No offense intended but I think our breaststroke group has underperformed this year. They weren't fast at Art Adamson either. Just one sub-1:00 100 this year? The non-freshmen did not progress much, if at all.

Galat's 200 is much improved, but her 100 is slower than high school. She gets a pass because of the adjustment to NCAA swimming. (Jack Conger's first year is generally considered a disappointment and he is blazing fast now).

I knew the loss of Breeja would be big but I assumed McMahon or McGregor would get to 59.low or below.

In the 200 medley relay four teams had splits in the 26s. Tennessee beat us by about .9 secs and their breaststroke split was 26.06 to our 27.16.

The breaststroke 4medley relay splits were pedestrian across the board, with the exception of Hannis' which still wasn't that special. All mighty Georgia had to trot out a 1:01 on their medley relay, Florida a 1:00. Cal has been struggling with that for 2 years now. As much as we would like it to be an exact science it's still never a guarantee. Even Alia had her struggles, the Larson Effect just blinded us to that.

I'm calling my shot that Galat goes gangbusters at NCAAs.

The breaststrokers had a much better evening than morning and as a group had their best swims of the season. Four sub 1:00 swims now. But why not this morning? We scored a bunch of points in any case.

Today was a good but not great day - simply a weaker list of events for us. We still put points on Florida. We are not a good 200 fly team without Cammille. And O'Neal is a promising young diver, but platform has not been her thing. Something seems not right in our diving program.

Our 400 medley relay was really good considering our opening leg. Gastaldello blisteringly fast again. Steve is searching for a 100 back swimmer like Paige Miller since Gastaldello can only swim one leg of the relay!

Gastaldello is a superstar. Unbelievable swims as a freshman.

Some good swims by the men, based on their individual history. But we are not contenders. To be in the top half of the SEC we need a 46 sec backstroker, a 52 sec breaststroker, 46 sec flyer, and a 42 sec freestyler. We have one of those - Bolleter - who showed he belongs with the big dogs. Shaw is swimming really well and his fly speed is impressive considering he was a middle distance freestyler in high school.

Aggie women had a great meet overall. UGA just too deep in freestyle and longer events for the Aggies to overcome. I didn't go back and check but I think 200 fly was the only event we didn't have a swimmer in the A final. We score in every event. The freshmen showed both potential and NCAA medal contention (Gastaldelo, maybe Bratton). Some really strong swims by seniors like Neubert. I am guessing Henry is not fully tapered for SECs and has another gear for NCAAs. To do: figure out who swims backstroke in the medley relays.

Diving was OK. Maybe our weakest women's diving team in a long time.

I am not sure why, but I thought the men would finish higher than 8th. Maybe it was the signs of speed from Castillo and Bonetti late in the season. Better diving would have put us in 7th, but we were far from 6th. If the SEC meet is a litmus test for us we are not gaining ground. We improved breaststroke significantly. Bonetti is really good. Bolleter continues to develop, which is tough when your race lasts just 19 seconds. Bolleter is only Aggie that made an A final (other than platform diving). Not one relay finished higher than 8th. I am very impressed with Luke Shaw's season. Great accomplishments from a 4A 200/500 freestyle state champion but not a superstar. He has probably outperformed one of his teammates currently at Texas.

Now that SEC championship is over. I looked at the NCAA 2014 invite time as a gauge to see how many Aggies are under these times. I have 15 Aggies so far. Let hope the invite times for 2015 are not much different from 2014. If these are invited some would get to swim other events if they have a B qualifier

Aggies not under so far the invite times for 2014 are Kelli Benjamin, Colleen Konetzke, Ellen Quirke. I guess some Aggies would need a last chance meet.

Would Kelli get to swim her B qualifying times by virtue of being on the 200 medley relay?

Aggie swimmers under the 2014 NCAA cuts off times
500 Free 4.42.79 - Sarah Henry, Sarah Gibson
200 IM 1.58.13 Bethany Galat, Kristin Malone, LisaBratton, Sycerika McMahon,
50 Free 22.40 Beryl Gastaldello, Sammie Bosma
400 IM 4.12.63 Sarah Henry, Lisa Bratton, Bethany Galat
100 Fly 52.92 - Beryl Gastaldello, Laura Norman, Emily Neubert
200 Free 1.46.03 Sarah Gibson, Liliana Ibanez, MeridithOliver
100 Breast 1.00.78 Bethany Galat, Ashley McGregor, SycerikaMcMahon, Franko Jonker
100 Back 53.20 - Beryl Gastaldello, Laura Norman
1650 Free 16.20.32 Sarah Henry
200 Back 1.55.19 - Lisa Bratton, Claire Brandt
100 Free 48.82 - Beryl Gastaldello, Sammie Bosma
200 Breast 2.11.22 - Bethany Galat, Ashley McGregor,Franko Jonker
200 Fly 1.56.79 - None

Now that Beryl swam another A standard time of 47.59, should she swim the 100 free instead of the 100 back? Her 51.73 in the 100 back is a B qualifying time. Which event she has a chance of scoring more points? She is definitely a class act. Can she go faster?

Sycerika McMahon has been a bit disappointed. Should she swim the 200fly instead of 200 breast. She has been our fastest 200 fly swimmer this season. We have no one under the NCAA invite time from 2014.

Hope Liliana Ibanez find her form by the time NCAA, She has been improving though. Hope she does qualify for NCAA

Kristin Malone, Laura Norman and Sarah Gibson have been some bright spot at SEC. Will love to see them improve even more by time NCAA.

I agree that the Breastrokers have not done exceptional well. Can they go faster at NCAA? They have been swimming about the same times as last year

I haven't looked at event order for NCAAs - and that will probably influence the choice of events for some. NCAAs is more intense and back to back events are more likely than at SECs.

Gasteldello had the 2nd fastest flat start 100 free in the field. Based on her time vs. NCAA cuts, she should swim the 100 free at NCAAs instead of 100 back. But I don't know how the rest of the field looks.

I am surprised how slow 100 free is for the women. They aren't much faster than this year's Texas high school 6A champion (winning time was 48.72). But women's sprinting in the US has been stagnant until Simone Manuel.

I don't know what has been going on with Ibanez. She is getting faster, but she is light years away from her 200 free last year. She has always been a volatile swimmer - liable to swim fast on one race, then mediocre the next. So maybe she has something left to finish the season.

For the men, below are the stats. Only three men are in a position to make NCAA 2015

Aggie swimmers under the 2014 NCAA cuts off times
500 Free 4.18.31 - None
200 IM 1.44.71 None
50 Free 19.47 Cory Bolleter
400 IM 3.45.64 None
100 Fly 46.58 None
200 Free 1.34.71 None
100 Breast 53.23 None
100 Back 46.57 - None
1650 Free 15.03.42 None
200 Back 1.42.41 - Brock Bonetti
100 Free 42.98 - None
200 Breast 1.55.64 - Mauro Castillo Luna 1.55.65
200 Fly 1.43.81 - None

Triniaggie - I think you may be looking at the 2013-2014 NCAA times.

For 2014-2015 the A cut for mens 50 free is 19.25. 200 back is 1:40.88. 200 breast is 1:53.68.

Fewer women have automatic cuts than you listed, but most of them will get in because they have one A cut which lets them swim their B cut events.

http://swimswam.com/ncaa-releases-2014-2015-division-time-standards/

Spice

These times are neither A or B standard times
They were the invited times to the NCAA championship 2014 which I use as a gauge for invite to the 2015 Championship. Swimmers under these times were invited to the championship last year
Sorry for the misunderstanding

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Good stuff.

Some notable swims at last chance meets over the weekend

Liliana Ibanez - 22.48 in 50 free (Rank 50th)
Emily Neubert - 52.75 in 100 fly (Rank 40th)
Esther Medina Gonzalez - 2.11.23 in 200 breast (Rank 40th) and 1.01.59 in 100 breast

Let's wait and see if they make NCAA. Last year the top 39 swimmers made NCAA.

NCAA Pre-cut list for the women:

http://cdn.swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015-NCAA-DI-W-Preselections-OME-Entry-List.pdf

Just a few minutes looking at it - our weakest event is 200 fly. Next weakest is 100 back (part of our problem on the front half the medley relays). 200 free is disappointing for us this year - mostly because Ibanez has not been swimming as she did last year.

Strengths are anything Gastaldello is swimming; breaststroke, 200 IM, and in general all the relays. Bratton in good position for 200 back. Our 200 free relay should be better than it has been. Henry in scoring position in all of her races. I hope she has more speed to come at NCAAs.

Form the Precut List
I see Beryl Gastaldello swimming 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly. No 100 back
Liliana Ibanez is on the bubble at 46th in 50 free, 41st in 100 free and 39th in 200 free. If the top 39 swimmers make it like last year she should make it.
Esther Medina Gonzalez is at 39th in the 200 breast.

Possibility for 15-16 Ags swimmers invited to NCAA 2015 plus any divers qualifying. Great Job
Ellen Quirke, Kelli Benjamin, Colleen Konetzke not in the top 40 in any events

Not sure if the maximum a team can carry to NCAA is 18 athletes

On a side note Missy Franklyn is swimming 200 IM, 200 free, and 200 backstroke instead of 500 free,200 free, and 100 free she swam last year

Cal has a freshman that owns the NCAA record now in 500 free. So Missy is not needed for that - and can focus on 200 IM, 200 back (her natural best event), and 200 free.

SwimSwam has just projected the 281 qualifiers to NCAAWomen's Swimming Championship
Georgia has 18, A&M has 17, and Cal has 16, Stanford has12, Tennessee has 11, Florida has 11, Texas has 8
These are the projected Texas A&M qualifiers and theirswimming events
Bosma, Sammi 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly
Brandt, Claire 50 free, 100back, 200 back
Bratton, Lisa 200 back, 200IM, 400 IM
Galat, Bethany 100 breast, 200breast, 200 IM
Gastaldello, Beryl 50 free, 100free, 100 fly
Gibson, Sarah 100 free, 200 free,500 free
Gonzalez Medina, Esther 100breast, 200 breast, 200 IM
Henry, Sarah 500 free, 1650 free,400 IM
Ibanez Lopez, Lili 50 free, 100free, 200 free
Jonker, Franko 100 breast, 200breast
Malone, Kristin 100 free, 200 free,200 IM
McGregor, Ashley 100 breast, 200breast, 200 IM
McMahon, Sycerika 100 breast, 200breast, 200 IM
Neubert, Emily 100 fly, 200 fly
Norman, Laura 100 fly, 100 back,200 fly
Oliver, Meredith 100 free, 200 free, 200 IM

I counted 16 for A&M?

You are right. It is 16 Aggies. It was a typo

Based on the psych sheet the scoring (without diving) is as follows

1California505
2Georgia368
3Stanford309
4Virginia295
5TexasA&M220
6Florida193
7USC161
8Louisville160
9Tennessee130
10Wisconsin129
11Indiana123
12Texas100
13Michigan98
14Minnesota82
15Auburn67

Virginia is fourth in front of the Ags. They have some real explosive swimmers and good relays

Liliana has to rise to the occasion

To only drop one spot after losing three different NCAA champions would be pretty remarkable.