Why do they bother with the Big XII meet? It is like a Texas intrasquad meet, but slower. The lack of depth in certain events is mind-numbing even considering they have just 3 men's teams. Take a look at the men's 400IM. The first 2 swimmers were solid, but fourth in prelims is a 4:02 and 8th was almost a 4:28. The 8th place woman was under 4:18 in the Big XII. It is just a joke that a division I college team would even have a male 400IMer in the prime of his swimming career going a 4:27+ on their team (even walk-ons), much less that person can say they were in the finals at conference. There should be rules against this. The 100 *** wasn't much better.
The ACC is impressive.
I was looking at how many college swimmers have gone under 20 seconds in the 50 free on collegeswimming.com - I count 81 so far in DI and the conference meets are not complete. Plus, there are some in Div. II and III that have gone 19s prior to their national meets. There will probably be at least 100 college swimmers going under 20 seconds this year. When I was in college in the 80s it was amazing to see a sub-20 swim and now it is just pedestrian.
When will the first 40-plus year old masters swimmer break 20 seconds? After watching Dara this summer it certainly has to be considered possible at some point even though the current record seems to be a ways off at 20.95 by Paul Smith. Maybe Josh Davis in 5 years will get motivated to try for a 19.
Tim
Why do they bother with the Big XII meet? It is like a Texas intrasquad meet, but slower. The lack of depth in certain events is mind-numbing even considering they have just 3 men's teams. Take a look at the men's 400IM. The first 2 swimmers were solid, but fourth in prelims is a 4:02 and 8th was almost a 4:28. The 8th place woman was under 4:18 in the Big XII. It is just a joke that a division I college team would even have a male 400IMer in the prime of his swimming career going a 4:27+ on their team (even walk-ons), much less that person can say they were in the finals at conference. There should be rules against this. The 100 *** wasn't much better.
The ACC is impressive.
I was looking at how many college swimmers have gone under 20 seconds in the 50 free on collegeswimming.com - I count 81 so far in DI and the conference meets are not complete. Plus, there are some in Div. II and III that have gone 19s prior to their national meets. There will probably be at least 100 college swimmers going under 20 seconds this year. When I was in college in the 80s it was amazing to see a sub-20 swim and now it is just pedestrian.
When will the first 40-plus year old masters swimmer break 20 seconds? After watching Dara this summer it certainly has to be considered possible at some point even though the current record seems to be a ways off at 20.95 by Paul Smith. Maybe Josh Davis in 5 years will get motivated to try for a 19.
Tim
