I'm not surprised by this at all. I had a chance to see Cullen last year at ACC's. He did pretty well there, but didn't do the damage everyone thought he would; and same at the '06 NCAA's.
I have two hypotheses here...
1 the pressure of the big meets gets to him
2 he's a better SCY swimmer than LCM (a la fred bousquet)
All of this really sucks, cause as I got a chance to snoop on his conversations on deck at ACC's, this guy is a top notch gentleman, and even though he went to a rival school, I really want to see him achieve the accolades everyone thinks he is capable of.
We don't really know where he is with his training though - is he tapered or not, did he take time off after worlds, etc.?
He did well in the relay at worlds and at Pan Pacs. I think he'll be okay.
I'm not surprised by this at all. I had a chance to see Cullen last year at ACC's. He did pretty well there, but didn't do the damage everyone thought he would; and same at the '06 NCAA's.
I have two hypotheses here...
1 the pressure of the big meets gets to him
2 he's a better SCY swimmer than LCM (a la fred bousquet)
All of this really sucks, cause as I got a chance to snoop on his conversations on deck at ACC's, this guy is a top notch gentleman, and even though he went to a rival school, I really want to see him achieve the accolades everyone thinks he is capable of.
We don't really know where he is with his training though - is he tapered or not, did he take time off after worlds, etc.?
He did well in the relay at worlds and at Pan Pacs. I think he'll be okay.
