2012 Div 1 NCAAs

Skip, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge of swimming minutiae, history, and lore. Question 1: does the fact that women appear to have qualified at higher rates then men support my contention that changes in FINA legal swimwear has affected men's times more deleteriously than women's? And if so, could you please communicate to dearest Leslie just how much things have changed for us fellows--and how little they have changed for the womenfolk? Question 2: Given your expertise in deciphering NCAA regulations, I was hoping you might deconstruct a few quotes from the Talmud that I find puzzling. Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion. www.quotationspage.com/.../icon_blank.gif The TalmudInstinctively, I sense this is true. But why then are there so many great Jewish comedians? Is this a prophetic smackdown of Seinfeld, Louie, and Curb Your Enthusiasm? Why would God do such a thing to the Chosen People?Until a child is one year old it is incapable of sin. www.quotationspage.com/.../icon_blank.gif The TalmudIs there some sort of book end to this? I am about to enter my first FINA 60-64 age group competition, God be willing and I do not ruin myself with laughter's oblivion before then. I am FINA-Three Score. Surely, as one approaches the years of ones dotage, there comes a time when his cognitive and moral capacities decline--bell-shaped curve-like--back towards the capacities of his toddler years. When, I ask you, will I once again be incapable of sin? (It cannot happen too soon!) Thanks, Skip! And Rich, please feel free to contribute your own Talmudic insights to these two puzzling passages. To answer question 1, the Women's meet is going to be larger because of the larger NCAA swimming programs as compared to Men like Rob said. The way they set the A and B standards reflect that because there are more Women qualifiers and with that they make the invitation at 30 for Women and 17 for Men. After the 30 and 17 invitation marks it depends on if a swimmer qualified in other events or if they made a relay and made the B standard, then he or she gets invited regardless of where they rank. The NCAA draws the line at where that B cut will stop and its different for different events. I have always believed that suits made a bigger difference in the Long Course World Championship events. Most of the colleges did not race with tech suits during the dual meet season. The times for the NCAA Championship Meets were obviously faster but only in 2009 and only a few teams had access to the Jaked suits. To prove this if you look at the NCAA Records, most of the neoprene records have been broken but there are some that may be there for a while. Tyler Clary's 400 IM record of 3:35.98 that just barely broke the Phelps American Record at 3:36.26 is one where the suit made a difference. Some swimmers swam better than others and some are very close to what they did with the suits. Most of the rest of the Men's records swimmers have been within a half a second without the suits. In the women, Vollmer in the 200 Free, Breeden in the 200 Fly, and Soni in the 200 *** have tech suit records from 2009 and I don't believe any of these records are out of reach for any of the current swimmers now. Two relay records from 2009 went down with Stanford going 1:15.26 last year in the Men's 200 Free Relay and Cal going 6:52.69 in the Women's 800 Free Relay. I think with Men master swimmers, especially with yourself and myself is that we could use covered suits for years. Until the summer of 2010, I had always worn a covered suit for any tapered meet and the last time I didn't was the 1994 Buffalo Nationals. It went from S2000, Aquablade, FS1, FS2, LZR, and then Neoprene. The big adjustment for us was going uncovered from the belly up and that was an adjustment for some not so for others. Since Women have always worn covered suits, the adjustment was the material change and I don't know what value to put on that if any. There was a rumor that covered suits were going to come back for Men about 2 years ago and FINA maybe would consider it but since that time I do not believe that is going to happen and Men will never be able to swim with covered suits like the past. I will let others answer question 2 because I am not intellectual enough.

Skip, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge of swimming minutiae, history, and lore. Question 1: does the fact that women appear to have qualified at higher rates then men support my contention that changes in FINA legal swimwear has affected men's times more deleteriously than women's? And if so, could you please communicate to dearest Leslie just how much things have changed for us fellows--and how little they have changed for the womenfolk? Question 2: Given your expertise in deciphering NCAA regulations, I was hoping you might deconstruct a few quotes from the Talmud that I find puzzling. Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion. www.quotationspage.com/.../icon_blank.gif The TalmudInstinctively, I sense this is true. But why then are there so many great Jewish comedians? Is this a prophetic smackdown of Seinfeld, Louie, and Curb Your Enthusiasm? Why would God do such a thing to the Chosen People?Until a child is one year old it is incapable of sin. www.quotationspage.com/.../icon_blank.gif The TalmudIs there some sort of book end to this? I am about to enter my first FINA 60-64 age group competition, God be willing and I do not ruin myself with laughter's oblivion before then. I am FINA-Three Score. Surely, as one approaches the years of ones dotage, there comes a time when his cognitive and moral capacities decline--bell-shaped curve-like--back towards the capacities of his toddler years. When, I ask you, will I once again be incapable of sin? (It cannot happen too soon!) Thanks, Skip! And Rich, please feel free to contribute your own Talmudic insights to these two puzzling passages. To answer question 1, the Women's meet is going to be larger because of the larger NCAA swimming programs as compared to Men like Rob said. The way they set the A and B standards reflect that because there are more Women qualifiers and with that they make the invitation at 30 for Women and 17 for Men. After the 30 and 17 invitation marks it depends on if a swimmer qualified in other events or if they made a relay and made the B standard, then he or she gets invited regardless of where they rank. The NCAA draws the line at where that B cut will stop and its different for different events. I have always believed that suits made a bigger difference in the Long Course World Championship events. Most of the colleges did not race with tech suits during the dual meet season. The times for the NCAA Championship Meets were obviously faster but only in 2009 and only a few teams had access to the Jaked suits. To prove this if you look at the NCAA Records, most of the neoprene records have been broken but there are some that may be there for a while. Tyler Clary's 400 IM record of 3:35.98 that just barely broke the Phelps American Record at 3:36.26 is one where the suit made a difference. Some swimmers swam better than others and some are very close to what they did with the suits. Most of the rest of the Men's records swimmers have been within a half a second without the suits. In the women, Vollmer in the 200 Free, Breeden in the 200 Fly, and Soni in the 200 *** have tech suit records from 2009 and I don't believe any of these records are out of reach for any of the current swimmers now. Two relay records from 2009 went down with Stanford going 1:15.26 last year in the Men's 200 Free Relay and Cal going 6:52.69 in the Women's 800 Free Relay. I think with Men master swimmers, especially with yourself and myself is that we could use covered suits for years. Until the summer of 2010, I had always worn a covered suit for any tapered meet and the last time I didn't was the 1994 Buffalo Nationals. It went from S2000, Aquablade, FS1, FS2, LZR, and then Neoprene. The big adjustment for us was going uncovered from the belly up and that was an adjustment for some not so for others. Since Women have always worn covered suits, the adjustment was the material change and I don't know what value to put on that if any. There was a rumor that covered suits were going to come back for Men about 2 years ago and FINA maybe would consider it but since that time I do not believe that is going to happen and Men will never be able to swim with covered suits like the past. I will let others answer question 2 because I am not intellectual enough.