Swim fast tonight against the horns...!

live results

http://www.tsc.utexas.edu/results/index.htm

live video

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=tex&media=149908

BTHO t.u.!!!

What is the scoring for the dual meets?

Oy. 400 Free relay still left to be posted, but looks like the girls are going to go down.

A few impressive swims (Tess Simpson in the 100 backstroke, Maureen McClain) and a few B cuts, but nothing to blow anyone away. Still early in the season, but to challenge for Big 12's, we're going to have to find some points from somewhere.


Scoring is 9-4-3-2-1, so huge bonus points for an event winner.

I watched the 400 free relay. We lost by a body length+.

Too many 1st places for tu including all relays. They won both diving events - barely. Jaele scored 3.0/3.5 on one dive. Otherwise she would have won the 3m.

Went to the meet...great meet even though the Ags lost. Gingrich and Hersey simply would not be denied. Alia, Julia, and Heiss looked solid too. Jaele could have easily won both boards -- lost by 2 points on the one and had the one bad dive on the other to lose by less than. Nice swim by Sommer in the 50 free also.

Texas had to work for everything they got -- even Hersey. McLaine made Gingrich work for both her distance free wins too. This meet could have gone either way. Again, a great college meet.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 11/7/2009 1:04a).]

I was at the meet too. Good meet, but too many 1st places for tu. tu has used top 5 recruiting classes to be relevant in a hurry. I've heard that one of the main difference b/w tu & us is that tu recruits the top of the top & they already show up fast. Our coach takes whatever recruits he gets (5 stars, 4 stars, etc.) and makes them faster and they compete at can beat tu. IMO that makes him a better coach!!!

I agree with above though I watched via live streaming.

I thought Medrano looked good. We need Chernoff to get fast in a hurry - tu won the medley relay with Hersey over Chernoff. I bet she is much faster at the end of season when the freshman shock is overwith.

quote:

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tu has used top 5 recruiting classes to be relevant in a hurry.

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tu's dominance in the short to mid-term is assured.

In other swimming news, did anyone else see that Mary Beck left Cal to transfer to LSU...and will probably break most of the school records this season? It would be bad news for us if LSU does really well at NCAA's/SEC's this season and suddenly becomes another nearby nationally prominent program for us to compete with for recruits.

They're great at the top, but have serious depth issues. For example, against Florida State, they won 10 out of 16 events, but still lost by 12 points.

Too bad her whole family didn't go to A&M, or else she might've come here :-(. That just goes to show you, we need to start planning our athletics a generation ahead. Give full rides to people who are good athletes but not quite good enough at the sport to play here, and instead of requiring study hours, require them to have mixers with other really good athletes, in the hopes of producing maroon-blooded, super athletic offspring.

What happened on Friday was not dominance. A&M had twice as many girls win individual races as Texas did. Texas had two girls go nuts, won two relays, and they squeaked out two diving wins. That is the reason they got the W.

Go visit hornfans if you want to sing the praises of the Longhorns. Recruiting is back on the upswing around here (in case you haven't paid attention to the other thread). A&M has a top five class committed orally, one that is better than Texas' this year. A&M has been a top 10 program for years now and will be for the foreseeable future. How many teams in the athletic dept. can say they haven't been outside the top 10 in the country in the last four years?

Wolverine -- Beck committed to Texas, withdrew her oral commitment, went to Cal for one year and now is at LSU. It doesn't take a genius to see some red flags on Beck...It absolutely by no means indictates LSU is hot on A&M's heels by ANY stretch of the imagination.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 11/8/2009 10:36p).]

It is nice to see recruiting in gear. My mantra, if I have one regarding TAMU swimming, is recruiting.

As for the tu meet - I think the meet showed:

- we are a bit weak in fly now. tu won 200 fly without Hersey.
- we know after Alia we are terrible at breaststroke.
- we are improved in distance free. McClaine swam very well in the 1000 and 500.
- tu whipped us in the 400 free relay and we swam our A group with Woods, Sommer, Heiss, and Wilkinson.

The only events that realistically could have gone our way were both diving and the 200 medley relay. That would have swung the point total 30 pts. We would have lost by 2 points.

The biggest problem for us vs. tu next year is that tu only loses Escobar, Spann, and Van Matre. We lose Wilkinson, Atkinson, Heiss, Hain, Neal, and Woods.

Heiss was ahead of Hersey in the 200 free with 25 go...She is fully capable of beating her in that race...The 200 fly was not a blowout by any stretch either. Combined with the three you spoke of, that's five tight events out of 10 total that A&M lost.

A&M was capable of winning 11 of 16 against a team many think is one of the top 3 in the country. I'm sorry but I can't pooh-pooh that kind of effort.

Just because we don't have Triin any more doesn't mean we are weak in the fly. An athlete like Triin is practically irreplaceable -- even for a team like Texas. Give Bultman a little time with Chernoff. Doerge always tapers extremely well too. Texas is no more strong in the 200 fly now than they were a year ago. Gingrich is legit and she proved it Friday. That doesn't mean A&M doesn't have someone on their team capable scoring at NCAA's in that event. Medrano swam her tail off in that race and threw up an excellent time.

The other thread documents the help on the way in the breaststroke. Right now, Alia is arguably the best breaststroker in the country. MANY teams would die to have our 'problems' at breaststroke.

I think the middle distance group will be pretty similar this year to last year (we did have Hansen and Marshall), however the long distance group will be better.

You have a valid point in the 400 free relay but again, our group is good enough to be top 8 at NCAA's. We did lose some spectacular sprint freestylers last season but are still able to field a team that can score major points at the NCAA meet. The group Texas trots out on that relay is a threat to compete for the title in that event.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 11/9/2009 11:31a).]

LOB -

I agree Heiss was with Hersey in 200 free. It seems they used Hersey in 200 free instead of 200 fly because they could afford to give her up in 200 fly. You forgot though that for some reason tu swam Bispo in just the 200 MR and the 400 FR. Perhaps she was sick. But normally Bispo would beat both Heiss and Hersey.

Losing Aljan was huge as you noted. The problem is that we need a 50 and 100 flyer for relays. I agree Chernoff should be very good as I said above. As a freshman I would not be surprised if she is not yet adapted to what is surely a more difficult program with Bultman than what she is used to.

Alia may be the best 200 breaststroker now with Soni gone. But Jillian Tyler from Minn is a junior this season and went 58.5 last year in the 100.

The tu dual meet didn't include the 400 IM or the 200 free relay. We have been very strong in the 4IM and it would be interesting to see how we would do in the 200 free relay. I'm not sure who would be on that relay.

Here's a good indicator from Big 12 Relays:

1 The University of Texas 'A' 1:32.77 7
1) Amundsen, Kelsey 2) Bispo, Karlee
3) Adams, Bethany 4) Riefenstahl, Katie
23.67 23.07 23.03 23.00
2 Texas A&M University-GU 'A' 1:32.85 5
1) Sommer, Maria C 20 2) Woods, Sarah A 21
3) Hain, Melissa S 21 4) Doerge, Ella J 20
23.32 23.08 23.39 23.06

Quite a bit closer and no Wilkinson on there either...

It's interesting that Hain is both one of our best mid-distance swimmers AND sprinters. That's an interesting combination.

At this point, which relays are Heiss and and Wilkinson going to be in?

800 Fr
400 Fr
400 Medley?

It seems odd that one or the other of them at least isn't good enough in a 50 to be in another relay.

It has absolutely nothing to do with those two not being fast enough. At the Big 12 relay meet, you have limits to how many races you can swim (only 8 of 16). Bultman likely wanted to use Wilkinson in other races and hoped those other four could win on their own -- which they almost did.

As a wild guess, Heiss would swim no more than two relays max (400, 800 free) while Wilkinson will swim four (whichever four we have the best chance at winning at Big 12's/scoring highest at at NCAA's) at the end of the season. That said, there are tons of variables that will go into those decisions between now and the end of the season and there is no way to predict what those may be.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 11/10/2009 8:28p).]