Are we closing in on the end of the current Auburn dynasty of NCAA championships this year ? Will Stanford come through this time? I've heard that Texas had an extremely good recruiting year this year.
John Smith
It would be nice to see someone else win it
especially Texas,
it would be great to see an orange tower again.
it's all comes down to a funny formula of
talent
training
hitting tapers and
plus throw in a little luck
hook 'em
ande
Gentleman:
According to Swimming World Magazine they are picking the University of Arizona to win both the Women's and Men's 2005 NCAA Division I Championship this year. I think if either of that happens it could be a major upset. Georgia seems to be the Women's favorite but its always close. The Men, I am not sure about. Auburn, Florida, Stanford, Arizona, seem to be the ones people are talking about.
Whats interesting about the Championship meet is that if 4 guys do not swim up to par and not make finals it opens up all sorts of possibilities in scoring for other teams that are swimming well. Plus DQ's in relays and individual events really hurt. Last year one of the Stanford swimmers got DQ in and individual event and he would have been 3rd and it pretty much closed the door on there chances against Auburn. Also because of the qualifying times to get in the meet, its different then a dual meet and conference meet because the best swimmers will be rewarded higher points against the best competition as opposed to either a dual or a conference meet where a swimmer that may not qualify for the meet will score the points and depth will count more. That is why Michigan, which got 3rd at the Big Ten Conference Meet will out score the two teams that beat them (Indiana and Minnesota) because they have 3 swimmers that could possible win NCAA titles and they will be rewarded better.
Also another key is Diving. With 3 Diving events scored that makes a difference also. I remember when Texas won the NCAA Championship in either 2002 or 2003, Stanford actually outscored them in swimming but had no divers to contribute to the team points and ended up losing the championship by 80 points. I guess that is why they call it the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship.
By the way, ESPN 2 will carry both meets. The Women's meet will be tape delay on Friday, March 24, 2006 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. The Men's meet will be one week later, tape delay on Friday, March 31, 2006 from 1:30 to 3:00 PM
Patrick:
You are right. I was getting my meets mixed up. The 2001 NCAA Championships were very similar to 2002 except Texas won by 140 points. In that meet Stanford had no diving points in the 3 diving events and the Dumais brothers placed in the top 6 in all of the diving events. Troy Dumais got 1st place in the 1 and 3 meter, and got 6th in the platform. Justin Dumais got 5th place in the 1 and 3 meter, and got 2nd place in the Platform. I think this is where I remember reading that Stanford lost about 80 to 90 points and there swimmers actually swam better than Texas. They were a lot closer in scoring in 2002 but even with decent divers they probably wouldn't have won in 2001 but could have in 2002.
One can only hope so. I've nothing against Auburn in particular. The bane of competitive swimming is the same damn team winning the title of whatever championship meet year after year. After a while, it calcifies into "if you want to win, swim here..."
Pieter:
Yesterday I was talking to someone at swimming practice and he said for fun you should at least see how many points were by American swimmers last year for all of teams in the individual events and see who was the domestic winner. It would be unfair to do relays because of the mix even though I know at least two relays that had completely foreign swimmers on them. A foreign swimmer would be defined as someone who does not represent the USA in the recent World Championships and Olympics and represents a foreign country. From this Pieter, your statement might be true.
I hate to correct you Raz, but you forgot one of the most important aspects of a successful team and coaching and that is......
- RECRUITING
John Smith
Frank:
Texas last won in 2002 and it was by 11 points over Stanford (512 to 501). Stanford had no divers score and Texas took quite advantage:
1 Meter
1 DUMAIS, TROY
7 DUMAIS, JUSTIN
3 meter
1 DUMAIS, TROY
4 DUMAIS, JUSTIN
Platform
2 DUMAIS, JUSTIN
5 DUMAIS, TROY
8 LINETTE, JONATHAN
Certainly the diving points provided the margin of victory, however, I recall being in practice that Friday and we were all very surprised that the Longhorns had the lead and the event which was the buzz was the men's 50 free:
50 FREE Prelims
7) CROCKER, IAN SO TEXAS :19.80
7) BOGART, ROBERT SR TEXAS :19.80
9) O'BRYAN, BOBBY SO STANFORD :19.81
9) DRAGANJA, DUJE FR CALIFORNIA :19.81
11) SCHNELL, ANDREW SO STANFORD :19.82
Ian and Robert made the final by :01 and :02 over the Stanford sprinters and in the final, Ian moved up to fifth, Robert remained at 8th, Schnell won the consolation final for 9th, yet O'Bryan finished 16th. (Texas 25 points, Stanford 10 points)
SO, yes diving was a predominant factor yet the 50, by the slimmest of margins was also a factor.
I will be at the meet this year...... drinking a few adult beverages and cursing Auburn, Stanford and Florida.
As for Arizona to win ............. I'll believe it when I see it.
John Smith
John- wouldn't you say that whoever does the best job of recruiting foreign swimmers by offering them full-ride scholarships will probably win? (tee hee)
Skip- less important than truth is the pursuit of sending John through the roof. If only he knew that most of those foreign scholarship swimmers end up unemployed and sit around coffee houses spending John's hard-earned tax dollars while on the dole...well, I'm sure the resultant surge of adrenalin would result in a new 50m free world record 40-44.
