Team Championship goes to Michigan

(via Dork Review)

Cal's hope for a three-peat ended before the 400 free relay began.  Michigan had built enough of a lead to guarantee another ICAA* men's team championship.

Top Ten Teams

1) Michigan (480)
2) California (406.5)
3) Arizona (313.5)
4) Southern California (289)
5) Texas (288)
6) Florida (285.5)
7) Stanford (282)
8) Auburn (226.5)
9) Indiana (201)
10) Georgia (163)

The Aggies finished 24th with 32 points and the Mustangs were 35th with 8.

Results here.  Interviews and more here.

Eddie Reese on the past and present:


Kevin Cordes after his 1:48.68 in the 200 breast:





*International Collegiate Athletic Association.  Texas once again won the NCAA men's championship.  Eddie and Kris aren't training foreign Rio '16 Olympians.

Quote of the Day

Are we at last brought to such humiliating

and debasing degradation, that we cannot

be trusted with arms for our defense?

 

 

Patrick Henry

(pic via Library of Congress)

Quote of the Day

The best mirror is an old friend.

 

 

George Herbert

(pic via The Famous People)

Quote of the Day

When the government fears the people,

there is liberty.  When the people fear

the government, there is tyranny.

 

 

Thomas Jefferson

(pic via the Voice)

Back in Business

Y'all wondering why I've not posted a whole lot lately?  Wild rumor that SwimScam had me bumped off was just that...a wild rumor.

Actually been busy with quite a few outdoor projects up in the Metroplex and down here in Bait Camp.  Less computer time has been kind of enjoyable!

Since it's catch-up time, this post will be about as random as it gets.  Enjoy!

If you haven't been follerin' the men's NCAA D-I meet, get on over to Swimming World's championship page here.  Results, videos, photos, and more!!!

The media sure is helping our crooks in Washington out, aren't they?  Keeping us distracted with gay marriage, sink holes, Ashley Judd, etc. while they continue to throw millions of our hard-earned dollars away...hour after hour...day after day...when will it end?

Clear Springs HS needs an assistant coach.  Contact Debbie Fuchs at 281-284-2845.

Dax Hill:


Jumpy Bones Bumpy Jones

GWG is looking to hire someone (part time).  Internet work (social media, writing, marketing, logistics, etc.) mainly.  Tweet him if interested.

Okay, summer leaguers, it's time to lose your fear of USA Swimming.  They're here to help you.  Take the plunge.  Find out what you've been missing.  It's a whole other world out there.  Contact Jim Fox (719-866-3544) to learn more about Deck Pass.

The Awty International School in Houston needs an assistant coach.  Contact John Hoye

Ricky Berens on MSS:


Enough for now.  400 medley relay in progress...

Quote of the Day

 

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great

number of things, in order to avoid the

calamity of being ignorant of everything.

 

 

Reverend Sydney Smith

Quote of the Day

If you have accomplished all that you planned

for yourself, you have not planned enough.

 

 

Edward Everett Hale

(pic via NNDB)

Quote of the Day

 

I'd rather be a failure at something I love

than a success at something I hate.

 

 

Naftaly Birnbaum, a.k.a. George Burns

Quote of the Day

An honor is not diminished for being shared.

Lois McMaster Bujold

(pic via Wired)

Quote of the Day

If you want to be free, there is but one

way;  it is to guarantee an equally

full measure of liberty to all your

neighbors.  There is no other.

 

 

Carl Christian Schurz

(pic via WikiSource)

Quote of the Day

Ignorance and inconsideration are the two

great causes of the ruin of mankind.

 

 

John Tillotson

(pic via Dr. Rowan Williams)

Quote of the Day

Standing in the middle of the road is

very dangerous;  you get knocked

down by the traffic from both sides.

 

Margaret Hilda Thatcher

(pic via Kismet Johnson)

Emmert Finds Reverse

 

(pic via How Do I Get Fit)

The NCAA is suspending two (2) new rules while the consider putting a third on hold.  Read more here.

The Board postponed new rules deregulating who can perform recruiting tasks and what printed materials can be sent to prospects. Board members also considered suspending a third proposal that eliminated restrictions on modes and numerical limitations of recruiting contacts, but they ultimately agreed to let the membership decide that rule’s future through the override process.

Suspending the rules means they will not become effective unless and until appropriate modifications are made. The Rules Working Group, which proposed the changes as part of a package of legislation the Board adopted in January, will continue to study the concepts.

Member schools want NCAA's reformer-in-chief, President Mark Emmert, to get his foot out of the carburetor.

“We are committed to the reform effort. We will move forward with these concepts with collaboration from all interested parties,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “Suspending these proposals for continued review will provide our coaches, administrators and student-athletes the additional opportunity to have their voices heard.”

Some coaches and administrators expressed concern that deregulation in this area might lead to a recruiting arms race that could overwhelm prospects, college coaches and athletics department budgets. Much of the tension is specific to football, though the concerns could translate to any sport.

Quote of the Day

Please don't retouch my wrinkles.

It took me so long to earn them.

 

 

Anna Magnani

(pic via The Red List)

Manuel Breaks Another NAG Record

(pic via Fort Bend Star)

FCST's Simone Manuel took down another 15/16 NAG record while winning the 50 free last night in Orlando.  Manuel clocked :22.04, just under Janet Hu's record of :22.13.  Hu finished 2nd in the event.  London '12 Olympian Lia Neal won the consol heat.

Hu's team, Curl-Burke Nation's Capital Swim Club, won the combined team title.

Nitro was the top Texas team, finishing 8th.

Results are here.

Quote of the Day (Thanks, HM!)

The future has many names.  For the weak

it is unattainable.  For the fearful it is the

unknown.  For the bold it is opportunity.

 

 

Victor-Marie Hugo

(pic via Den Store Danske)

Yeah, it's all about the money...

Last fall, USA Swimming cut back on bonus entries for Grand Prix meets.  Prelim sessions at those meets had gotten out of hand.

Cue the unintended consequences, please.

The January Austin Grand Prix meet was tiny.  How tiny?  Only three (3) women swimming the 400 i.m. in finals tiny!  Meet was to be capped at 600 swimmers and it wasn't even close.

USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Bush has announced the return of bonus events (w/o a standard) for the three remaining Grand Prix meets.

There will be no bonus standard. Any athlete that enters with at least one hard cut is eligible to swim any bonus event regardless of bonus entry time. This adjustment is being made to encourage additional entries over the last three meets and to allow for more swims per athlete.

Looks like the Mesa, Charlotte, and Santa Clara fundraisers meets will at least break even...

Quote of the Day

Some people say they haven't yet found

themselves.  But the self is not something

one finds;  it is something one creates.

 

 

Thomas Stephen Szasz

(pic via Los Angeles Times)

Quote of the Day

Just what is it that America stands for?  If she

stands for one thing more than another it is

for the sovereignty of self-governing people.

 

 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson

(pic via Wikimedia Commons)

Simone Manuel of FCST

First Colony's Simone Manuel took down a 15/16 NAG record in Orlando last night.  Manuel (16) won the NCSA Junior National 100 free in :47.73!


Real time results are here.

Swimming World coverage (videos, photos, live stream) is here.

Quote of the Day

If your success is not on your own terms,

if it looks good to the world but does

not feel good in your heart,

it is not success at all.

 

 

Anna Marie Quindlen

(pic via University of Pennsylvania)

Towson U Baseball Protest

From the "This isn't going to end well" files:

Read more here.

Hours after Towson University in Maryland announced it was cutting the baseball program, the players cut "Towson" from their uniforms. Well, the players blotted it out with black duct tape, to be precise.

Wouldn't be surprised if the AD suspends players and coaches...maybe even cancels season if this sort of protest continues.

Watch the video.  Isn't it sad that "journalists" these days just repeat the garbage they're fed?  Neither "reporter" questioned the school's rationale for cutting the sports.

Not sure what lies they've been telling at TU?  Catch up here.

NFHS Rule Changes

(pic via IHSAA)

Coaches may view upcoming high school rule changes here.

Sponsors must wait until three meets into next season to view changes.

Quote of the Day

Dangerous is wrath concealed.

Hatred proclaimed doth lose its

chance of wreaking vengeance.

 

 

Lucius Annaeus Seneca,

a.k.a. Seneca the Younger

(pic via Awesome Stories)

Quote of the Day

Reputation is what other people know about

you.  Honor is what you know about yourself.

 

 

Lois McMaster Bujold

(pic via CelebPictu)

Quote of the Day

Any party which takes credit for the

rain must not be surprised if its

opponents blame it for the drought.

 

 

Dwight Whitney Morrow

(pic via Biography)

No, you can't keep him...

Hey!  Aren't those my shorts?!?!

Historical Swimming Footage

Random but interesting.  Would love to see extended versions of each little clip.

   

ISHOF has some good ones.  Here's 200 meter breast from Hitler's '36 Berlin Games:

 

 

Quote of the Day

Sometimes corruption is slowed by shedding

light into what was previously shadowed.

 

 

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz

(pic via American Enterprise Institute)

Towson University Follows Game Plan Perfectly

Proportionality is a math term y'all learned about in school, right?  Guys at Towson University are learning that it means your sport's cut!

Baseball and men's soccer are being dumped to comply with Title IX's proportionality prong.  Men's swimming actually survived the cuts, and men's tennis will be added.  That'll leave TU with six (6) men's sports.  The gals have thirteen (13) to choose from.  Read more here.

(pic via Baltimore Sun)

Maravene Loeschke, the university’s president, said the cuts were caused by the school’s need to comply with federal Title IX mandates and less revenues from student fees. Eliminating the non-revenue generating programs will allow the school to fund more competitive teams like football and basketball, a report released Friday by Towson said.

Love the way she threw in the "non-revenue" bit.  Always a great fib when yer lookin' to do a little program-killin'.

Fact is, the so-called "revenue" sports usually show a greater net loss than the "non-revenue" sports!  Foosball programs can lose millions of dollars annually, yet they're still referred to as revenue sports.  Even if men's swimming costs a school a hundred grand and it's classified as non-revenue...and John Q. Public continues to buy that bullcorn...

Attention, fools, nearly all intercollegiate sports are non-revenue!!!

TU sure did this one "by the book", didn't they?  They even got an outside entity (Nevins & Associates) to do the "hit" for them:

Towson originally commissioned in October a report examining the cost of eliminating baseball and men’s soccer.

Wait!  Wait!  There's more!!  Loeschke has been very well-coached.  She remembered to include the old "our other programs will become stronger" to justify dumping baseball and soccer:

Cutting men’s soccer and baseball will make the school’s athletics programs more competitive overall by devoting more resources to less teams, Loeschke said. The school’s football program was revived in 2011 with a 9-3 record and its first-ever FCS playoff appearance. Towson’s men’s basketball program posted the largest turnaround in single-season turnaround in NCAA history, going from 1-31 in 2011 to 18-13 this season.

Those programs, combined with Towson’s lacrosse teams, are revenue drivers for the school, Loeschke said. Cutting men’s soccer and baseball should help the school’s other athletic teams succeed, she said.

“If you’re not going to be somewhat competitive, you shouldn’t be in the game at all,” Loeschke said.

I find it very hard to believe that the Towson Tigers men's lacrosse program generates enough revenue to stay in the black.  In fact, I'd be shocked if any of the three programs she mentioned as "revenue drivers" even break even.

Quote of the Day

Ability will never catch up

with the demand for it.

 

 

Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

(pic via New York Daily News)

NCAA Tappin' Them Brakes

(pic via Barewalls)

Rules proposals adopted in January (Not a regular reader of this wonderful site way back then? Catch up here.) might not be what the membership's looking for.  Read more here.

Despite extensive outreach by the Rules Working Group, some in the membership recently expressed concern about the possible adverse impact the changes would have on college coaches, administrators and university resources, in addition to the impact on prospects and their families.

Some coaches and administrators expressed concern deregulation in this area might lead to a recruiting arms race that will overwhelm prospects, college coaches and athletics department budgets. Much of the anxiety is specific to football, though the concerns could translate to any sport.

Dang it!  So much fer that there wild rumpus...

Quote of the Day

They say such nice things about people

at their funerals that it makes me

sad to realize that I'm going to

miss mine by just a few days.

 

 

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor

(pic via Seattle Times)

State Meet Evaluation

(pic via My San Antonio)

Kind of a Good News/Bad News situation here.

First, the good news.  Coaches can complete a very short and simple survey (asking about your region and state meets) here.

Now for the bad news.  Just before you're to submit, the folks at the UIL want to know who you are and where you coach.

Hmmmmmmmmmm...nothing like the good old days, right?

Quote of the Day

Music - opera particularly - is a process
which is endurable or successful
only if it is achieved by people
who love to collaborate.

 

 

Sarah Caldwell

(pic via BU Today)

March Miscellaneous

In the season's final men's D-I poll, Michigan took the top spot.  More here.  UT fell one spot to #2 and A&M dropped six places to #23.  Last chance meets for the men are this weekend.

D-I women's preselection psych sheet is out.  Swimming World has a good article that helps explain the selection process here.  View preselection psych sheet here.

TAGS begins tomorrow at the Conroe ISD Natatorium.  Still looking for psych sheet and real time results links.  Guessing results link will be here (last week's Gulf Champs results there now).

The men's Pac-12 meet wraps up today.  Real time results are here.  Cal is trying to end Stanford's streak of a bizillion straight conference championships.  The Bears lead the Cardinal by 63 points going into today's action.

GWG's appearance at the White House has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon.  Winter storm Saturn Vue XR is to blame.

More on Quinnipiac U's Title IX problems here.

Triathlete who died in last weekend's Escape from Alcatraz event was Austinite Ross Ehlinger.  Article here.

Article on Bill Jewell (here).  In 30+ years on the pool deck, I've heard many inapproptiate comments and seen plenty of hugging, patting on the butt, etc. by coaches who seem unable to treat their female athletes with the same respect they treat the males.

Made me think of a guy I used to work with.  Our team pictures came in and he was very unhappy with his girls' team pic.  Repeatedly said "This is the ugliest girls' team I've ever coached."  What a jackass!

Third Time No Charm

(pic via The QBSN)

In their third court loss*, Quinnipiac U again was told they can't dump women's volleyball.  Read more here.

The school, you may recall, tried to provide more opportunities for women by dropping volleyball and adding competitive cheer.  That didn't work out when a judge decided that competitive cheer isn't a sport.



*The volleyballers have survived by going 3-0 in the courthouse, but their record in the fieldhouse is a different story.  They went 2-23 overall and 1-15 in conference play last fall.

Quote of the Day

Discretion is not the better part of biography.

 

 

Giles Lytton Strachey

(pic via Smithsonian)

Still More GWG

Tomorrow's the big day at the White House.  Didn't hear about that?  Catch up here.

Today's USA Swimming Twenty Question Tuesday features Garrett.

16. Things have changed with the suit deals basically gone – how good was your timing to be a pro swimmer?
Garrett: It is over, that is true, for a lot of people. I was very fortunate to be on the stipend in 2005, and I was very fortunate to sign with Speedo in 2008 before the Olympics, and right after I got superhot at Olympic Trials, that the contract I had took me through 2012. Now with going to Israeli, I am again fortunate. Certainly, I did not become rich from all of this, but I have been able to build a really good life outside of swimming – with swimming’s help. This sport has helped me build a future.

See the other nineteen Q's and A's here.

(pic via Shannon Sheppard)

p.s.  Garrett puts on great clinics!  He's visited us in Mansfield and El Campo.  Would be a great way to kick off your summer season, right?  Get hold of him through his Athletic Foodie site!

Quote of the Day

Recommend to your children virtue;  that

alone can make them happy, not gold.

Ludwig van Beethoven

(pic via All Posters)

Sharkin'

Leon and his buddy Dalton reeled in a couple of sandbar sharks the other night.

Pic is of the 7'2"-er.

In case you're new here, don't worry about the shark.

They catch-n-release.

That way, you'll have the thrill of swimming alongside one next time you're at the beach...

GWG Skipping Wednesday Practice...

...to speak at the White House!

(pic via Stack)

Read more here.

I’m blown away and honored to be speaking at the White House. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be given this opportunity. I’ve been working for years to help people live a higher quality of life through better nutrition. It seems that my work is starting to get noticed, and my hope is that I can only continue working to help more and more people on their journey towards better health.

I will be one of six speakers in the program, including Michelle Obama. I’ll have ten minutes to share my story, and will hopefully inspire all these leaders to continue doing the awesome work that they are all so dedicated to. The program (and my speech) will be LIVE WEBCAST. I don’t yet have the link where you can watch it, but we will post this as soon as we get it so y’all can follow along Wednesday morning.

Quote of the Day

Don't feel entitled to anything you

didn't sweat and struggle for.

Marian Wright Edelman

The outside lanes here...

...at the swim center are very fast! (Sam Kendricks)

Bobby B and Matt B in Big XII 200 free consols.  Embedded video jumpy (sorry), so link is here.  You'll find many more conference meet vids there as well.

Quote of the Day

There is only one difference between

a madman and me.  I am not mad.

 

(via Biography)

 

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech,
Marquis de Púbol, a.k.a. Salvador Dali

Quote of the Day

Storms make oaks take deeper root.

 

 

George Herbert

(pic via Poetry Foundation)

He's lucky he doesn't need...

...the nerd vote...

"I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that's been floating around Washington that even though most people agree that I'm being reasonable, that most people agree that I'm presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don't take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld and convince them" to agree on a deal, Obama said.

(pic via Memory Alpha)

Didn't even know it was the Vulcan's that do the mind meld thing...

Quote of the Day

To acquire knowledge, one must study;

but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

 

 

Marilyn vos Savant