck and move a video camera back and forth. I mean, the full production with Rowdy and the underwater cameras is nice and all, but we'd settle for a whole lot less. Think this is Texas dropping the ball or the NCAA?

My guess is it is the NCAA. tu is not publicity shy and would be motivated to be on TV as much as possible. I just hope someone better is manning the timing console so live results actually works.

Ags in heat 3 against Cal, Texas, and LSU. Good position to be in, lots of "rabbits" to chase.

200 free relay 11th, one place below seeding. tu 5th, but in the A final.

Paviln DQ's 200 IM. I believe would have been 16th.

What is the reason for the DQ?

Pavlin would have been 18th.

500 free will score points. But we are skunked in the 200 IM and 50 free.



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/17/2011 1:22p).]

Spice-my math has her at 1:58.44, which would've been ahead of Layne Brodie's 1:58.52 that finaled.

Boom goes the dynamite...Texas is adding tons of time everywhere. 4 seconds off in the 400 medley.

Oops - I misread the results. I was reading her seed time.

We don't A final in the 400 medley. We add two secs, tu adds 4. Larson's split was very good so she looks solid for her individual swims.

Overall, Arizona might be in the mix with the top 4 now, they're swimming incredibly, and they're another SUPER freshman heavy team (2nd-seeded 200 free relay is 4 freshmen). USC, Cal, Stanford, Georgia all hold serve. Auburn falls of a tiny bit, Texas drops a ton, we drop a little. Tennessee fell some too though, so we're still in good shape for 9th.

Potvin not doing well after two rounds now. Averaging just 5.6.

So we can get some points in the 200 Free Relay and the 400 Medley Relay plus we have 2 that can score in the 500 Free. Could be better but get some points and move on.

1 Meter Diving updates?

Zona has 4 rookies on the 200FR? Nice job on their sprint program.

No kidding. Spoke with their assistant coach at the beginning of the season, and he foresaw it...said that despite all of their graduations, he thought their free relays would be EVEN BETTER than they were last year (they graduated like 3/4 of their NCAA roster). I couldn't believe it at the time, but it turns out those Arizona coaches are pretty damn good.

Oh, and they have the top seed in the 400 medley too. NBD. There's about 3 coaches in the country who wouldn't leave in a heartbeat to take over that program next season.

No diving points from the 1-meter...that's not a good start. Luckily, neither did Tennessee or Wisconsin, our main competition for a top-10 finish.

A disappointing morning, no doubt about it. I was impressed with how Adams and Henry got up and competed in a very, very fast 500 preliminary and I thought the 200 free relay was solid -- maybe even better than I expected.

The 400 medley relay flat out should have been better than that. We've traditionally had trouble in prelims with this relay and it happened again this year. We came in ranked fourth and finished twice as low plus two spots in prelims. That is a major kick in the junk to the team point total hopes.

I was hoping Maria might be able to sneak into that B final in the 50 and was optimistic after her lead-off on the relay. We need her to rebound and be a rock star on that 200 medley relay tomorrow. I can't say enough about how important that 200 medley relay will be to our overall finish this year after the disappointment in the 400 medley.

Lujan looked great halfway through the one-meter (seventh after rd. 2 and eighth after rd. 3) but couldn't hold it together. Any point outs of her are a bonus. It just stinks to be teased that she could've 'A' finaled.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 3/17/2011 6:45p).]