Well it's about time for the thoughts and predictions thread about this meet. I think the A&M Women are severely underrated. Should be a good meet though. What do ya'll think

I think they are underrated also. The rankings and previews are like this every year. Neither Julia nor Alia were predicted to win last year. We'll be cheering for you all and look forward to the team suprising some people.

How many aggie swimmers are seeded to get a swim in finals? The aggie women have the most swimmers going, right? The girls will do extremely well If they can get some swimmers to move up in to the B finals.

I don't know if "underrated" is the right word. I know at least one blogger picked them out of the top 10, but he later admitted to me that he regretted that pick. Would you guys say a pick around #9 or #10 is underrating this team? That's where most people expect them. Without Jaele, I think that it's about right. Have to consider that the nation is definitely faster as a whole this season. Larson's 59.27 would've been third-best in the country last season AFTER Nationals. This year, it's 5th best BEFORE Nationals. Last year, a 4:05.0 400 IM could've earned you 4th. This season, there's a good chance that it won't A-final. I think that in last year's meet, this is probably the 7th best team in the country. This year, it's probably closer to 9th.

I think that maybe "unheralded" is a better word. There's a lot of freshman that, while very good recruits, weren't bandied about with the Beisels and Lees and Trans of the world. Henry might have been the least-talked about 1.0 (on the CS scale) recruit in years. Larson is probably the least talked about recruit to swim a 59.2 breaststroke as a freshman.

The biggest swim I'm looking forward to is Adams in the 200 fly. That's a monster field at the top, with the two USC girls and Teresa Crippen. Crippen will be coming off of a rough double with the 200 back (though in the past she's handled it very well), but a top-3 for her there would be amazing.

Would also love to see Maria go out with some fantastic swims...we all know the story about going from a walk-on to an All-American. That's the sort of thing that A&M is all about.

I have to agree with blastoff...losing jaele hurts and I'm concerned a couple of our relays will be a little off previous year's pace relative to some others in the field. Doesn't mean we are slipping; if anything we're just as fast as we've been or faster. There are just a few other groups that have kicked their game up.

We are also incredibly young and in some ways this is the equivalent of a rebuilding year. I do hate the word rebuilding because the freshman class has been so incredibly awesome though. It's just that there are a lot more unknowns about our group than the past four years or so due to all the new personnel. Doesn't mean that's a bad thing at all; it just means we don't know what to expect as much as the last few seasons. (P.S. - I definitely had Julia winning the 100 free)

That said, I think we have chance to score a significant amount of individual points, perhaps even as much as last season if certain folks are up and ready to show their stuff. And we do have more people there than anyone else. That never hurts.

If outcomes were based on predictions, there'd be no point in competing. That's why you swim the race. It's in our girls' hands to see what they can do and I'm excited to see what will happen.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 3/15/2011 1:08a).]

As I listed in the other NCAA women's thread, we have potential scorers in almost every event. We are strong in everything but sprint freestyle.

I think we will be hurt in the freestyle relays comparatively but are strong in many other events. Somehow it just doesn't seem possible that 9 teams are better than us even if it doesn't look that way now.

My gut says the freshmen will not be awestruck by NCAAs. I think it helps that the meet is in Austin. It is close to home, the pool is very familiar to them, and they know they have swum fast there before.

There is always a good team or two that blows up at NCAAs like tu did last year. If we swim well, that creates room for us to move up.

I still see it as a dogfight between us, Tennessee (who has pretty good diving), and Wisconsin for 9th. By seeds, Arizona is lower than us, but they are always due for a huge jump at NCAA's. They're young like us, though.

The team that could easily implode and allow the Ags to move up is Auburn. They did it last year (they might have bombed the meet worse than Texas, if you ignore Texas' issues with event limits). Florida's too experienced to let that happen to them, and I think Stanford is likely too far ahead to be caught.

Based on that, I think a best-case scenario for this team is probably about 6th, with a worst-case of 11th. (Of course, barring something obscene happening).

Like I said in the other topic on this, I think our free relays are gonna hurt us more than we realize. BUT we should be looking at more potential for individual points (yes, even without Alia and Julia)
I just don't think it will make up for the shortfall we'll see on those relays.

That being said, I think our women are gonna show up BIG time and definitely upset a few apple carts.

What is the highest anyone thinks we can get after scoring the psych sheet?

6th.

Any higher than that, and you're counting on a lot of teams choking hard.

PS, can we keep discussion to one thread?? I get confused too easily.