BIg 12 Relays is going on all day today..Ags win the first relay right out of the gate.

Julia Wilkinson and Kristen Heiss are BACK: Wilkinson anchors the 100 back relay in 52.58; Heiss goes 4:52.1 in the 3 x 500 relay...GREAT to see those two doing what they do best!

Freshman Maureen McLaine goes 4:51 anchoring that 3 x 500 to turn a five second deficit to Texas into a six second win...Wow.

This is always a fun meet. It's too bad that we rarely (if ever??) get to host the relay meet.

Too bad that Triin and Marshall didn't try and redshirt last year. That would make one hell of a senior relay.

Awesome that we have freshmen coming in and anchoring relays in faster times than our grizzled vets. It's going to take a lot to keep up with Texas, considering the recruiting class that they brought in, but Steve has always been good at maximizing potential, so should be a good Big 12 champ this year!

BTW, are you getting info straight from the team, or do are there live stats somewhere? Mizzou website?

http://www.mutigers.com/livestats/c-swim/realtime/

We never host that meet because the schools that do are the ones that are incapable of holding a Big 12 Championship in their facility. (Why Missouri is still doing it now that they have the new one, I have no idea.)

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 10/16/2009 11:30a).]

Yeah that's kinda what I thought, until they gave it to Missouri. Maybe they laid out the rotation before Missouri had the new facility, and some contract required them to keep it there through this year.

The divers get second on the 1M and first on the 3M. Two big thumbs up for that effort considering the recent goings-on!

Ags up 79-76 with 5 events to go...if they win 2, it's over!

Our 800 free relay --minus Wilkinson (Heiss, McLaine, Kinder, Hain) -- just smoked Hersey, Escobar, Gingrich and Riefenstahl by more than 7 seconds!!! Whoop!!!

Make that 1; edged the horns by .08 in the 3 x 50 fly

Ags just clinched the meet (as long as they don't DQ)!!!

102-98 final!

Congratulations, team!

Wow, impressive showing early in the year. Looks like Heiss and Wilkinson really will make a huge difference this year.

Anyone know the history on the correlation between the winner of this meet and the placing at Big 12's?

Also, what is the "1m shootout" and did it happen? It sounds like a lot of fun, whatever it is.

Winner of this meet has won Big 12's at least the last 3 years, maybe 4

Very impressive by the Ags.

I was most happy with the wins in the medley relays. That means our #1s vs. tus #1s in each stroke are better right now.

I was slightly disappointed we may have lost our sprinting advantage - losing both the 200 and 400 free relays.

We will have a breaststroke problem next year when Alia is gone unless one of our freshmen steps up. Our #2 and #3 just aren't very fast and tu didn't even swim Spindrift Beck or Laura Sogar.

Our big win in the 800 probably won't be duplicated later in the season when tu's girls all split 1:46-1:48.

But the win surprised me and Wilkinson once again shows just how awesome she is. Heiss is right behind. These girls step up on the blocks (along with Alia) and RACE!

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 10/17/2009 9:35a).]

Good analysis Spice. Especially on our breaststrokers. Our #2/#3 breaststroker also happens to be our #1 distance freestyler, (Casey HZ). That tells you all you need to know about the state of Aggie breaststrokers beyond Alia.

Christine Regone, the freshman, definitely has the potential to develop into a very good breaststroker. Nothing like Alia, but at least solid. The girl's a hard worker, and had some pretty awful coaching in highschool. I believe she also might be a year ahead in school, so she could definitely improve. Both of her older siblings were top-level sprinters at Clemson, so you know she's got the pedigree. They just happened to have better coaching than her in HS. She's a perfect Steve Bultman type project.

That being said, they're still going to need to work hard to bring in another breaststroker if they hope to continue to be able to compete with t.u. in the Big 12 in the coming years.

My big question is, who is going to be the next Triin/Heiss/Marshall/Atkinson/Wilkinson super-star type after this year? I believe that Casey will be the only school record holder left (correct me if I'm wrong??). Every school record has been broken in the past 2 years, and all but 2 of them will be gone next season. It's just amazing that in 2 years we will go from having 4.5 (Heiss was so close, I'll give her a half) Olympians to having none. Who are the big in-state HS Seniors this year that we have a shot at getting? Texas' lineup is getting awfully full, and we should have a lot more scholarships to give...And I know that there are ways to skirt the scholarship rules, but only to a certain extent..

Spicewood -- A&M has one girl that will be splitting (at least) 1:43, another two that are fully capable of 1:45 (or lower) and there are several prospects capable of splitting 1:46 as the fourth leg...the 800 free relay is just as legit, if not more so, as last year...They are more than capable of a sub 7-minute relay with the roster they are trotting out...that 7:19 is a damn good time for this time of year.

LOB - I assume Wilkinson is the 1:43. Heiss should be 1:45. But who are the next two?

Last season the next two best times were Kinder and Jasek @ 1:47. Our fastest freshman is Sweeney @ 1:49.

tu has Bispo @ 1:43.21 - better than Wilkinson's lifetime best. tu has 2 others on the roster @ 1:46. Add Riefenstahl who swam 1:46 in high school.

Well, at the very least I think we look dominant in the Medleys. Kendra Chernoff, the freshman, won the 100fly against Mizzou. She's no Triin yet, but it's good to know that we've got someone to fill in. Medrano really isn't anything special in the 100fly, she's better suited for the 200.

I'm curious to know who the other two 2freestylers are too. Not that I don't believe that it's possible that if they're going 50's in the 100 that they can go 146's in the 200, but I'm curious about who they will slot for those spots. Maybe Hain as one, but her PB is 1:49.07. A 3 second drop in one season is pretty hefty for a 22-year old female.

On another note, it looks like Mizzou might be improving a lot. Given their facility, it might not be too many years before this is a 3-team conference race. I think that'll be good for the team for the most part. To further illustrate our BR problem, Mizzou went 2-3-4. WIth the way that we like to recruit out of state/country, there's a lot of Texas kids that Mizzou could start to poach.

Next year we will be hammered in breaststroke unless we recruit someone.

The dropoff after Alia is gigantic. Our best FR breaststroker looks like Regone with a lifetime best of 1:06.

It may take 59+ or 1:00 to win Big12s next year depending on the effect of the loss of technical swimsuits.

spicewood i give you more credit than that. come on dude. 2008=/=2009

bispo's 143.2 was good for 5th at NCAAs. Wilkinson's 1:43.6 was 3rd. *suits*

Wilkinson and Heiss both owned bispo this summer on a level playing field.

hain split 1:45.1 last year

between mclaine, kinder, and sweeney they'll find their 4th leg.

Interesting comparison Heiss and Bispo this summer:

100 FR LCM: Heiss 58.6 Bispo 55.16
200 FR LCM: Heiss 158.77 Bispo 200.31

I think it is fair to say that Bispo is a 50/100/200 freestyler while Heiss is more naturally a 200/500 freestyler.

I agree Heiss spanked her at Nats in 200 FR LCM - and I hope she does it again. Heiss was also coming back from an injury - which makes her swim even more impressive.

If you're going to call out suits though - we swam with suits last year too.

I'm sure some here will say I'm just being negative. I just think it is funny that some here think Brackins can't get her swimmers to improve like Bultman can.

Spicewood -- Wilkinson's 1:43 was without the highest end suits (they weren't out yet during 2008 NCAA's); Bispo's was with the better suit during last year's NCAA meet...That said, I fully expect the Wilkinson-Bispo match-ups this season to be tremendous...They could easily be the top two 100 freestylers in the country...It is awesome that we will get to see them race each other so much...throw in the A&M vs. Texas quotient and wow -- it just doesn't get much better than that.

Smarter than you is correct -- Hain split 1:45 last year...McLaine has already established herself as a racer after last weekend's comeback effort in the 500...Kinder also split 1:49 EARLY in the season...There will be someone going 1:46 on that relay...we just don't know who yet.

As far as the seniors not dropping time comment, Jasek never sniffed 1:46 until her anchor at Big 12's last year...She continuously got better each year in her 200 after coming here strictly as a 50-100 free and 100 flyer...It is possible if you want it bad enough.

Also, keep in mind A&M's medley relays had a fast enough time to qualify for NCAA's with Iserman on it...they just timetrialed after Big 12's with Alia to get their seed time faster (and it didn't improve by that much anyway)...Iserman is fully capable of making A&M a top eight medley relay team if she hits her potential. Now that said, we lose a ton of breaststrokers this year (AA, Iserman, Bleyl). Either Maxvill or Regone will have to kick it up a few notches next year or they will need to bring in some help if they want to be anywhere near where they are this year.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 10/19/2009 2:20p).]

you're just being negative. wink.

if you're going to throw in the 100 free (which is probably heiss' leadoff in her 200) then we should have the 400 in there as well.


100 FR LCM: Heiss 58.6 Bispo 55.16
200 FR LCM: Heiss 158.77 Bispo 200.31
400 FR LCM: Heiss 409.25 Bispo 425.46

Not sure why Bispo swam that 400. The time was not good at all. Bispo is a very good 50 swimmer. Why swim the 400?

While we are discussing recruiting, word on the street is the Ag women picked up a very recent commitment from a 1:56.5 200 fly/4:13.8 400 IM/2:03.7 200 IM/4:42.4 500 free/9:51.1 1000 free/16:11.4 1650 free/55.9 100 flyer out of -- you'll like this Spicewood and wolverine -- the state of Texas

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 10/20/2009 7:47p).]

Wooohoooo! An instater! I assume, as usual, there's no name attached to this?

There are only so many people in the country capable of putting up those kinds of numbers over that number of different events...Should be an easy find

Yeah, I know. I was just being lazy :-).

I think we could get a really lively debate going on the different standards of publicity and transparency in smaller sports. Maybe tomorrow I'll start a separate thread on that. As long as certain posters don't rear their inflammatory, militant heads, I think it could be a good discussion.

That's the kind of recruit we're going to need after this year's outgoing class to stay relevant.

Care to narrow it down some LOB? I tried to take the easy way out, and just check out last year's 5A state results, and it turns out there were a surprising number of juniors or below that were able to put up those kind of numbers in the 200 IM and 100 Fly. I don't want to try and attempt a search of the USA-Swimming databases. Pleeeasse? Are those LCM or SCY times?

SCY

I looked at HS results and SCY rankings last year for 16-18 year olds. I couldn't find anyone from Texas with that set of times. 200 fly is not so commonly raced.

Lily Moldenhauer (Churchill) has the 1:58 fly but no distance free. Allison Arnold (Highland Park) has distance free in that range but no fly at all.

Help us LOB!

From Houston. Has a twin. Both have orally committed.

I'm stumped. Got anything Spice?

No! No one in 4A or 5A that I can find fits that description. Twins should be easy but they would both be fast - and I can't find any.

No one in private schools is remotely close to the times LOB listed.