National Record-Holder in the 100 Back Featured in Hometown Press
The new national record holder in the 100 backstroke was recently featured in his hometown paper. Kalamazoo College junior Paul Ellis receives star treatment from the Oakland Press:
Ellis swam the opening leg of the 400 medley relay — the 100 backstroke — an established a national mark with his 48.56 clocking, as the Hornets hit the wall in 3:19.01, currently the third-fastest time among NCAA III schools.
“I couldn’t believe that I went a time that fast,” Ellis said. “I wanted to do 49 low and I remember hitting the wall and it was 48.5, and coach said, ‘By the way, you broke the national record, nice job.’ At that point, everyone was going nuts, we were so far over everyone, just crushing them. It was phenomenal.”
Division III Men’s Swimming Championship Preview
It’s really too bad that this is the year of the suit because there are a lot of good swimmers, especially this senior class. Despite the great talent, suits will overshadow their abilities and any records broken will likely be “because of the suit.” For obvious reasons, I would like to see all of the top swimmers wearing the suits so that we can at least say the races are fair. Now, let’s look at what we have:
500 Freestyle
David Curtis won this event by more than five seconds last year and comes in as the top seed. The difference this year is that most people believe he was fully rested for the NCAC meet. That would be the bad news. The good news is that Greg Parini is his coach and he knows a thing or two about retapering. The record was in jeopardy last year and is likely to fall this year.
The field here is strong and the battle for 2nd should be fierce. Matt Stewart has traditionally been stronger at NCAAs than MIACs. Bateman may be a rookie on the NCAA scene after a sub-par freshman year but Olaf surprised everyone last year with their performances and that could well be the case again this year.
200 IM
What is going on in Minnesota? Is there a correlation between ice fishing and the 200 IM? Three of the top four seeds are from the Land of 10,000 Lakes and two of those achieved the times back in December. Westby is the man to watch. Most do not believe he has fully tapered yet and after training all summer at the University of Minnesota, he should be ready to give a run at, arguably, the fastest record on the books.
The field, other than Marschall, is a bit surprising here. Most notably, sprinter Jacob Koch tried the 200 IM and it turned out pretty well. Was it a fluke? Doubtful. Can he improve? I’d bet on it (if that were legal of course). The sleeper here is Kevin Yamada. He didn’t fully rest for UAA’s and to my knowledge, has yet to “suit up”. Given this information, I would look for him to give a solid run at 2nd, despite first being a bit out of reach. The D3Swimming.com favorite Blair Withington, of beautiful New Zealand, should also be in the mix and battle for 2nd.
50 Freestyle
The top five swimmers in the splash and dash are seniors. In fact, half of the top 16 are seniors. Will age and wisdom create speed? Geissinger and Lardiere only make consolation appearances in the 50 last year and look to improve on that. Geissinger comes in as the only person under 20 and with Minnesota’s pool serving as the first place to see an 18, maybe we will see another record setting performance at the D3 level. Whitbeck won two years ago and now has another season of training with Caleb Courage, also in the race after spending a year training with MAC.
The sleepers, if we can call them that, are a fair of California freshmen. They are both ranked in the top 9 but with all of the seniority, can they hang on? Additionally, the clock went out when Peter Mullee swam his 50 at conference so no one knows what he went. He and Miran Terzic are both D1 transfer looking to make a Day 1 impact on the D3 scene.
200 Medley Relay
This race, barring a false start (no, I will not knock on wood), is not in question. Kenyon will win and it won’t be very close. The question really is whether the fastest relay record on the books will go down. Given Kenyon’s historical time drops at NCAAs, this one may not be in question either and the only question that will remain is: How low can they go?
The rest of the field gets much more interesting. The difference between Kalamazoo sitting in 2nd and Hopkins sitting in 8th is less than one second. Go another 7 spots to 15th and you will only travel three quarters of a second. This means that one mistake could doom your relay for even making finals. Based on past NCAA performances, Olaf would be the favorite for 2nd. The sleeper is Emory. Are the suit rumors true? If so, they are going to knock some people down and be in the running for a top three position.
200 Freestyle Relay
When Kenyon popped a 1:20 at midseason, the D3 community was in shock. Record predictions were abundant. While the time is certainly impressive and Kenyon does enter as the favorite, they do not enter as the top seed. Shockingly, Kalamazoo College does. Without adding a freshman they went from 16th last year and not making the meet to 1st seed this year. It will be interesting to see how the pressure affects their performance or if they can rise to the occasion.
Grove City may be all the way down at 8th place, but don’t let the entry time fool you. With former 50y champion Tim Whitbeck and multiple time 100y champion Caleb Courage, plus freshmen star Kirk Gagliardo, this team from Pennsylvania looks poised to give Kenyon a run. Kenyon’s advantage comes in depth. It will be interesting to see what Coach Fritz has up his sleeve for the relay order, which could decide the champion.
400 Individual Medley
Again that Minnesota water creates solid IMers. The top 2 seeds battled it out at the conference meet and could meet again in the final. Returning champion Keith Diggs sits 4th with his midseason time. The senior should be putting on the new technical suit for the first time in Minnesota and should give a run at Brian McCarthy’s record from 2004. The question likely won’t be whether Diggs gets under the 3:53.99 mark, but if he’s the first to touch the wall.
Kenyon has entered six men for this event. Always a strong showing for the Lords, this year the team is especially deep, especially taking into consideration that five of the six will return in 2010. Youth is not limited to Kenyon however. Of the top 32, only four are seniors and ten are first years. Not only does the 2009 400 IM look to be a great battle, but the future looks bright as well.
100 Butterfly
The 100 fly has become exceptionally quick in recent years. Had it not been for the added slots, the cutoff would have come under the 50 second barrier. Leading this group are a pair of talented seniors, Chase Gross and Matthew Harris. Last year, Harris out touched the Stevens Point star despite a first 50 deficit of nearly half a second. Will this year’s match up provide the same excitement? One should not only hope, but expect it.
While Harris and Gross attempt to run down Aaron Cole’s last remaining NCAA record, the rest of the field should be in a tight skirmish as well. Approximately one second currently separates 3rd place and a spot watching the night’s events from the stands. The lone freshman currently in the top 16 is MIAC surprise Erik Huls of St. Thomas. We’ll see if the time drops can continue or if he is left with something to learn for next year.
200 Freestyle
Mike Vernoia. How do you even pronounce that last name? Someone better learn because the freshman went completely under the radar to post one of only two sub 1:38’s coming into the meet. In an era when times are blurred by suits, it’s quite an accomplishment to be ranked 2nd among such a strong group. The field won’t care about his age however and he will need a repeat performance to keep his spot or move up.
Last year, the pair of now seniors from Denison gave the school an impressive one-two finish. A repeat performance is not out of the question if they can bounce back from their NCAC taper, something they did not have to deal with in 2008. Last season the closest man to break up the duo was Kevin O’Rourke of Middlebury. O’Rouke returns in 2009 over a second faster than his final time. With Kendra Stern as the very heavy favorite in the preceding women’s 200, O’Rouke will look to make it two in a row for the NESCAC (Middlebury has a Bread Loaf School of English… fun fact for the kids).
400 Medley Relay
Like its little brother, the 200 medley relay, the question here is not on who will be the victor, but again on rewriting the record books. This could happen multiple times over in fact. The 100 back (to be discussed later) had its record broken with a leadoff swim by Kalamazoo junior Paul Ellis. Fronting the Johns Hopkin’s relay, John Thomas also swam under the 49.00 mark and will want a crack at the record.
Sitting the 10th, Emory University of Atlanta, GA will join UWSP, TCNJ and Kenyon for the preliminaries. Without a weak leg, Emory will make a run for the top eight. That will leave someone out. Also looking to make a splash is perennial power Hope College. With Ryan Nelis splitting 47 at the MIAA meet last month and a strong supporting cast, they will cause trouble for anyone they can stay near going into the final 200.
200 Butterfly
Talk about a sleeper. The defending champion comes in ranked 24th. Harris won’t stay there, you can be sure of that. The only other top 5 performer to return is Michael Flanagan of Washington University in St. Louis. He will also be trying to play the surprise role as well coming in tied for 16th. One thing is for sure: Don’t feel safe about your position in the 200 fly.
A frontrunner who should stay that way is Norman Scott of Williams. The Eph’s senior, and native New Yorker, will use his NCAA experience to lead him to another All American finish.
100 Backstroke
The NCAA record has already been set once in this event so far this year. That number will likely have grown by the end of this event. In the imaginary rivalry between John Thomas and Paul Ellis, Ellis got the better of it as freshmen. Last year, a year older and a year wiser, Thomas came back to win the 200 and narrowly miss out in the 200. Meanwhile, Ellis struggled with injuries and finished with subpar performances. Now back and healthy, the rivalry can be resumed.
It’s hard to call Caleb Courage a sleeper with his multiple national titles, but none of those have come in the 100 backstroke. After a year off to train for the Olympic Trials, he is back and enters with a 50.21. Has he fully tapered? We will see, as will the rest of his heat.
100 Breastroke
D3Swimming.com started the Rocky vs Drago excitement last year and that competition continues this year. This time around, the fight resumes in Westby’s pool. Pavel Buyanov comes in not only as the returning champion, but as the returning record holder, taking down Josh Boss’s standard. Westby, however, enters with the fastest time and nearly a record. Both are coming in significantly faster than last year so the record seems to only be a formality.
Left out of this talk is Rastislav Racz of MIT who comes in under the 55 barrier. It’s hard to predict how low he can go but he can’t be counted out of breaking up the Russian-American duo with a little Slovakian power. Also, to add to the United Nations of breastrokers, the Frenchman David Lazarus will not only get the famous Kenyon taper, but hasn’t had a full rest since December and has continually dropped time since coming in as a freshman (where he didn’t make nationals).
800 Freestyle Relay
For the past couple years, Dension was supposed to break the NCAA record held by Kenyon since 2002. Last year, rather than winning in record time, Denison barely held off the underdog Lords. This year, the Lords bring extra freshmen talent to try to complete the job. Denison, on the other hand, still has the top two guys in this rivalry. Whoever wins is likely to finally nab that record and it could very well come down to the weakest link.
For The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), going unnoticed is nothing new. Their 6:40 midseason time would normally be good enough to garner NCAA record talk. It has not, outside NJ anyway. Could this only fuel their fire or will people be right for not mentioning them? Kalamazoo, currently sitting 16th and ranked much higher in the other relays, may act as a sleeper here. They will likely replace a 1:45 split with backstroker Paul Ellis. This change could result in a nice time drop that moves them up the rankings.
1650 Freestyle
1990. 19 years ago. The significance? That was the last time a Kenyon swimmer didn’t win the 1650. This streak might be as impressive, if not more so, than their team winning streak. All it would take is one swimmer to end the streak, rather than a team, yet no one has done it since 1990. Did that one swimmer finally come? Freshman Ryan Lichtenfels of Amherst comes in as the top seed. This is not the first time the top seed hasn’t come from Kenyon. For a while, even the national record wasn’t held by a Kenyon swimmer, but they came out on top. Both returning champion Kegan Borland and 2nd seed Nathan Smith hope to keep that streak alive through 2009.
Only 25 people have entered the mile this year, meaning only three who didn’t get in individually. One of those is Chris Bateman. Bateman came in as a promising distance swimmer with a B cut already in high school. After a slow freshman year, he has blossomed in his sophomore campaign. While he may swim in the first men’s heat of an afternoon 1650, don’t be shocked if he is standing on the podium later that night.
100 Freestyle
Since 1990 isn’t far enough back to go, let’s go further. Let’s go to 1985. There are no LZR’s or Blueseventys and in fact, there aren’t even our favorite paper suits. What there is, is one Jim Born. The oldest record in the books was broken a year (or more) before most of the current seniors were born. This is important because Courage and Geissinger are ready to give it a run. Courage, as stated previously, comes off a year of training with Dave Marsh while Geissinger swam with his brother’s team in Virginia. Will it help? We’ll know in due time but right now the outlook is foggy.
4th place is hardly a sleeper but it should be mentioned that David Somers is only a freshman with a high upside and hasn’t rested since December. If someone is going to break up the perceived one-two battle, Somers would seemingly be your guy. Zachary Turk has similar qualifications only .3 behind, yet seven places down. He also comes with the great nickname (credit Treat of D3swimming.com) of Z Turk (pronounced zee turk). The story here could once again be the closeness of the race. Exactly one second separates 2nd and 22nd. Watch those last 5 yards men!
200 Backstroke
The reigning champion is back for another shot at Leandro Monteiro’s record. Last year Thomas gave it a surprising run before fading in the end. This year Thomas enters as the 6th seed in a very deep field of backstrokers. This strong field should help all of them to improve on their seed times. When Leandro set the record in 2002 he nearly even split the race, a much different tactic than Thomas typically implores. Will a change in strategy cause a drop in time?
The surprise here is Hal Graft. The Transyvania sophomore (or is it freshman? His own school’s website lists him as a freshman) enters with one of only two times under 1:49 and is only seeded 10th in the shorter backstroke event. The conference record setter went out in a Leandro-like 53 at his conference meet only to come home just as strong. If he can stay composed and continue his time drops, we may see an upset in Minnesota.
200 Breastroke
There was no doubt who was the favorite going into the final last year after an impressive sub 2 minute performance in the preliminaries. Nelson Westby looked to not only bounce back from a heartbreaker in the 100 breast, but also make a run at Josh Boss’s 2nd NCAA mark. It was not to be however. With all of the individual and relay races catching up to him, Westby faded in the final 50 and finished 3rd. This year Westby returns after narrowly missing Boss’s record at midyear and is ready to grab the record and take the reigns as D3’s top breastroker.
Swimming his final collegiate race will be Ted Marschall. Despite tremendous success at one of the country’s top liberal arts schools, Carleton, Marschall has seemingly had to play 2nd fiddle to fellow MIAC-er, Nelson Westby. Given another time frame or different events, this shadow may not have been cast, but now Marschall will have his shot to put the stamp on an impressive career.
400 Freestyle Relay
This is the relay everyone looks forward to at any swim meet. It ends both high school and college championship meets and is the last chance for the fans to stand up and cheer their teams. This year, no better race could finish what is sure to be an amazing meet. Kenyon is the perennial champions of this event with few exceptions. Two years ago, Denison crashed the party with a John Geissinger come from behind relay finish to upset the Lords. Last year, the two teams jumped in at nearly the same time with Kenyon coming out victorious. With their anchor gone, Kenyon will look to rebound with youth and ability. Denison’s senior leaders hope to finish their careers on a high note. Only one can be successful. One thing is nearly certain, the 1998 record for this event will fall in the process.
Two teams look to spoil the NCAC party: Grove City College and Kalamazoo College. Kalamazoo is the surprise here. They add no one to their team and yet find themselves under the 3:00 barrier as compared to a team last year that didn’t get a night swim in this event. Led by a sophomore duo who put up 44’s in the open, the squad can improve and put themselves in the running with the right start. Grove City, despite not putting a relay into the meet last year, should be here. With Courage back and the aforementioned freshman addition, they were supposed to be among the favorites in this event. They currently sit only 6th because of a false start at the conference meet. Without it, they’d be sitting 2nd, but luckily, they have their guys and are ready to make up for this error. If the race and close and Courage has a shot, look for not only a quick time by the relay star, but possibly the fastest ever (currently 42.9 by Marc Courtney Brooks of Kenyon).
Team Title
While Kenyon is not in jeopardy of ending their streak and no one will touch Denison for 2nd, the battle for 3rd and beyond is quite intriguing. Based on the psyche sheet, Kalamazoo is scoring the 3rd most points, three spots higher than their best finish ever. St. Olaf and Amherst would tie for 4th and TCNJ, UWSP, Emory, Grove City and JHU would round out the top ten. Unfortunately, many of these top teams have little room to move except down. This is the case for Kalamazoo and TCNJ. Emory, Grove City and Johns Hopkins (JHU), on the other hand, have a lot of upward mobility. Will they capitalize?
The good news for Kalamazoo is that their lead over 4th place, as it stands, is significant. They can move down here and there, so long as it isn’t losing ground to one of the aforementioned teams. St. Olaf, on the other hand, doesn’t have room to move up for their star, Nelson Westby, but does for their relays and other individuals. These other individuals had large drops at last year’s championship and similar results this year could vault them into 3rd.
JHU and Emory nearly always find their way into the top five and are bringing large enough squads to the meet to make it happen again this year. They have, however, taken very different paths to get here. JHU was very unimpressive at their midseason meet at Kenyon, while Emory, despite not wearing the new technical suits, put up very fast times at Miami of Ohio. Emory goes the route of strength in distance swimming and IMs, while JHU leans on their relays to bring more talent to the meet. Both formulas can and should be successful, but will it be enough?
Best of luck to everyone at the meet.
Please visit this the forum to discuss this topic in a thread started for this article.
NCAA Announces One-Time National Meet Cap Increase
Weeks of speculation and waiting are over. The NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving committee has officially announced that the cap, or total number of athletes allowed at the national championships, is being temporarily increased for one year for both men and women. According to the following memo, an additional 14 women swimmers will be invited to the meet, making the total 246, and an additional 28 men, making the total 253. Although the rational for the change is cited as the change in technical suit rules that went into effect half-way through the season, there is no rational for increasing the meet by more for the men than for the women. The number of divers invited to the meet remains the same. Memo from the NCAA S&D Committee below.
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
MEMORANDUM
March 3, 2009
TO: Directors of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrators, Conference
Commissioners, and Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving
Coaches of Conferences and Institutions that Sponsor NCAA Division III
Men’s and/or Women’s Swimming and Diving.FROM: Tom Till, chair
NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee.SUBJECT: One-time Increase to Competitor Cap.
The NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee met via teleconference Tuesday, February 24, to review information regarding the ramifications of the interpretation effective December 19, 2008, defining the uniform as one swimsuit or garment. It was decided that the timing of this interpretation may have created an unfair competitive advantage for those student-athletes who competed prior to December 19 wearing more than one suit.
After extensive deliberation, the NCAA Division III Championships Committee approved the swimming and diving committee’s request for a one-time increase (14 for women, 28 for men) in the competitor caps for the 2009 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships:
- 2009 Women’s Championships 246 participants (up from 232)
- 2009 Men’s Championships 253 participants (up from 225)
The number of divers selected to each championship (22 women, 22 men) remains unchanged.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this memorandum, please contact me or D’Ann Keller, NCAA associate director of championships at 317/917-6222.
TT:kmh
cc: NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee
Selected NCAA Staff Members
NCAA Swimming and Diving Committees Memo on “New-Technology” Suits
Thanks to forum user lane9 for posting the full text of the following memo from the NCAA You can read lane9’s commentary here and join the conversation.
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
MEMORANDUM
February 27, 2009
TO: Directors of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrators, Conference
Commissioners and Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving
Coaches of NCAA Institutions that Sponsor Swimming and Diving.
FROM:
Dixie Cirillo, chair
NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee
Tracy Huth, chair
NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee
Tom Till, chair
NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee.
SUBJECT: UPDATE on New-Technology Swim Suits.
Members of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee met with NCAA staff members via teleconference, Tuesday, February 24, and discussed the current state of so-called technical swimsuits and the treatment of them for purposes of upcoming intercollegiate competitions, inclusive of the NCAA championships.
As stated in a memorandum sent September 11, 2008, the committee decided to permit all technical swimsuits approved by Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) to be worn in intercollegiate competition, including NCAA championships. At such time, no scientific or other concrete evidence existed to reasonably conclude that these swimsuits provided an advantage for the swimmer that could be defined as illegal or inappropriate assistance. As a result, the technical swimsuits were deemed compliant for all intercollegiate competition.
In light of the recent proliferation of new models and designs of technical swimsuits, international bodies have begun discussions on implementing scientific measures to be used for approving swimsuits for competition. In mid-January, FINA announced it was temporarily halting the intake of approval requests from manufacturers designing new swimsuits. As a result, the committees have been forced to reevaluate using FINA’s list as the resource for approving swimsuits for intercollegiate competition.
Since the NCAA does not currently have the capability to test swimsuits, and since there seemingly is no discernible justification for treating any one technical suit differently from any other for purposes of use at intercollegiate competition, the committees have decided to permit all technical swimsuits for all 2009 NCAA swimming and diving championships.
We also would like to take this opportunity to remind the membership that, per NCAA Bylaw 12.5.4, “a student-athlete’s institution’s official uniform (including numbered racing bibs and warm-ups) and all other items of apparel (e.g., socks, head bands, T-shirts, wrist bands, visors or hats, swim caps and towels) shall bear only a single manufacturer’s or distributor’s normal label or trademark (regardless of the visibility of the label or trademark), not to exceed 2¼ square inches in area (rectangle, square, parallelogram) including any additional material (e.g., patch) surrounding the normal trademark or logo.” As we prepare for the championships, it is important that everyone is in compliance with this bylaw and it is the individual participants’ and institutions’ ultimate responsibility to adhere to the bylaw. Division I institutions are reminded also to review NCAA Bylaw 31.1.7 pertaining to bench personnel. A violation of these bylaws will result in a report being sent to NCAA Enforcement.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this memorandum, please contact the respective NCAA championships manager: Maisha Palmer (mpalmer@ncaa.org), Division I; Carol Reep (careep@ncaa.org), Division II; or D’Ann Keller (dkeller@ncaa.org), Division III.
DC/TH/TT:kss
cc: NCAA Divisions I, II and III Men’s and Women’s
Swimming and Diving Committees
Selected NCAA Staff Members
Coach Keeps Truths and Swim Titles Flowing
The New York Times profiles Jim Steen. Read the article at nytimes.com: Coach Keeps Truths and Swim Titles Flowing.
