Great morning showing on all the individuals. Unfortunately the relay qualified 9th. It's a long shot, but maybe we can catch cal for 3rd?
- 200 breast tamu has 3 swims and cal has none (possible 35+ point swing)
- 200 fly tamu has 2 swims and cal has none (possible 30+ point swing)
- 1650 tamu has an almost definite scorer and on possible and cal has a long shot (possible 15 point swing)

Were 59 points back and those three could make up ~80 points. Of course, cal will out score us on the other 3 events and diving, but not by nearly as much after we snuck in some unexpected swims this morning. Similar story vs Stanford, but we have more room to make up and they are swimming lights out. I'm not in the loop, but just looking at scores it could be interesting for top 3.

I like your way of thinking!

Sarah had a great swim in the 1650.

Another National Champion - Cammile in 200 Fly!

Congratulations Cammile!

We placed first in the B heat of the 400m free relay. I'm not up on everything for the championship, but it looks like we did about as well as we could.

I don't think we could have gotten 3rd realistically. We had no divers, and Cal conveniently DQ'd a relay on Saturday - that cost them 30 points or so.

But the Aggies swam well overall. There are plenty of superlatives all around. Maybe the relay team records and Paige's 100 back win are the best. Congratulations to them all!

We placed 4th overall with 336 points. We were 50 behind Cal, but 84 ahead of S. Cal. Georgia wiped everyone up, as predicted I guess, winning over Stanford by over 100 points.

I know we were hoping for 3rd, but I'm not sure where the extra points could have come from. I'll let those who know about such things fill us in.

Great showing!!! 3 national champs is pretty amazing.

I think the top 4 bring home trophies so great job team and especially the seniors for putting us on the map in swimming.

Top four indeed get trophies. This was as good an NCAA meet as A&M has ever had. We finished as high as we possibly could have. The other three teams just had a a few more bullets than we did. Nothing to feel any regret about at all. If anything we overachieved on my expectations, not by much but definitely by a little. Fantastic job by all the ladies. Thanks for making us all so proud!

We had a great senior class - three NCAA champions in that group (Breeja, Cammille, Paige).

We did exceptionally well this year considering zero divers at the NCAA. Texas scored 68 points in diving - almost half of their team total of 144.

It will be interesting to see our team next fall. We are still a good breastroke team (with a new star coming). Losing Paige may be a bigger single loss than Breeja or Cammille. We need a great 100 back and 100 fly swimmer. We lose both of our 200 fly swimmers. Free sprinting could be better next year. I wish we could find/develop a 21 low 50 free swimmer - to help us against the great freestyle teams and for our medley relay.

Spicewood, You seem to be the most knowledgeable poster with respect to our swimming team.

In your opinion, how have our last recruiting classes gone? You said we had a great senior class and you gave a nice summary of some of the swimmers. Do you think we'll be able to at least be competitive next year?

Thanks in advance.

We still have one of the top distant/IM swimmers and one of the top freestyle sprinters in the country returning. Our free relays will still be very solid as they only lose Dittmer I believe. The big hits will come in the two medley relays, the flys and the backs unless help is on the way. With one or two good recruits, we should still be able to be a top 10 program. It would be nice to get diving cranked back in the right direction too.

No school outside of Georgia it seems can lose three NCAA champions and not suffer some sort of drop-off.

Colorado - Look Out Below has a closer connection to the team than I do. I have been following the team for a long time and have been close to high school swimming (and diving) for quite a while.

Our womens team historically doesn't get the superstars in quantity like Cal, Stanford, Georgia (or Texas used to). Bultman seems to be able to nurture and develop good swimmers into superb swimmers. Sarah Henry was a top recruit. So was Sycerika McMahon. We have had other very good ones, some from Canada, but no one like Missy Franklin. Some other top Texas kids have chosen to go elsewhere, which drives me crazy. An example is Natalie Hinds - who went to Florida of all places. Another is Madeline Locus - who chose Georgia.

We have Bethany Galat, a 59.66 breaststroke swimmer coming in the fall. I don't know who else is coming next season, but it seems we get 1-3 really good (national caliber) swimmers, 3-5 good ones (5A state finalists), and a few more who are still rising but not super fast.

Cammille was a very good high school swimmer, but I didn't expect her to be an Olympian. Breeja was a 1:02 in high school and is now the American record holder and Olympian. I don't remember Paige's credentials (she is Canadian) coming in - but she is just a great racer.

I think we can do better in recruiting with a bit more energy and selling of the program. Being in B/CS doesn't help - but we can promote the good things about B/CS more. If we can keep post grads swimming in the program it will help. Just think if a breaststroke swimmer could train with Breeja.

I think diving is off track. I think it is a recruiting issue - not an on deck coaching issue per se.

I'll just add I think Steve is every bit the coach Jack Baurle or Teri McKeever is. He should rule womens swimming in Texas with the way things are in Austin. The only reason a good girl swimmer should choose UT is because they like Austin or UT over A&M. Matt Scoggin can get just about anyone he wants in diving right now. He is on fire.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/24/2014 4:30p).]

I think the diving thing is more bad luck than anything else. We've been recruiting very talented divers throughout Lerew's tenure and he took Wright's divers and made them better.

The past two seasons he's had a lot of kids come down with serious injuries and he's had a few 'bad seeds' too -- but the talent he's recruiting is at the level it's always been. Not only that but he's been recruiting a lot more American kids as well (which people around here seem to like better; not me, I don't care either way -- I just want us to be good period).

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 3/24/2014 6:57p).]

Quick bump to this thread regarding some recent swims from the incoming women's class:

Lisa Bratton went 1:53.6 tonight in the 2Back.

Kristin Malone was 49.4 in the 100 free last week. She was also a surprisingly quick 1:02.3 in the 100 breast (off event).

You can't magically replace 3 national champions, but the group arriving in the fall is getting better (and faster) every time out.

[This message has been edited by DonnieWalkerMaroon (edited 4/22/2014 8:04p).]

[This message has been edited by DonnieWalkerMaroon (edited 4/22/2014 8:05p).]