Mens:

Not a big class; getting Or Sabatier on the roster is the best part. Three new divers. Big problem: no breastsrokers.

Swimmers:

Hunter Artmann – freestyle; Nitro swimming (Austin); looks like a 200/500 guy (1:42/4:35)

Turker Avar – sprint free; Turkey; looks like 50/100/200 guy (SCM: 23.8/51/1:53)

Jacob Gonzalez – sprint freestyle; Houston FINS swimming ?; very solid 50/100/200 guy (20.6/45/1:41)

Or Sabatier – sprint free; Israel; looks like a very solid 50/100 guy (LCM: 23.3/52.2); redshirt from last year

Robert Stenman – back/fly; Texas Gold (Austin); 100/200 back (51/1:52); 100 fly (51)

Bryan Michaels – freestyle; transfer from Utah (senior); 100/200/500 (47/1:39/4:28); shows a 59 100 breast time

Divers:

Colton Haffey – springboard diver; Woodlands; age group nationals

Tyler Henschel – 1M/3M/10M diver; Canada; looks solid and athletic (Youtube)

Zachary Stockton – 1M/3M/5M diver; Houston; limited history on Divemeets; no 10M dives



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/1/2013 8:44a).]

Womens:

Good sized class; heavy on divers, which was mandatory after heavy losses the last two years. One elite swimmer - McMahon from Ireland has World Championship caliber times in breaststroke, freestyle, and IM. Julia Cook has a very nice 200 back time; Konetzke solid distance free and 200 fly. No 100 flyers.


Swimmers:

Julia Cook – back/free; Boerne TX; 100/200 free (53/1:52) 100/200 back (57/2:02); looks like 200 is her better distance; the 200 back time is very good

Margaret Cooke – back; Woodlands TX; 100 back (SCY: 56; LCM: 1:05)

Madeline Edwards – back/IM/breast; Austin TX;

Sarah Gibson – free; San Antonio TX; 50/100/200 free (24.0/50.1/1:49) very nice free times

Cayla Jetter – free/back; California; 100/200/500 free (53/1:52/4:56) 100/200 back (58/2:04)

Franko Jonker – breaststroke; Brazil; solid breastroke specialist; 5 secs behind Breeja in the 100 LCM 2 years ago

Colleen Konetzke – free/fly; San Antonio; transfer; 200/500/1650 (1:49/4:49/16:53) 200 fly (2:06) very solid times and should be training with Cammile and Sarah

Sycerika McMahon – breast/free/IM; Ireland; unusually fast in both breaststroke and free; also IM; world class speed

Corinne Priest back/free; Georgia; 50/100/200 free (24.6/51.6/1:52) 100 back (57)

Divers:

Zoe Alaniz – springboard diver; Corpus Christi TX; solid springboard diver; no platform history

Courtney Hattie – Diver; Canada; solid springboard and platform; my guess is Jay will prioritize 10M

Madison Hudkins – diver; California; very experienced springboard diver; Sr. Nationals; recent platform

Destine’e O’Neal – diver; Allen TX; springboard diver; not much history

Cathryn Connolly – diver; San Antonio TX; redshirt injury+transfer; very experienced springboard; NCAA and Sr. Nationals


[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 8/30/2013 4:33p).]

Not landing a breaststroker is going to hurt the Ags again this year. The medley relays used to be our best relays now they're our worst!

Good solid sprinters this year with Or, Gonzales, and the new Turkish guy. Someone will be battling for that 4th spot on the freestyle relays. Troskot, Lindau have secured their spots on the relay. Bolleter is still young but he will need to step up this year. Haven't heard much about the divers but once Lerew gets a hold of them they'll contribute a lot this year.

Can't wait to see how the guys do this year. I would've liked to see more meets on the mens side but the invite in College Station sure will be different.

The women's team brought in another solid recruiting class which seems to be the trend for Steve. I believe the girls can get 3rd this year at NCAA's in 2014 if not top 5 at least.


[This message has been edited by goodtimes (edited 8/31/2013 4:55p).]

[This message has been edited by goodtimes (edited 8/31/2013 4:56p).]

[This message has been edited by goodtimes (edited 8/31/2013 4:57p).]

Agree on the women's side. O'Connor is the real deal, and will have a huge immediate impact at NCAA's herself, in addition to pushing Breeja. Tennessee and Georgia lost some folks to graduation, but both are still very good and that will be a great battle at SEC's and NCAA's. Hope those divers develop early, as it's nice to get those points.

But everyone's playing for 2nd. Cal women have swimmers capable of winning all of the NCAA titles but two, are near-locks to win the medleys, and could sweep all of the relays.

A&M men's class - they needed, and got, a big class with some good depth. The junior class is tiny, which will leave a big hole, but two straight strong classes will leave them in solid shape long-term.

Hopefully with a huge graduating class and some new, young energy on the coaching staff, the men can bring in a big recruit or two on the men's side. Maybe a top-50 guy, a guy who can qualify for NCAA's individually as a freshman and flirt for a B-Final, and then be right in the thick of things as a sophomore. They're doing a good job with the 'process' of bringing guys along until their senior year, but would just love for the program to really get some excitement going with a recruit that has some name recognition in the states. Maybe they can't get Roberts, but perhaps Ringgold will give the Ags a serious look. Or Steven Richardson from Houston.

In state recruiting doesn't have the draw it once did in Texas, and the surrounding states aren't helping much. This is a CRAZY deep class coming up to their senior years in the United States, so a team like A&M that should have a lot of money to throw around could be in position to make a move outside of their comfort zones to grab a good name.

Looks like Sabatier was 22.8/51.1 LCM earlier this month in Israel. I also see a 50.7 LCM seed time for Ayar in the world Juniors results.

Not surprising the men are trending back toward sprint free considering Mallam will be the coach on that side of the pool - and that is pretty much what Indian River made their name off of. Excited to see what he does with them as his track record is definitely proven in that realm.

The lack of a breaststroker is concerning - you would think that after watching last year they would have gone out & thrown 100% at every better-than-decent breast swimmer they could have found, especially considering that all the other pieces for a great Med relay are already there.

I really like the trend that Steve is showing by continuing his breaststroke line. Thought this would be the year he would try bring in Cammile & Sarah's "protege's" or "fill-ins" and then would have followed up with big gun freshman next year to fill their roster spots but I don't see that here.

Why do you guys think the focus on freestyle sprints is a good thing? That might get us three relays to the NCAAs. We'll finish 6th or 7th in the SEC with that strategy.

Because that is how you maximize points at both conference and NCAA's?

LOB - I agree, at least about NCAAs. Not so sure about conference, where you need to get your fly/back/breast guys, medley relays, and divers into finals to score points. But it is a back to the future strategy that doesn't advance the overall national status of the men's team.

On the Men's side, not seeing a Breaststroker is beyond concerning. Will we have an Aggie at NCAAs this year? Honest question, not trying to stir anything up.

I assume they will re-purpose one of the guys to be the 50/100 breast guy for the medley relays. One of our new guys has gone 59. But can we even get a 55 out of the roster? Simon Frank is the fastest returning BR guy - 59.25 last year. Missouri has a returning 52.46. Damn good time. Last year Missouri had 4 guys under 54. Right now our 400 medley relay will lose 3-4 secs to the field in the breaststroke leg.

Maybe something (someone) is joining us later in the season?

All right, long post coming up....

I think last year proved that you can't 'repurpose' someone to be a breaststroker capable of NCAA caliber relay times.

Can they get away with half-decent times, maybe even conference acceptable times? Sure, but that's just not good enough.

IMHO, mid-distance freestyler's capable of stepping up or down will always be the most valuable people on the market. The problem is, EVERYBODY is going after them. So you have to be realistic about whether you're gonna get them or not. (i.e: The great 200 swimmers that can step up to 500 and all the way down to a good 50 are gonna go to any of the top 8-10 programs before they come to us right now)

Next best bet? Sprint freestyle (excluding the 200 here). It carries the next most POTENTIAL points VS the money outlaid for each individual swimmer. Again, you have to make sure you're gonna get them. Auburn had that market locked down for years and exploited it well. I think it's a fairly good area for us to recruit given Mallam's background. Also note, it's the least predictable area in swimming.

After that? Medleys. Dave Durden exploited this before other people even came close, and they grew to where they are now on that platform. Mizzou is quietly doing something similar but not exactly the same. The nice thing here is that programs don't take 6 Fly, BK & BR swimmers like they do freestyler's. So there *might* be more to go around - the flip side of that coin is that these events also aren't as deep as the freestyle events. The cutoff of 'viable' NCAA caliber swimmers comes much quicker here.

Now, I think A & M as a program (on the men's side) need to take a long, hard look at the ENTIRE countries recruits and say "What area's are deepest right now, without being so deep as to become too competitive when those kids swim in college."
In other words, who/what's going to be the easiest for us to get and further have the least competition to actually get those kids to NCAA's.
(It can actually be worked out with fairly straightforward math and a lot of work, but you would be AMAZED at how just about NO programs even ATTEMPT to do it)
That's the question that needs answering.
Believe me, I've tried to answer that question stacks of times. It's hard to do.
Looking at the incoming A&M recruits, it's fairly clear that they've gone with sprint freestyle as their answer right now. Whether they realize it or not. Have they done the time figuring that out? I have no idea, but I will once again be supportive and confident until proven otherwise.

And that's where we're at. A few years ago, I would have told you that we had a springboard/platform that we weren't doing enough PR/recruiting with to take 'the next step' to becoming a year-in, year-out perennial program to watch on the national scale BUT that the next step was there to take.
Now, I'm saying we've gotta rebuild the springboard/platform because that next step is no longer in front of us.

Please note - all of this is VERY POSSIBLE, especially when considering what (if sold correctly) A&M can offer, and I remain ever hopeful that it will get done.

Hope this all makes sense....


[This message has been edited by Aquabullet (edited 9/4/2013 8:46a).]

Aquabullet - I agree that you cannot repurpose another swimmer to become a breaststroker. There are very few good freestyle swimmers that are good BR guys. Lots of free/back and free/fly swimmers. I just assume A&M intends to field medley relays this year so SOMEONE has to stand on the blocks and swim breaststroke. A powerful kid with decent walls can probably split a good 50, but will lose a 100 by two body lengths. Even our IMers are not particularly good breaststrokers.

BTW - I think the breaststroke vacuum is weird. A&M has had good breaststroke swimmers in the past. The Jacobo brothers for example.

I don't think the men's program in the post-Nash era has ever been able to "sell" the program to kids not already inclined to have A&M on their short list. Yes there have been a few exceptions here and there. But over a long period of time now we have shown we can't sell A&M to an elite American kid. Jack Conger probably wouldn't return a phone call or email from A&M.

The focus on sprint freestyle may be necessary now to avoid finishing out of the top 25. But it is a sniff the top 20 strategy. I hope like mad that Mallum supplies a huge dose of fresh energy on the recruiting side.

Looks like the Turk will not be here this semester.

^ Ah, that looks like it might be true Situation. No more interest (or personal interest) in stirring the pot I guess....

Duplechain has been 58.5 years ago but hasn't been as fast in college. He had potential for the breast spot on those relays

Simon at 59.25 and Duplechain's 58.5 from a few years ago are A&M's returning breaststrokers?

What about walk-ons? Does A&M have any?

Half the team is walk-ons (not unusual with only 9.9 scholarships to give).

If our best breaststroke is a 58, we lose 3+ body lengths on the breast leg of the 400 medley relay to the top half of the SEC.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/27/2013 1:52p).]

Swim Swam feature on the #4 Texas A&M women's swim team.

http://swimswam.com/2013-2014-college-swimming-previews-4-texas-am-women-return-monster-team-add-developing-talent-as-well/

Spice - I think you're even being generous at three body lengths. In breaststroke, each second is about a body-length, so you're giving up over 6 to Georgia (Nic Fink), 5 to Florida (Matt Elliott), 5 to Tennessee (Prono). It's ugly.

So here's the question. I understand that the current staff's recruiting methods largely revolve around seeing how kids develop through the spring of their senior year. That's all well-and-good. But if you've only got a 57 second breaststroker, and there's a kid who's already been 56 as a junior, does it matter how they develop as a senior?

Not to diminish the amount of work it takes to go sub-57 in the 100 breast...but those guys aren't exactly the rarity they once were coming out of high school. TCU has signed three of them in the last two years, plus another 57-mid.

Agblastoff - I was being generous. A 54 sec 100 breast is 5.5 feet/sec. +4 secs = 22 feet. So that's about 3.5 body lengths of a 6'2 guy.

Last year seemed a bit slow in Texas high school breaststroke. But there were 8 boys under 58 in 5A state.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/30/2013 8:11a).]

spice wood

The breastroke finals last year had seven swims in the top 50 of all time in Texas. That seems pretty fast. Www.tisca.org

NCAA