03-19-2017, 07:08 PM
SwimSwam reports that Greg Meehan has been chosen for CSCAA Coach of the Year. Congratulations, Coach!
From what the swimmers say in the video interviews (and, the only way to run a team), the swimmers don't choose the events, the coach does. I think in each event, Stanford had the top two swimmers at the time the entries went in. Each event would have been Katie's only event of the day. If I were coach, I might think that tapering Katie for the 200 Free fits with her other events, and in particular, two relays (800 FR, 400 FR). Tapering her for the 400 IM would have introduced other strokes that might have been a bit distracting.
I noticed that Simone came away from the meet with the same hardware as Kathleen Baker: 4 firsts (50 & 100 Fr, 400FR, 800 FR), 1 second (200 FR), 1 third (200 MR). A bit surprising to me is that she didn't swim the 400 MR (Stanford won by more than a second, so maybe Meehan wanted to reward Lia with this pretty sure win).  Katie Ledecky had 5 firsts, winning every event she swam.
I can't imagine the voters for the Swimmer of the Year award would use the stroke as a basis for choosing one swimmer over another. The CSCAA doesn't have criteria for the award on their site. I would have thought that being the best swimmer was the primary criteria. NCAA records, wins at the NCAA championship, dominating wins/records, and year's best times would be secondary criteria. For me, 5 wins and no losses for Ledecky outweighs 4 wins, a second, and a third that Manuel and Baker had. When you include the records and the dominance of the records, there isn't a question as to who should be Swimmer of the Year.
[By the way, that Swimming World Magazine article was about Baker, and doesn't mention the Swimmer of the Year award.]
From what the swimmers say in the video interviews (and, the only way to run a team), the swimmers don't choose the events, the coach does. I think in each event, Stanford had the top two swimmers at the time the entries went in. Each event would have been Katie's only event of the day. If I were coach, I might think that tapering Katie for the 200 Free fits with her other events, and in particular, two relays (800 FR, 400 FR). Tapering her for the 400 IM would have introduced other strokes that might have been a bit distracting.
I noticed that Simone came away from the meet with the same hardware as Kathleen Baker: 4 firsts (50 & 100 Fr, 400FR, 800 FR), 1 second (200 FR), 1 third (200 MR). A bit surprising to me is that she didn't swim the 400 MR (Stanford won by more than a second, so maybe Meehan wanted to reward Lia with this pretty sure win).  Katie Ledecky had 5 firsts, winning every event she swam.
I can't imagine the voters for the Swimmer of the Year award would use the stroke as a basis for choosing one swimmer over another. The CSCAA doesn't have criteria for the award on their site. I would have thought that being the best swimmer was the primary criteria. NCAA records, wins at the NCAA championship, dominating wins/records, and year's best times would be secondary criteria. For me, 5 wins and no losses for Ledecky outweighs 4 wins, a second, and a third that Manuel and Baker had. When you include the records and the dominance of the records, there isn't a question as to who should be Swimmer of the Year.
[By the way, that Swimming World Magazine article was about Baker, and doesn't mention the Swimmer of the Year award.]