These big boys (and they are huge) should be swimming LCM; there's hardly enough lane length for them in SCY. Stay under as long as possible, take a few strokes, and then back under. It is a blast to watch though. Many if not most of the bigger US college programs probably have LCM pools now, but I suppose the NCAA maintains the SCY standard for all of the smaller programs that are stuck with the yards pool they have.

---

Strava

IU 400 Medley relay - about that breaststroke split from Finnerty - wow...

IU must have the best breaststroke squad in the country between the men and women. Look at who they have - Lily King (8 straight NCAA titles in the 50 and 100 breast, apparently she's lowered the 100 breast SCY record by 2 seconds over the last 4 years), Cody Miller, Finnerty, Annie Lazor….

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Your boy Miles just squeaked into the A final, tied for 7th in 45.3. Hopefully he's got some more in the tank. Vini Lanza (IU) is the top seed for finals in 44.68 this morning.

In the team race - it looks like Cal is headed for a big day. after just 2 events this morning, they've put 5 guys into the A final with the 200 free, 100 back and 100 breast still to come.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Yeah, not a great swim (relatively speaking!) for Miles.

Looks like 100 back is gonna be a good race between Coleman Stewart and Dean Farris. 100 back heats were faster than the 100 fly. That hasn't happened for a while, I don't think?

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Glancing at tonight's swims, I think Cal is going to take a substantial lead over Texas unless Texas outscores them by a lot in the relay. Cal seems to have the complete depth this year, with the exception that Texas has got a bunch of dudes in the 200 Free (but Seliskar has to be the favorite despite Haas defending). Tomorrow's events have multiple Cal guys already seeded in the top 16 of almost every event, but I do concede that might be misleading as Texas has no reason to really taper for Big 12's compared to the Pac 10 competition that Cal sees.

Winner of the 200 free tonight probably wins swimmer of the meet (assuming it's Seliskar or Haas, but a couple others have a shot) unless Dean Farris does something special in the 100 back and 100 free.

---

-----

I think Cal is just deeper than Texas this year, except maybe in backstroke? Texas doesn't have that amazing butterfly or breaststroke group from a couple of years ago. That said, there's still plenty of swimming to come.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

As a Stanford grad, it is killing me to say this but I think Cal wrapped up the title this morning, especially after Carr's re-swim in the 100 back that puts him in the A-final. Texas always shows up in diving, but I wasn't too impressed with their 1-meter yesterday and don't think it will be enough. Guys like Harty, Katz, Jackson, and Pomajevich just haven't stepped up like in past years for Texas. Has to add salt in the wound for ending the streak at their home pool.

My Stanford Cardinal look terrible as well. Hopefully this will be the end of their coaching staff as I've never liked Knapp and I think it's time for some fresh, younger energy on the deck for them. Embarrassing to think back to their streak of top-5 finishes at NCAAs and look at what they've become.

My younger brother will be swimming at UVA next year and it's exciting to see them doing well again. They have the #3 recruiting class coming in next year and should push for a top 5 spot in the years to come.

---

The Gram: @agyenis
My latest story on Swimswam: More than a title

Lets talk about people ahead of their time for a minute. Dolan was one, but the other one that I will hold a candle for was Matt Biondi.

At the 1987 NCAA's(at Texas!) Biondi won with a new AR/NCAA Record of 1:33.03. It then took 17 years before Simon Burnett went 1:32.22 at the 2004 Texas Invite (I saw a lot of fast swimming in person, but the feeling on deck that day was electric, as he took down one of the most legendary swims in NCAA history). Burnett would go on that season to win NCAA's in '05 at 1:33.28

This morning it took 1:32.99 to make top 16, and 1:32.44 to make top 8. While the record is substantially faster, Biondi's '87 title winning time was closer to getting a second swim than Burnett's '05 title winning swim. Hot damn that guy was good.

That pool in Austin has seen some fast swimming over the years, but seems to bring out great 200 Freestyles, like One F'ING Twenty Nine point One Five from Dean Farris on Wednesday night.

If you want to have more fun with results, look here (I'm partial to the 6th place finisher at the '05 meet in the 400IM):

https://swimswam.com/...eet-results-archive/

---

I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Ya, Matt was definitely ahead of his time. And I got to swim with him in the same meet last weekend;

https://www.usms.org/...etID=20190317CVMMMBY

Not sure of his shape, but at 53 he is still respectable. I'm guessing from these times he could easily in a month or so be winning the AG..

Did you get a chance to see the Carr re-swim video? Wow.

A huge point swing for Cal too- bumped a Texas swimmer to the B final with that swim.

---

I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Clarification, he bumped a Texas swimmer out of the B final to first alternate. So not quite large potential point swing, but still significant.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Let's recap Andrew Seliskar so far. 1:30 200 free Wednesday. 1:38 200im, 18.4 50 free split and 44.something 100 fly split Thursday. 1:31 prelim 200 free today. Am I missing anything? The versatility is mind boggling on this guy.

Actually it is a potentially a much huger deal to bump him out of the B final, than from A to B. If you are on the bubble in the A, you most likely are going to get 8th place. If you go to the B final from that spot, you are most likely to get 9th, not much of a point swing. But if you are bumped out of the B final where you can potentially get 9th, at the very least 16th, to getting bupkis, well that is the best case scenario for Cal I would say..

I was strictly talking the maximum potential swing, not the most likely. So the max potential swing of A to B is 1st to 16th. B to out of the B is a max swing of 9th place points to 0 points.

The most likely swing is the points assigned to their seeds. So 8th to 9th or 16th to 17th.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

But that fails to account for Cal going from 0 to a max of 20, so I’m with Monty, that’s worse than sliding A to B

---

I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Sooo, how about that Dean guy? Way sub 44 in the 100 back 2nd fastest time ever. Gotta feel for Coleman Stewart, he goes sub 44 and gets 2nd!! I don’t feel too bad though, he got 2nd in the 100 fly as well. Gutsy.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Yeah, dropping the 200 free wasn't such a bad idea after-all.

---

I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

That Seliskar kid might be pretty good one day if he keeps working hard.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Great meet as always, but how fucked was that Cal coach when he heard his relay might be DQ'ed? I was watching ESPN and other than Rowdy saying it was a stroke thing, and not a start, was there anymore discussion about it? There were no replays on the live feed I was watching.

And for sure that 100 back was a must win after not swimming the 200 free. But what the hell happened to him on the relay? He barley beat his 100 split in that 50, and if you account for the finish, probably slower? Maybe he really can only swim one event a night, and that is why he opted out of the 200. And of course he could not have known ahead of time that he would swim the fastest time ever on that leadoff relay, so just hitting his taper perfect it looks like..

In 2000 and 2004 NCAA Championships were raced SCM, oddly enough.

The cal guy was getting that potential point swing anyway. I’m just talking about the difference between the bumps for the Texas guy.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I hated the ‘04 meet. It was awful. On Long Island in the old Goodwill games pool that wasfalling apart around us. The built in lighting wasn’t bright enough, so they brought in those highway type work lights shining about 10 feet off the pool deck, directly in your eyes as you were trying to swim.

The idea was to swim in an international course in Olympic years, but everyone quickly realized that was a dumb idea, as it had no impact on international performance.

---

I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Not only was it a dumb idea.. 25scm isn't remotely close to swimming LC, some coaches were miffed about losing a year to chase records. How could you blame them?

This is one instance where you just don't mess with history and tradition. Although the majority of schools that qualify swimmers for NCAA have LC pools at their disposal, college swimming in US is scy. It's unique, it's fast, it's exciting.

Now if they could just remove diving...