Has Bowdoin ever won a relay??

[DonCheadle]

And are they going to win the 200 medley?

[LordJeffFree]

No idea if they ever have, but I think theres extremely little chance that they will. They are probably only fighting for about 5th place. I can't see them beating Conn, Williams, Amherst or Tufts and they might not be able to beat Middlebury either. Even if Mecray is way ahead in breastroke and Routh is way ahead in fly, they will have huge deficits in the other strokes. In freestyle they might lose 1.5 seconds or more to Wampler/Fraser/Rood.

[polarbear]

Yes they have, but it was a long time ago. I believe they won the 200 medley in the early 90's and had the national champion 400 and 800 free relays in the mid 70's -- a long time ago. The 400 free relay school record they broke last year was from 1976.

It will be interesting to see how / who they close with tonight. I think that relay is still one swimmer away from greatness. From what I have heard, expect Mecray and Routh to go faster tonight. I put them at under 1:34

Stuyvesant 25.0
Mecray 25.0
Routh 22.0
Googins 21.5
TOTAL 1:33.5

Thats kind of optimistic though

[DonCheadle]

Yes they have, but it was a long time ago. I believe they won the 200 medley in the early 90's and had the national champion 400 and 800 free relays in the mid 70's -- a long time ago. The 400 free relay school record they broke last year was from 1976.

It will be interesting to see how / who they close with tonight. I think that relay is still one swimmer away from greatness. From what I have heard, expect Mecray and Routh to go faster tonight. I put them at under 1:34

Stuyvesant 25.0
Mecray 25.0
Routh 22.0
Googins 21.5
TOTAL 1:33.5

Thats kind of optimistic though

They had a dude go 21.1 this morning...ehh I am going to go look it up. I must be wrong.

EDIT: yeah to that was the breaststroker. That is a strange but not unheard of combo (breaststroke / sprinter).

I do think they will go 1:33.5 though.

[Colbybr]

Kirk Hutchison was a double NCAA champion for the Polar Bears in yesteryears. 50. in the 100 fly and 1:51ish in the 200 fly in the late 80s early 90s. But not sure about relays.

[Cadillac Jack]

I don't know that there is an easily accesible archive of New England meets prior to the split off of NESCAC schools. It would provide some interesting reading for some of us. Bowdoin did win the 400 free relay at the '76 NCAA Div. 3 meet (the second year of that meet split after having only 2 divisions - University and College) with a 3:13.0! Kirk Hutchinson did win the 100 fly in '81 with a 50.8 (kicking off a brief NE run - Jim Lilley from Tufts won in '82 and Kyle Moore from Coast Guard in '83) and the 200 in '82 at 1:52.6. Some may remember his dad Bruce who coached Southern Conn State for many years. Since then, their only national champ has been Frank Marston in 3 meter diving in '91.

End of history lesson...That 200 medley that looked like it might be so strong ended up at 1:35 +, for some reason they seem to have trouble really stepping it up for the big meet...

[polarbear]

A link to some history of the Bowdoin team for all those interested.
http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/records/mswimhistory.pdf

Some highlights in addition to those already mentioned:
Hutch was also 2d in the 200 fly in 81
Jeff McBride 2d in the 200 and 500 in '76
800 relay 2d in '76 in addition to the 1st place 400 free relay (they did not win the NE's with that relay, they DQ'ed in the morning)
David Thurber 2d in both backstrokes in '75
Don't forget Bob Plourde, national champion in 100 backstroke in 1958

Twice Bowdoin finished within 3 points if first place Williams at the NE's, once with a DQ'ed relay, and I believe our women's team was the last team to defeat Williams at a NE / NESCAC meet. Theres a lot of good history behind the team -- less recently, but its definitely there.