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03-22-2019, 08:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-22-2019, 08:44 AM by
ColoradoTree.)
Leads don't get any slimmer! 173.5 to 173 is a bit close for comfort, but it's a relief that we're still projected to win (now by about 54 points over Cal), even though I believe we're still projected to lose the lead to Cal today (correct me if I'm wrong).
So, yesterday we had a surprise loss in the 200 IM (Ella Eastin is the record holder, but while she was the top seed coming in and dropped 0.65 seconds off her prelim time, she was still about a second behind Wisconsin's Beata Nelson, and about 1.14 seconds off Eastin's own NCAA record from last year). But we counteracted that with a surprise win in the 500m (just an incredible swim from Brooke Forde), and got 3rd in the 200 free relay, which I believe wasn't entirely expected. We got a handful of points from the 50 free (12th place), 1m diving (11th, 12th, and 16th places), and the 400 medley relay (6th), too.
This isn't last year's team, for sure. We don't have the same dominance in the relays and freestyle sprint events, but even without Katie Ledecky dusting the field in the 500, we still won that event.
Today's schedule (prelims in the following events in the morning, finals this afternoon/evening):
* 400 IM: Eastin and Forde are 1-2 on the psych sheet, with a few other swimmers (Szekely in 13th, Raab in 18th, Stevens in 28th, and Kukurugya in 30th) with a shot at making a final. In prelims this morning, Eastin and Forde went 1-2, and Raab made the A final in 7th place. No Stanford swimmers in the B final, but Szekely finished 18th. (No Cal swimmers in either final; they had the 10th seed coming in, but she scratched.)
* 100 Fly: Not our best event. Amalie Fackenthal was 48th coming in on the psych sheet, and finished 42nd after prelims. That's all. (Two Cal swimmers in the A final and one in the B final. The two in the A final were expected, but the one in the B final wasn't, so that'll be more Cal points than anticipated.)
* 200 Free: Coming in, Taylor Ruck was 5th on the psych sheet, Lauren Pitzer was 11th, Morgan Tankersley 22nd, and Katie Drabot 29th. Ruck had a great swim, dropping a second off her seed time coming in to qualify in second place. Pitzer finished 11th to make the B final, Drabot was 18th and Tankersley 23rd. The bummer is 3 Cal swimmers in the A final, though that was roughly anticipated--they had the 3rd, 6th, and 9th seeds coming in.
* 100 Breast: Indiana's Lilly King will win this one, of course, but hopefully we can score some points. Allie Raab was 21st on the psych sheet, Zoe Bartel 37th, and Grace Zhao 43rd. No finals, though, as Bartel finished 24th, Raab 28th, and Zhao 31st. Cal gets one swimmer into the A final, which will be bonus points for them--that swimmer came in seeded 26th.
* 100 Back: Taylor Ruck is 4th on the psych sheet, Lucie Nordmann is 13th, and Erin Voss is 23rd. (Cal, meanwhile, has the 2nd and 11th seeds coming in.)
* 200 Medley Relay: Stanford is 7th on the psych sheet.
* 3m Diving: No idea. I always feel like any points from diving are gravy, but we got 12 from 1m diving yesterday, and we needed every bit of that to keep the lead.
A good reminder of how young, scoring-wise, this team is. We obviously lose Ella Eastin after this year, which is a big, big loss, but:
* Our 3rd place 200 free relay team was three freshmen and a sophomore.
* Our A final swimmers in the 500 free (Forde in 1st, Pitzer in 6th) are both sophomores
* Our only 50m scorer (Goeders in 12th) is a freshman
* Our top two divers in the 1m scoring (Lenz in 11th and Sculti in 12th) are both freshmen
* Eastin is our top seed in the 400 IM, but Forde (2nd seed) is a sophomore and Raab (7th) is a freshman
* Our top 3 swimmers in the 200 freestyle are a freshman (Ruck in 5th), a sophomore (Pitzer in 11th), and another freshman (Tankersley in 22nd)
* Our top swimmer in the 100 breaststroke is a freshman (Raab in 21st).
* Our top two swimmers in the 100 backstroke coming in are both freshmen (Ruck in 4th, Nordmann in 13th).
Looking ahead to tomorrow:
* Our top two swimmers coming into the 200 backstroke are both freshmen (Ruck in 2nd, Nordmann in 5th)
* Our top swimmer in the 100 freestyle is a sophomore (Pitzer in 22nd)
* Our top three swimmers in the 200 breaststroke are a sophomore (Zhao in 5th) and two freshmen (Raab in 16th, Bartel in 21st)
* The 200 fly is an exception, with Drabot (a junior) and Eastin as our top two, but Forde isn't far behind in 9th.
* The 1650 free is an exception, with Stevens and Byrnes as our top two, though Tankersley is 14th.
But all in all, that is a ton of points coming from underclassmen. We obviously take a hit with Eastin, Stevens, and others leaving, but my goodness, that is an absurd amount of talent coming back next year.
This Greg Meehan guy seems to know his stuff a little bit, eh?
