Regionals are over. The state meet is two weeks away.

Psych sheets are posted.

4A Psych Sheet
5A Psych Sheet

Times are very fast this year overall even without Mary Beck and Jimmy Fiegen. Matt Thompson's 200 IM (1:45) is sick. And Gray Umbach is now in high school. A 9th grader in 4A with a 1:41 200 free. Samantha Tucker's 1:45 200 free.

Great times all around which should be much better at state.

Check out floswimming.org - lots of interviews from the Regional meets from this past weekend as well as videos of the races.

SA Churchill

Tons of talent, nothing has changed

Matt Thompson's swim is a new national high school record. Amazingly enough he has gone 1:44 in the 200 IM, just not in a high school meet.

Video of his swim on Floswimming.

Saw that on his IM.

On his backstroke, he'll be getting chased by 2 soph's and a frosh in the 2-4 seeds. I'm sure he'll win, but over the next few years, things seem to be a set-up for some great showdowns in the 100 back at state for the next few years.

That frosh in backstroke is Umbach. He's also #4 in the IM. Umbach broke Phelp's 13-14 age group record in the IM last year.

I haven't seen Umbach in a few years, but I watched him absolutely dominate the field in his events at TAGS when he was 12.

John Edwards (CyCreek) is one of the sophs, and hes up there in the IM and Back.

The thing that impressed me most looking at Thompsons IM splits was his breastroke. I expected to see fast Fly/Bk/Fr splits, but 30.9 in the breast is movin for a guy who hasnt been known to swim breast all that much.

Ha, everyone wants to pump their own guy, so to be fair I will give some love to the one that's seeded second ahead of Edwards and Umbach, which is Cooper Robinson from Katy Taylor. Guy is a monster, he was 6'2 before he even started highschool, and last time I saw him at a meet, he was even bigger. I think that he might have the most potential as his frame seems to be the best suited to fill-out, although I know Edwards is a pretty skinny guy too. Never seen Umbach in person that I know of, what's his build like Spicewood?

Interesting to note that he's the only of the 4 guys mentioned that's not also swimming the IM (Robinson is seeded 12th in the 100 free).

Also interesting is that out of these top 4 backstrokers, only Umbach and Robinson have teammates swimming individual events, and for both it's only one other guy in one event. It's interesting to note that many of the swimming powerhouses over the last few years (Katy-Taylor, Kingwood, TWHS) have been in areas of major growth and have likely had their overall team strength hurt by the opening of new highschools. I guess this is leading to this new-found trend of parity that's demonstrated by these guys being almost alone at state.

Just to be clear - I don't know Umbach at all. I have just seen him swim from his age group days. He was not big when he was young. I don't know his build today. He had excellent technique and was not one of those "big fast kids" at a young age.

One of the contenders in 4A for top 3 team finish is Kingwood Park. They finished 27th last year but could fight with Frisco, Boerne, and Texas High for top 3. The have 3 guys in the 50 free 22 low or better. They have the top seed with a freshman in the 200 and 100 free.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/20/2009 11:19a).]

Blu - great point about the new high schools. If they weren't expanding, Umbach would be swimming for TWHS, which would be absolutely SICK. Same thing with Atascocita's Collin Kaden (he prolly woulda swam for Kingwood)

Umbach is not a huge guy, 6ft-ish, strong build. He's been jacked ever since he was like 8yrs old. Edwards is a twig, but he's very tall (6'4 I think?) The i.m./back combo seems to be a favorite for guys, there are a bunch doing both. Thompson will run away with both, but it'll be a dogfight behind him, and for the next few years

IM and backstroke have good event spacing in Texas high school swimming. An IMer gets to rest during 50free, 100fly, 100 free, 500 free and the 200 free relay. At state they even break for diving.

IM and breaststroke has even more spacing but can be difficult if the swimmer is in the 400 free relay (right after breaststroke).

Ya they're ideally spaced that's for sure. Back has the 200FrR right before it, so that can be a problem too, especially at state when there's only 2 heats of women in between (same for breast/400Relay). I don't think any of the backstrokers have the 2frR before, but I know a few have the 400. Edwards did it at regions, split 44.7 anchor. Dax Hill did the Breast/400 combo at regions with 44.6 anchor

Event selection can be interesting. We have a 500 free guy that is on the 200 free relay. At regionals (less rest with no consolation heats), he swam 4:35, then 21.99 in the relay. This is worse for boys because a girl swimming the 500 gets to rest while the boys swim the 500.

The 50 free/100 back combo hurt one of our guys several years in a row.

Robinson from Taylor will likely be swimming the 200 Fr. Relay. He didn't swim it at Regionals, but they only qualified 2 relays, and Robinson's 50 split in the 100 was faster than that of one of their guy's 50 free times. He'll have a tough back stretch, with both free relays, 100 free, and 100 back all after the diving break. I have a feeling their coach will rethink that next year, but I'd imagine he's going to be concentrating on the individual backstroke.

Umbach has no relays to swim, and Edwards I assume will be in the 4x100.

Good news is that there's plenty of breaks at state for awards and the like, especially in finals, so I don't think fatigue should be too much of an issue. I wonder if Katy-Taylor will try to strategize and sit Robinson in the prelims of the 200 relay, since they're seeded 6th without him in it at regionals, and just pray that they final, and then swim him on day 2?
What do you guys think the strategy is there?

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 2/20/2009 1:07p).]

I thought there was some kind of rule where at state you cant change the personnel of the relay from prelims to finals? Is that true or did I make that up in my head? for that guy, I dont see why you would really need to, because he looks like a shoe in for A final in the back, whereas the relay might need his help to make it into A. Its a tough call though, because that one extra swim (even tho it is only a 50) could wear him down considerably for finals (depending on what kinda aerobic base he has i.e club swimmer or h.s only)

My freshman year I swam 100bk, 100br, 400FrR at District finals, then 200FrR, 100bk, 100br at Region finals. THAT was miserable

One of the event combos that is especially rough is the 100fly/free (or free/fly? i forget) because there are loads of kids who are great at both those events, but dont swim them both because of the back-to-back.

I believe you CAN change the relay roster as long as the names are all on the relay card entered. So each possible swimmer must be on the card as a swimmer or alternate. You cannot line up a "new" swimmer.

One thing though - you can't score higher than 9th place in consolation even if you kick ass. So teams cannot typically cruise in their prelim relay swims.

100fly/100free would be very difficult and is not commonly swum. Fiegen swam 100 fly one year but not the 100.

The state meet has a more relaxed pace compared to regionals. Just having consolation heats slows things down. Then awards sprinkled in. And diving stops things for a while.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/20/2009 1:30p).]

Spicewood is correct on relays. You can list up to 8on the card. Where teams get caught at state in regionals is that prelims and finals count as the same meet, so you can't switch from say the medley and 200 relay in prelims to the medley and 400 relay in finals if you're swimming 2 individuals.

Speaking of maverick smalley, he swam 200 free 200 IM in 2005 or 2006 but no relays. As I recall, that didn't work out too well for him.
Did anyone get that joke? Anyone?

It was '06 he did it, but I dont think I get your joke. He was the only one on his team (Bowie) so thats why he didnt have relays. He won the Free, but got like 5th in the IM (with a decent time). The year before that was when Bowie got in trouble (McGregory, Klueh, etc) for getting kids to move their families to go to a certain H.S.

And I forgot you could list alternates on the relay cards and use them in finals. Makes sense now.

Going back to the fly/free double, and speaking of Katy Taylor, Evan Ryser was a guy who could do both events VERY well, but chose to do the 200free (another great event for him) instead.

How does it work in Texas?

In Florida, it goes like this: Districts, Regionals, State

[This message has been edited by bogustrumper (edited 2/20/2009 4:47p).]

In Texas:

Top 6 in a district advance to Regionals. Result is a maximum field of 24. Some districts have prelims/finals, some don't. Their choice.

Winner of each Regionals event advances to State. 8 Regions = 8 automatic qualifiers. Next 8 fastest in the event statewide advance to state for field of 16.

Prelims in state are circle seeded. Consolation and championship finals at state.

Diving slightly different - no callup list. 1st and 2nd in Region advance to state.

Oh - I don't get the Maverick Smalley joke. I know who he is and some of his history. But...?

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/20/2009 4:45p).]

Samantha Tucker crushed the national high school 200 free record - she swam 1:44.64 this morning.

She also broke the national high school 100 free record - 48.53 breaking a record held by no less than Kara Lynn Joyce.

Matt Thompson of course a 200 IM winner at 1:45.27. Gray Umbach 2nd @ 1:48.69 but just a freshman. 100 back results not yet available.

Slow year in the 50 and 500 compared to when Fiegen and Klueh swam.

Cole Cragin in 4A just went 46.75 in 100 Back finals, another national record but probably the only one from 4A in some time.

Too bad the Aggies couldn't have landed him. Not that we were anywhere in the running against tu.

That time would have put him 3rd at Big 12s yesterday and ahead of all Aggies including another Frienswood product, Jason Bergstrom.

quote:

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Samantha Tucker crushed the national high school 200 free record - she swam 1:44.64 this morning.

She also broke the national high school 100 free record - 48.53 breaking a record held by no less than Kara Lynn Joyce.

---

False, both of those record were broken earlier this year by Knutson from North Dakota. 48.3 100 free and 1:42 200. I guess she has the second fastest time in both.

The UIL meet program was obviously slightly out of date on the girls swims.

But I saw Cragin's swim tonight. Simply incredible to watch that race. Sat right next to Floswimming guys...

anyone have team results?

Full results: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/athletics/swim_dive/state/results.html

Videos of every race on Floswimming....



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/28/2009 11:38p).]

Churchill girls take 2nd, boys take 5th

That 100 back swim is amazing. I've seen the Cragin kid swim in person as he lives close by. He is a freak of nature underwater.

quote:

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Samantha Tucker crushed the national high school 200 free record - she swam 1:44.64 this morning.

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She is the sister of Longhorn freshman Kicker, Justin Tucker . . .

[This message has been edited by QuitetObserver (edited 3/3/2009 7:13p).]