Just two days until the Big 12 Championships start at Missouri.

It would be great if the women can pull off an upset of tu. I think it's possible. Our strength in freestyle needs to offset our weakness in breastroke. Our freestyle relays are better while their medley relays are better.

And I hope the men end the Big12 season on an up note - get some guys to the NCAAs!

I don't know if the Ag women have quite enough depth to do it, but make no mistake I bet a lot of maroon and white swimmers hit the walls first this weekend, more than have ever done so at a conference meet before. Can't wait to see just how fast they go...

With the women - I think you're right - is the depth there?

Other keys:

- just how fast did Sturdy get with a late start to racing?
- will the freshmen handle the pressure?
- can Briskie get back to top form in breastroke?

1 and 3 are very valid questions; if they are both on their game it will help the Ags out big time...they both seem to be swimmming better now than they have all season but no one will know until that first race...

I think we're going to be VERY pleasantly surprised at how well these freshman perform...It would not surprise me to see an all freshman relay during the meet --and see it win

Our women's freestyle relays should win. All of them. Our medley relays are behind Texas' best times right now. Texas with Wycliffe and Tinnon are faster in back and breast - which is the difference right now in the medley relays.

Wycliffe will walk to a win in the 200 back but she's gonna have to fight for the 100...If Sturdy is on her game she could wear Wycliffe out...Wilkinson isn't too bad either...

If the field was deeper, the chances of an upset would be GREATER. We can only beat texas by 1 place in the freestyle realys (only a few points difference between 1st and 2nd), but at ncaa's our freestyle relays should be 4-5 places ahead of texas. Also, in the conference meet, we should only loose to texas by 1 place (IF we loose, and that is a big if, we have a lot more heart when it comes to relays), where as at NCAa's we should still be within 1-3 places of them.
Look for the frontline women to focus on top times for NCAAs. If we pull off an upset, it will be because of things like our 3rd or 4th swimmer in the event getting 8th in the morning and texas' swimmer getting 9th. A realy DQ by texas could be HUGE. It will sure be interesting.

just to let yall know and the Big XII 10-year anniversary team just came out, and my sister's on it, swam for Nebraska til the idiot Bill slash and Byrne cut their men's team, then she went on to Mizzou

[This message has been edited by ckwoag (edited 2/22/2006 2:05p).]

congrats...that was a tough list to crack

I'm going out on a limb and saying the Big 12 record is going down in the girls 800 free relay tonight and the Ags will be the ones taking it down


[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 2/22/2006 3:09p).]

Those two relays tonight will tell a big story. We should win the 800 easily and the 200 medley will be close.

Lookout - who do you think are on those relays? Who anchors the 800? Hansen? You might be right about the record. Our 200 free roster is deep and fast. Don't know if you looked at the SEC women's results. Georgia's women went 7:03.84 in the 800. Mary Descenza started it with a 1:43.96.

The women win one (800 free relay), lose one (200 medley relay). Texas men were DQ'd in the in 800. Looks like without the DQ they would have beaten us by 15 seconds.

The women's 800 was a 7:09.45 - 5th fastest in the nation and an automatic NCAA time.... We crushed Texas.

Women's medley showed expected weakness in back and breast.

wow did I call that one or what!!!...Hansen went 1:46.17 on leadoff!?!?...two 1:47's and a 1:48.3 behind her...all by freshmen...Hansen is going to be an absolute monster this week...she went head to head with the defending Big 12 champ in the 200 on the leadoff and smoked her by more than four-and-a-half seconds...

great job ladies! We might see them time trial the 200 medley because it is so close to being picked up.
for the guys, the 800 was a victory not just because texas DQ'd, but now we have the "B" cut and a lot of good swims from people who don't normally swim on the realy (see press release).
congrats to all and good luck today.

Times today (Thursday) look good so far. I can't find the 500 times. I gotta believe Hansen swam well. Aljan's 50 was fantastic.

Finals should be great tonight....

I followed the meet live for a bit and happened catch Codie's heat - looks like she went a 4:47 and won her heat. Not sure what the girls in the previous heats went, but she's probably seeded very well for tonight.

The ladies look great! It is so exciting to see how far this program has come and how much potential it has!

Also, nice win for the guys in the 800 FR. Those are some good guys who have fought hard. Way to capitalize on Texas's mistake!

Beat the Hell Outta BIG XII!

So what exactly is a NCAA consideration time?

To qualify for the NCAA championships you have two options. An automatic qualifying time gets you there no matter what. If an event is fast that year, it means that swimmers (runners) don't miss out on competing. The NCAA consideration time is a way to make sure that slower competitors do not compete at the championships. If all the slots are not filled with automatic qualifying times, then competitors that have consideration times are invited to the championships until they have enough competitors.

there may be some errors there, but thats the premise of the consideration times..

What a morning for the ladies! We're the No. 1 seed in every individual race heading into tonight: Hansen in the 500 (almost broke school record; will DESTROY tonight), Wilkinson in the 200 IM and Aljand with that huge 22.45 in the 50. Briskie and Sturdy (both third coming into tonight)were both money this morning too.

There are will be four Ags scoring tonight in the 500, three in the 200 IM (all three in championship final), and five in the 50 free with four in the championship final...both the divers are in the top four I believe too in their first competition in months.

Things are REALLY going well for the ladies. There is an outside chance the ladies might be leading after tonight if we don't get burned too bad in diving.

Hansen will destroy the 500 field tonight.

I was very impressed with Briskie's IM time. Looks like she is back in form. Aljan's 50 is the 6th fastest in the NCAA right now and should get better.

For the men - I thought Loney's 500 was very good. As expected Texas is very deep in this event. Dawson swam a nice IM and our 50s were good.

Would you guys agree that the only chance we have to win the guys title would be for tu to DQ at least one more relay???

I would doubt that would even do it. They have extreme depth that we are lacking, and there is only one other team to break their grip on pretty much every championship final.

I don't know how the points are counted. But I think it will take more than relay DQs. Look at 500 free. Texas should score 5-6 swimmers to our 1. The 200 free will be similar. They will kill us in breastroke. If for some reason Texas anticipated killing us and didn't stack their lineups the relays might do it. But Eddie Reese will use the Big12s as a tuneup for the NCAA. Michael Klueh could win the 500 free, 200 free, 400 im, 200 fly, and the 1650 and score more points than our three highest scorers. He is that good.

I don't see A&M winning a single men's race except perhaps the 50 free tonight.

If texas DQ's another relay, it is possible, but not probable. It would require a huge performance by the divers, and great swims all around.
I'll have to look at the prelims/finals, but you can only have 18 people on a conference team, so a lot of Texas' swimmers probably will swim prelims but not finals, or be exhibition in finals (not sure how it works now, they probably give them some slack because there is only 3 teams).

Codie Hansen wins the 500! 4:46.01! Whoop!

Girls go 1-6-9-11! Off to a great start tonight!

arrgh! The women DQ'd the 400 medley! I don't know if they can pull it off now. I think they might need TX to DQ a relay for a conf. champ. to be doable now.

I just got home from a 3 hr drive and saw the results. The DQ is sickening. Our women seem to DQ at least one relay in the Big12s or the NCAAs! It seems like a curse.

It is a dogfight and we CANNOT give up points like this.

Did you see Klueh's 500 time?

hell of an effort by Sehn in diving...sounds like if he gets his dives down he's a potential NCAA title contender...anything around 400 is an *ssload of points for six dives

aljand hit a home run in the 50...to hit consistent 22.4's and 'not being fully tapered'...yeowtch

wilkinson had a hell of a swim in that IM too...she may have gotten second but still ranks top 10 in the NCAA

hopefully the horns won't be winning any more relays the rest of the week -- men or women

sounds like hansen took the pace out and dared the field to catch her...she's a gamer

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 2/24/2006 1:33a).]

That relay DQ cost us 34 points. And our divers got killed. Still have two days to go but I don't think we can do it now unless Texas DQs a relay. Lots of very good swims by the Ags but Texas leads by 80+ points right now.

women were on fire again tonight...four wins in six events...

Aljand and Hansen have to be in the running for Swimmer of the Meet, much less Newcomer...they are tied at two wins apiece...Wilkinson might jump in that mix if she can grab the 200 back tomorrow

Also Sehn is the freaking man; nobody will stop him on the tower tomorrow...

and Aljand 21.8?...and she's not fully tapered?...holy moly...

I don't follow swimming closely. I know that tu is good due to their coach being very well known and helping with recruiting. Is tu beating us due to depth? Is there any chance that the performance of the young swimmers this year could help draw recruits to build that type of depth?

tu's swimming program has 25 years of top 10 rankings including about 10 national championships. It began shortly after they opened their pool in 1977. They have been recognized as a swimming power for a long time. They have great depth and the ability to recruit nationally. Eddie Reese (men's coach) is a top coach - that's why he coached the Olympics in 2004. But their women's team has weakened recently. We have been a good team for quite a while - but not a great team. The women have been rising steadily since Bultman arrived. He seems to be a very good recruiter - Rebecca Sturdy was an Olympic Trials qualifier. And it kept getting better. The freshmen this season are fantastic, and we should have a great future. The men have a bigger hurdle since Byrne did not handle the coaching change from Nash to Holmes well. The men's team lacks depth and loses some good seniors this year. Holmes last recruiting class was very good after a disastrous one the year before. He has 2-3 kids redshirted who should be contributors right away. I have no idea what next fall's class looks like.

By the way - we were destined for continuing mediocrity until the Rec Center pool was built (7 years ago?).

Saddly, as Spicewood pointed out, tu has such a vast, overwhelming lead in the sport, we will most likely never win the Big 12 title. Not because we're bad, but because we will never have better talent than them. Its even sadder because are only 3 mens programs and 5 (6?) womens programs, but because we will cant beat tu, competing in this sport is becoming a sad joke as they win the title every year with no one else ever coming close.

It is true that t.u. has a HUGE lead on the sport, especially in texas (which has a lot of the best swimmers coming out of high school from year to year).
However, I don't think their lead is insurmountable. In fact, I don't think anyones lead in the country is more than 2-3 years strong. A lot can (and does) change. If Eddie (the coach at t.u.) retires, whoever takes over has a bad year or two, misses some recruits (I don't know if t.u. has pulled in a huge star since garret-weber-gale) and has a couple of swimmers not swim up to potential, the door is open. If during that time, A&M pulls some big recruits, has 2 back to back years of above average seasons, and maybe adds a couple of extra divers, we are in the hunt (it actually hurts t.u. at this point that the conference is so shallow).
Now, at NCAA's it's a whole different story. t.u. could actually win conference and then score lower than us at NCAA's if we has some big stars but they had more depth.
In the mid-90's, it didn't look like anyone would ever take out michigan, then they spent several years just trying to make top ten.

The ladies had one hell of a meet...if they wouldn't have been reamed on the diving boards this would have come down to the last couple of events.

The A&M women's freshmen class is the bomb...and Eric Sehn ain't too bad either for the guys...he owns the Big 12

I agree with Sprintermike. tu's lead is NOT insurmountable. I have not seen the final point totals for women - but we're a few events, a few swimmers from beating tu. The Texas women are on a slow downward trend right now - they are not close to top 5 anymore. The are fighting to stay top ten. A near Olympian (Hayley McGregory) transferred to USC. They don't have anyone that looks like an Olympian right now. And we're moving in the opposite direction - UP.

The tu men are a bit down too. Their extraordinary depth in a few events like 200 free is still probably not good enough to beat Auburn or Arizona in the 800 free relay. That's how good some of the other teams are. It is interesting that Scott Spann, a local swimmer, 5A champion yesterday, whose dad is a tu All American, and whose sister is at tu, chose Michigan instead. Texas still has possible Olympians (Weber-Gale, and Klueh) on its team, but not Crocker, Hansen, and Peirsol. Maybe Eddie will retire soon.....

Our men have a long way to go though. I just don't know where recruiting stands for this fall. We lose a lot of good swimmers. Our relays are dominated by seniors and most are gone after this season. We also don't have the "up and coming" reputation right now.

I know a swimmer on the men's team and he is upbeat. (He also says the women are incredible). I hope for good things.