PAC at Nationals, 2010

[weedwacker2000]

Nice! Great swimming by the PAC women in Minneapolis so far after 2 days!! Everyone seems to have hit their retapers, and improved from the conference meet.

Caitlin L. smokes from the outside to get fourth (up from 19th last year) in the 200IM, and a pr for her. I noticed that her back half was faster than any of the other championship finalists. Great effort! I look forward to what she will accomplish tomorrow and Saturday.

The GCC women are swimming really well considering their seedings. I was not expecting them to make the consols for the 200MR, having left behind in Grove City their usual breaststroker. Still moving up from 19th seed to 16th is noteworthy, and obviously gave them momentum for a record setting day today (Thursday). Here's what I have -

1. The 200 FR is the first ever true All-American (as opposed to honorable mention) relay from the women's program. They significantly lower their school record.
2. Jenny R. breaks the school record in both the 50 and 200 free, and personal records for her.
3. Kait R. and Jenna R. both get personal records in their respective events (100 fly and 200 free). Kait almost makes the consols in the 100 fly.
4. Although the 400 MR does not return for an evening swim, the women nonetheless break the school record in the prelims.

Anyway I'm looking forward as well to what they will do in the 800 and 400 relays!

[weedwacker2000]

Wow!! 5th in the 800 FR! What has Coach Fritz been feeding these gals? Apparently an incredible dose of self-confidence. Only a "D1esque" swim by Kendra Stern keeps GCC from 4th. And the 1:51.70 split by Angela - where did that come from? A big drop from her conference time. Congratulations to all for such an amazing effort. I'm thinking today for the 400 FR they will be somewhere around 3:29, possibly.

Also great individual swims from K. Riesmeyer (200fly), C. Lehberger (100br.), C. Herdt (100br.) and B. Gutmann (100br.) - all setting team and/or personal records.

[weedwacker2000]

I really meant to get back to the forum sooner than this, but other distractions have a way of...

Thinking back to Nationals, I will give a somewhat belated congratulations to all the PAC swimmers!! Super swimming, and all but one getting All American. I must admit my expectations were low for the 6 Grove City women going into the meet, with the psyche sheet scoring them only 24 points. Then to drop times all over the place, get 86 points and snag 11th place is quite remarkable. I got to thinking about how they did so well, relative to expectations. Here are some ideas, which may generate some discussion:

1. Coach Fritz is a genius .
2. The six gals didn't do a full taper for the conference meet. However this doesn't make sense to me, because as it was they barely got two relays invited, and the 800FR was with aggregate times.
3. They tapered for conference, then hit their retapers for Nationals really well and then some.
4. All of them stepped it up several notches at Nationals because there was far better competition than at the conference meet.
5. A combination of some of the above.

Anybody care to comment; I'd be interested.

[MrBlue]

Numbers 3 and 4. I think they hit their re-tapers EXTREMELY well, but I also think the better competition and the excitement of Nationals got them dropping time. Honestly, the girls BLEW OUT the competition at PACs, except for individuals like Dressler. PAC's overall was just not a meet where they were pushed to swim their best. At NCAAs, they were.