A&M hosts the Big 12 meet this week with the undefeated girls team looking to win their first-ever conference championship...Judging by the last few years, the guys will drop heavy time as well...Can't wait for the meet to start!

I expect the women will solidy beat Texas. I assume most of the girls will not be rested for Big12s, saving their taper for NCAAs. The women could win every relay.

I think the men will get soundly beat by #1 Texas but the score will be closer than it could be because Texas will hold back. But I think the men will show some fast swims.

I think the meet will be much closer than people expect. The A&M ladies have yet to lose a relay all season and I certainly don't see them doing it here. With several people already qualified for NCAA's it will be interesting to see some of the more unheralded swimmers throw some big times out there, particularly among the freshmen.

There should be some great races: 100 breast, Atkinson vs. Tinnon Round 2; Wilkinson and Connie Brown will face off at least once I bet -- both are swimming amazing right now; the 500 free will be incredibly tight among several swimmers on several teams including Hansen and Heiss of the Ags; if the Aggies have a great meet they could win a lion's share of the events which will really help offset their lack of numbers in diving.

Speaking of diving, Eric Sehn is on fire right now. I don't see how he can't earn his third straight triple crown with the way he has been performing. He has been out of his mind lately -- I think he has a legit shot at a possible NCAA title this year.

It will be neat to see how that solid freshman class on the guys' side respond to their first big taper meet of their college career too.

I don't think the women's meet will be a runaway like the dual meet, but we should still win decisively. Texas has been swimming much better lately. I agree the 100 breast will be an interesting race. Tinnon has the faster time now and is a senior. I think Texas might even win a few, but their lack of depth, especially in freestyle, will hurt them.

The men on the other hand will not be close. Texas has 7-8 guys who are faster than the fastest Ag in 200 free. It will be interesting to see what Ricky Berens (freshman) of Texas can do. Our best chance for good placings are probably whatever Israel Duran swims and breastroke.

The psyche sheet is up.....

Looks like some fast times are due!

Engrish prease.

http://www.aggieathletics.com/specialsites/2007swimming/index.php?page=1715

The UT mens 800 free relay was 4 tenths of a second from breaking the american record tonight... pretty impressive

A&M women TOASTED the Big 12 record they set a year ago on the 800 free relay and even did so without Wilkinson, one of their best swimmers...WOW!

quote:

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Engrish prease

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Psyche sheet = listing of all athletes in each event sorted by seeding time. I'm not absolutely sure but I think it is called the psyche sheet so swimmers can get psyched up ahead of time by checking out the competition.

Heat sheet = same athletes but listed by each heat including land assignments.

I was disappointed the women didn't win the medley. It was interesting that we were slower than Texas on 3 of 4 legs, yet lost by only 3 tenths. Triin was soundly beaten by Connie Brown on backstroke.

Texas' men are sooooo deep in freestyle. If you look at their 'B' relay (which can't score points) - you'd see it would have finished 2nd. They have 8 200 freestyle guys faster than our fastest.

I wouldn't worry too much Spicewood...of the 3 legs that were outsplit, the only one that was somewhat convincing was the first leg...the Tinnon/Atkinson leg was very tight (both in the lower 27's...wow!)and Wilkinson, a back/IM/100-200 freestyler, nearly outsplit Texas' top 50 free sprinter...you also must remember that relay, despite finishing second, is still top 5 nationally (and that includes tonight's PAC-10 results)...they didn't make the NCAA final a year ago...it took Texas breaking a conference record to beat A&M and they didn't do either by much...I wonder if they fully tapered for this meet since they don't have many qualifiers coming in....

Did you notice who did outsplit their opponent? Sturdy is back in business...that 23.5 in the 50 fly is a good 50 free time for most girls...can't wait to see her 100 fly!

Gotta love the "sawed off" tu logo in the standings section on the meet website!

www.aggieathletics.com/specialsites/2007swimming/

LOB - I'm not worried. Just disappointed. I was wondering if there isn't a faster combination possible on the medley. I know Triin has been the backstroke leg most of the season, but I wonder if it might be faster to put her on the freestyle leg and have Wilkinson swim back.

I suppose I should assume Bultman has thought about this...!

I agree with Sturdy's split. I watched the live video and her swim was terrific.

Any idea how rested the girls are? I assumed Texas would taper because they had fewer NCAA cuts and might hope to pull off an upset. Their 800 free relay time was very good - all 4 girls well under 1:50 - much faster than any time this season.

The men swam well. Texas is #1 for a reason though.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/15/2007 7:52a).]

The audio clip from Christine Marshall on the website sure sounded like A&M isn't fully tapered...and she went 1:45 on her 200 free plit...yikes

any word on how diving went or other events?

I'm not a swimmer or really know anything about swimming, but I went to part of the meet yesterday and cannot find a rule book online that tells me how this works.

How are these meets are scored and why? I'm assuming x number of points per 1, 2, and 3rd place.

How come there are quite a bit dispartity in the number of swimmers/divers? For instance this afternoon tu had 4 divers (all which did well) and we only had 1. Are some of those divers walk-ons?

And last, how is diving scores calculated. It has to be something with the dd number but i can't figure our the formula.

1st is 20 points, 2nd 17, etc all the way to 16th who gets 1. twice that for relays.

as for why they score... i think it's so a team wins.

there are a certain number of scholarships for swimming & diving (9.9 for the men, 14 for women i think) you can distribute that however you want. some teams have more divers, some have more swimmers.

diving scores are calculated by throwing out the lowest and highest score then multiplying by the degree of difficulty

Aggie need to compare themselves and measure their own acheivement based on what The University of Texas does borders on obsession. When ATM reaches the comfort level of measuring there own achievement without mentioning the Longhorns then and only then will their be true satisfaction.

I mean really, WOW!!!how about that pic of a sawed off longhorn?

Bill Byrne has alluded to this from the outset of his administration. He and many others believe that there is no need to mention Texas when celebrating achievement. Measure your own acheivement based on preformance.

Generational jealousy and obsession with Texas needs to be put in the past and real positive national identity and self esteem need to be promoted.

Case in point. I watched ATM beat Texas soundly in hoops last week. As a Longhorn I appreciate a well played game that went the other way late. We got beaten soundly by a better team with more senior and junior leadership. I also really like BCG. He is a fine coach and has done a historic job at ATM.

See that is not hard. I want to beat ATM bad every time out but at Texas we are not obsessed with ATM. There is no nickname for I am aware of used as a moniker for the Aggies.
NO tsip, no sips, nothing that equals that.

Dead dog scoreboards and grabing private parts and throwing crap on rival bands aside. Just to name a few , makes ATM cut from different cloth, however reguardless of what old army says, there are more similarities than one might imagine.

Props on the womens swim team...

Thanks for the lecture, rikochet. You clearly have never been to hornfans. Imagine texags hatred for UT exhibited tenfold towards A&M. It goes both ways so get off your high horse.

And UT's "a**y" = A&M's t-sip.

rikochet - I'm not sure why you're here lecturing us. Maybe you're not cut from the same foul cloth as your friends that frequent hornfans. And maybe you don't say "We're Texas." UT is certainly not the definition of Texas and it is arrogant to act like it does.

As for swimming, I pay attention to Texas because they have been the swimming power in Texas since Eddie Reese arrived. Go to the TSC and all those NC banners are impressive. I'm happy that Eddie will be the Olympic head coach in 2008 because he may be the best coach in the US.

I am also thrilled our women will win the Big12 for the first time ever.

Our men unfortunately have a long way to go to be a serious threat to Texas. The good news is the team is improving.

Swimming in general is a classy sport. It's a sport where 99% of the time the best athlete and team wins. The touch pads don't lie. So I respect all swimmers, unless they are steroid-infused like the East Germans and Chinese of years ago.

Re: Diving.

I think there should be a Big12 Diving champion, and a Big12 Swimming champion. Diving points should not be combined with the swimming points.

Note that last year Auburn won both the men's and women's NCAA S&D championships - but did not win the swimming part. But guess what most people think - they think Auburn was the swimming national champions. Not exactly....

i'm pretty sure everyone refers to auburn as the swimming & diving champion

every team has the same amount of scholarships, they can use them wherever they want.

I'll be honest. I don't care about diving. I want SWIMMING champions. Not swimming and diving champions.

Every college swimming fan knows who Dave Marsh is. Who is the diving coach? Who is the diving coach at Texas?

rikochet is back!

i was beginning to miss that fat, ignorant, blubbering fool.

thanks for your analysis. insightful, as always.

Let's get back on topic and let him go get t-shirts...

Aggie women:
4 wins in 4 races
3 school records
2 Big 12 meet records
1 all-time Big 12 record

...and that's only on day two!

Sturdy is on fire...Atkinson outsplit Tinnon for a 100 breast (can't WAIT for that race on Friday) and went under 23 for a 50 free...Christine Marshall is swimming out of her mind right now (48.7 on anchor leg and 1:58.0 for 200 IM???)...Heiss looked extremely strong on that 500 too...If they aren't fully rested then holy *hit they will be downright nasty at NCAA's!

You hit on the big question there. Are they fully rested? I can't imagine that they would be after getting so many A cuts and low B cuts in November. I assume there are two groups of resting: The handfull who already had A cuts (or really low B) probably got a few days rest everyone else is fully rested. Everyone always talks about if "they" are tapered, but it's usually a person by person decision.

I'm really excited to see how they put everything together at NC's. For now, I'm just enjoying the show the girls are puting on at Big XII's. Keep it up ladies!

Thanks, for keeping us posted......

Texas scored 65 points in the women's 3 meter diving. A&M scored a big fat zero. They will do the same thing in the 1 meter.

We have to continue to pile on the points in the swimming events to win. We need multiple placings. Alia might win 100 breast but Texas will place at least 3 in finals in that race. Sturdy is swimming VERY fast now and could win 100 fly. We'll dominate freestyle and should win the remaining relays (all freestyle). One DQ could be costly.

FWIW, A&M did manage two diving points on Thursday and will have two more today...little consolation I know...the swimmers did manage to get every single scorer save one into the championship final following this morning's session...they have really been imprseeive from top to bottom...

The new girl Dulian looks to be rounding into form after a 1:03 in the 100 breast this morning to make the A final...the 200 breast tomorrow will be REAL interesting since that is her bread and butter

Bultman made some lineup changes today. Wilk didn't swim 200 free. Probably to save her for the 100 back. Rains didn't swim 100 fly and swam 200 free instead - she finaled. Looks like some good races tonight in 100 fly, 100 back, and 100 breast.

Texas would be toast without Connie Brown. She's in top form. She beat Wilk on the 100 back leg of the medley last night.

You're right about Dulian. Nice 100 time for her. She's got some speed. Hopefully her 200 can push Tinnon and Avilla tomorrow.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/16/2007 12:46p).]

megan will have to swim in the bonus of the 200 because she's on the b squad. autoatically giving her swim-off spot to the sip. ugh.

Can she score points? I never understood what the implications of the B squad are/were.

Why is someone who could final in 100 fly or 200 free on the B squad?

Only 18 'swimmers' can score points. Divers count as only one-half of a swimmer. so four divers only take two swimming spots. Bultman elected not to choose Rains for the scoring squad. FWIW, it would be impossible for her to do a 200 free/100 fly double since the events are back-to-back.

Also, Wilkinson slipped off the wall at the start of the relay last night which caused some of the gap between her and Brown. Brown literally had a body length lead after the first 25 of the race. It should be a great battle tonight.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 2/16/2007 1:36p).]

LOB - thanks for the explanation on scoring. As for Rains - I said 200 free OR 100 fly. I knew she couldn't do the double. My point was simply that she's fast enough to final in multiple events so I'm surprised she's not on the scoring team. Of course I don't know who's spot she'd have to take.

That's why he gets paid the 'big' bucks...lol...bottom line is that A&M has gotten so good to the point they have people that can final in multiple events on the 'B' squad; they just have to choose the ones they think can score the most points for the 'A'; judging from the results so far I think he has done a pretty good job