2009-2010 Season Underway

With the first few meets already completed, the 2009-2010 high school swimming season has started, and while not much yet in the way of big meets, the preseason top 5 has been released by The News Journal. For the boys, Salesianum stands at number 1, not really a shock, and AI in second seems to be clearly the next best, although those teams do not swim each other in a dual meet. DMA is ranked 3rd, with Charter 4th, and again, those two won't swim each other in a dual meet, and I think Charter's depth, even with the loss of the graduated seniors from last year, plays to their advantage at the state meet. Brandywine is 5th, and they suffered a loss to Sallies earlier today, but for now, I don't see them losing the 5th place spot, although without many meets, I don't see anyone else looking to get in the top 4, the 5th place team being the one to change around throughout the season. St. Andrew's, usually a pick for the top few teams, faces what looks to be a rebuilding year, having graduated a relatively large group of seniors.
For the girls' side, Charter is, once again, the favorite, but don't put it past Tatnall to again give them a run for their money. Padua proved last year that they are a tough team, earning them the 3rd place rank. After losing today to Ursuline, Brandywine will most likely fall out of the top 5, maybe giving way to Ursuline. Newark in 5th will look to hold on to a top 5 spot, but I have a feeling those rankings will change a lot once the season gets underway, with no clear favorites for the 4th and 5th spots.
Best of luck to everyone with the beginning of the season, and as always, comments are welcomed, keep in mind I am 600 some miles away, so please forgive anything that may seem a little off in my analysis.

Links Updated; Follow on Twitter

The links on the right toolbar to past results from the state meet are now all functional - before some of the results were not uploaded properly. Also, the blog will now be posting updates on Twitter, follow it here. I don't know much about Twitter, so I'm not exactly sure how it will all work on there as well as here, but any suggestions are welcome.

NFHS: High-Tech Suits Banned

In my first update from Charleston, SC, the NFHS has officially banned high-tech swimsuits. In a press release dated August 11, 2009, it was determined that...

Effective immediately, swimmers shall be limited to one swimsuit, which shall be constructed of a woven/knit textile material, permeable to water and air, constructed so as not to aid in buoyancy, and shall not contain zippers or other fastening systems. In addition, the suit shall be constructed so that the style/shape for males shall not extend above the waist or below the top of the kneecap and for females shall not extend beyond the shoulders or below the top of the kneecap, and it shall not cover the neck.

Becky Oates, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Swimming and Diving Rules Committee commented:

These high-tech suits had fundamentally altered the sport and become more similar to equipment, rather than a uniform. The rules of swimming have always prohibited the use or wearing of items that would aid in the swimmer's speed and/or buoyancy. The technical suits and styles had evolved to a point where there was little, if any, compliance with these basic rules...With new developments in the swimming community, the committee knew that in order to preserve the integrity, tradition and heritage of the sport, as well as protect and enhance the interscholastic swimming program, these new requirements were necessary to promote fair play and the educational values of high school and could not wait for another year. The immediate implementation date, including style, will help guarantee fairness in competition throughout the high school swimming seasons and allow meet officials to fairly and consistently enforce the rule.

For more on this, visit the NFHS rule change site here.

This should prove interesting for this season's state meet, considering many of last year's unprecedentedly fast times were recorded in suits that (while maybe not as extreme as some of those at the recent World Championships) will no longer be legal.

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NFHS on Suit Rule - No Changes...Yet

Becky Oakes, Assistant Director at the National Federation of State High School Associations, said in an email regarding the suit controversy:

The NFHS Swimming and Diving Rules Committee has not currently made any changes in the swimming rules regarding swimwear at this time. The committee chair and I are monitoring the developments as they unfold with FINA, NCAA and USA-S. We are maintaining direct communication with the NCAA and USA-S as these organizations are addressing the suit issue. The NFHS will keep the state associations informed of the new developments and any changes regarding the NFHS rules. This is a challenging issue for the swimming world in general. The NFHS Swimming and Diving Committee is very concerned of the impact the technical suits have had on swimming.

So, at this point, NFHS has not banned the suits, however, that could change in the near future. Also to note, if USA Swimming goes along with the FINA regulations, I would assume that in order to have a swim "observed" at the High School Championship Meet, regardless of the stance taken by NFHS, the swimmers would be forced to wear suits which comply with the USA Swimming rules. This should certainly be interesting to see how everything plays out over the next few months.

The Continuing Swimsuit Debate

At FINA's World Championship event, the latest in swimsuit technology definitely appears to be helping set numerous world records, but the future for these "supersuits" looks bleak. FINA, swimming's international governing body released the following statement from their recent meeting at the World Championship:

On its first meeting held today in Rome (ITA), the 2009-2013 FINA Bureau fully complied with the decision of the FINA Congress, held on July 24, 2009 related with the procedure concerning swimwear approval. As it was also decided by the Congress, these rules are now By-Laws rules, which allow the Bureau to further control, update and correct any deviation to the process or to proceed with any necessary adjustment related to the development of the swimsuit technology.

The FINA Bureau decisions on swimsuits include:

MATERIAL – The material of the swimsuits will definitively be constituted only by textile fabric(s). The definition of “textile” will be made by a group of scientific experts chosen by FINA and led by Prof. Jan-Anders Manson, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne (SUI). This definition will be available to manufacturers by no later than September 30, 2009. The first definition of “textile” to be further confirmed by this group is: “Material consisting of, natural and/or synthetic, individual and non consolidated yarns used to constitute a fabric by weaving, knitting, and/or braiding.”

SHAPE – For men, the swimsuit shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee, and for women, shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor extend below knee. Furthermore, no zippers or other fastening system is allowed.

USE – In the regulation approved by the Congress, the swimmer can only wear one swimsuit and no taping is allowed.

TESTS – Only measurable scientific tests will be performed within the frame of the swimwear approval procedure. For thickness, the 1mm limit will be adjusted to 0.8mm, for buoyancy the present value of 1 Newton will be reduced to 0.5 (FINA will even consider the limit of 0 Newton), and for permeability the material(s) used must have at any point a value of more than 80l/m2/second. Permeability values are measured on material with a standard multidirectional stretch of 25%. These parameters will be further considered by the above mentioned scientific group.

CONSISTENCY – Swimsuits effectively manufactured and used shall correspond to and be fully consistent with submitted samples. Any modification before use (including impregnation) is prohibited. Moreover, there shall be no variation/modification for individual swimmers.

APPLICATION – Considering the time needed for manufacturers to produce their swimsuits, the submission dates and the implementation of the rules are applicable from 2010 only in Swimming competitions.

From what I have read, the rule change will probably not take effect until around April of next year, so as to give suit manufacturers the time to create suits within compliance of the new rules. As this is a recent rule change, USA Swimming (to my knowledge) has not yet changed their rules to reflect the international changes, but one can only assume that USA Swimming will soon enough follow in FINA's wake, just as they had announced over the past few months that they would agree to the same rules previously set out. I have sent an email to the National Federation of High Schools (governing body for High School Sports) regarding the rule change, and if I receive a response, I will post it here in an update.

USA Swimming Will Follow FINA's suit list

At their meeting at the end of May, the USA Rules and Regulations Committee decided to enact the same Regulations for approved suits as FINA announced just weeks earlier. The official statement released by the Committee can be found here. To my knowledge, this does not yet mean that there are any new regulations for suits within the high school swimming world. When the National Federation of State High School Association's Swimming and Diving Rules Committee met in April, they discussed the high-tech swimsuit issue at great length, however decided not to make a ruling yet regarding the suits. It will be interesting to see if this changes in the near future now that both FINA and USA Swimming have made decisions.
At that same NFHS meeting, a few other rule changes were made for the 2009-2010 season, the most notable being the new backstroke starting protocol. Swimmers are now allowed to place their feet out of the water at the beginning of a backstroke start, provided that the feet, including the toes, are not above or curling over the lip or the gutter of the pool. The article about this can be found here, and a list of rule changes for next season can be found here.
Also, a note about the blog, I am adding to the sidebar on the right a list of links to documents, including for now a list of past team champions (since 1986), the state meet qualifying times (from 2008-2009), and the state meet records. Over the next few weeks, I will be adding more useful documents there, probably in the form of results from past state meets, and anything else that may be interesting. Have a nice summer.

FINA releases 2009 List of Approved Suits

While at this point, USA Swimming, and NFHS have not taken any action regarding this, FINA has determined the suits which will be considered eligible in the year 2009, and missing from that list are any blueseventy suits. According to Swimming World Magazine, the blueseventy company has 30 days to fix the suits to fall in accordance with the FINA regulations. I'm sure that out of season, not many have been watching this blog, but this should prove interesting for next year's swim season, depending on the rulings made here in the USA, also considering FINA's list "expires" on December 31, 2009, in the middle of the high school season.

A Few More Thoughts

Having seen all of the discussion generated over the Swimmer of the Year choice, as well as some of the other comments, I thought I would add something to the discussion. First of all, keep in mind that a similar situation arose a few years ago between Chris Brady (who recently broke one of Mark Spitz's final collegiate records, without the aid of a new technical suit - article) and Grady Carter, with Carter winning the 50 and 100 Freestyle, and Brady taking 2nd in the 50 Free and winning the 100 Fly. Chris Brady came away swimmer of the year that year, due to the closeness of the 50 Free and his power point score in the 100 Fly. Is the system flawed? Probably. Now, many people have offered some suggestions, and I think that one of the best ideas is to somehow incorporate times from the rest of the season, or points scored at dual meets, or some other way to make it truly the Swimmer of the Year, not just of the State Meet. If they want to recognize both, I would see no issue, but basing the year's award on two days of a meet seems unjust at times (and the same goes for the rest of the All-State selections, but they tend to be pretty logical as it is). By all means, continue talking about this, maybe somehow a better idea can evolve from enough different people putting their thoughts together. A few notes though...try to keep comments on topic, and don't sign in as someone who you are not, it makes people sound bad who aren't trying to act the way you portray them. Also, one other comment about one of the more recent posts, regarding Curtis Ramsey's not swimming against Tanner or some others. He did in fact go home sick the day of the Brandywine meet, however, McKee swam the IM and Back, 2 events that Curtis most likely would not have swam. And he asked to go to practice on the day of the DMA meet, although he most likely wouldn't have raced Tanner, because he would have been in the 50 and 100 Free. And over the summer, Curtis swam the 50 and 100 Free, those are his two events, Tanner swam other events (Fly and IM) so Curtis was certainly not shying away from the competition in that respect either.
As for the future of this blog, I have certainly enjoyed writing the posts that I have, and watching it grow from me writing the first post to a home to discuss Delaware Swimming. I will be graduating from Charter in May, and I think no matter where I go to college, I will try to maintain the blog next year, getting what information that I can from the Internet as well as everyone who I will still know in Delaware Swimming. So unless something really interesting comes up, or I see a comment that sparks my attention, this will probably be the last post for the year. For those who still have meets for other teams left this year, good luck, and I hope everyone has a safe end of the school year and summer.

States Wrap-Up

Another year of high school swimming has ended, and the state meet was very fast and very exciting. We saw three records fall, two in the morning, one at night, and countless others close calls with records that may be broken in the next few years. In the days to come, we will learn of the official all-state selections, as well as the swimmers of the year. Nicole Vernon is the obvious choice for the girls, but the boys decision is not as easy. Based purely on the NISCA power points, Tanner Kurz should be the Swimmer of the Year, but he only won one event, while Clifton Gordon won both of his events, including a win over Tanner. Looking at the tables, it seems to me like the breaststroke power points are a little "higher" than some of the other events, and the 500 seems a little lower. Now, it is hard to judge, and is based a lot on perception, but I agree with one of the comments on the last post that it is tough to determine the all-state swimmers based only on two races at the state meet. I think if they were to use the power points as a "guide" but still took into account some sort of vote by the coaches that it would lead to a better choice of swimmers. Also, I still think they should take into account somehow the swimmers in the Consolation Finals. They can score points for the team, so why not for themselves in the all-state race? Even if they were counted at something like 3/4 value, it would still give them an opportunity to earn some more points, and give the advantage on who makes those last few spots on second team to whoever scores the most points in their second event.
On another note, I wanted to throw in a comment regarding the new controversy over the latest "technical" racing suits. The two most advanced suits these days are the LZR Racer by Speedo and the Nero by blueseventy. The LZR has been shown to set many records at the Olympics and throughout other top level competitions, and costs $290 for the jammer, $350 for the legskin, and $550 for the full body at speedousa.com (women's suits range from $425-$550). The blueseventy suits look like they cost something like $395 for the full suit. For those swimmers and teams who can afford to buy these suits, they certainly are given an edge over those who cannot. Blueseventy is a wetsuit company, meaning their suits are going to be more buoyant (one rumor I have heard is that it takes 50 lbs. to submerge one of those suits), giving wearers extra buoyancy and the ability to float on top of the water. There has been talk of disallowing them by FINA, but for the time being they are perfectly legal. From what I have read though, by next year, some tighter restrictions may be in place, and swimmers may lose the advantage of the latest technologies.

Boys Finals - Sals Win, 200 Free Relay Record Falls

Salesianum won its fourth straight swimming and diving title, with AI finishing second, 14 points ahead of Charter. Seems to me that was one of the faster overall state meets in my memory, definitely in the last 4 years. Results to come soon, along with final all state predictions.

Just got the results...they are located here. Team Scores are here. More discussion on the results to come tomorrow, but for tonight, I need sleep. Congratulations to everyone involved with the State Meet, from the swimmers to the coaches to the officials, this meet was truly a job well done all around.

Preliminary All-State Lists:

1st Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Tanner Kurz	Del Mil Acad	FR	100 Fly	141	100 Breast	149	290
Clifton Gordon	Salesianum	SO	100 Fly	143	100 Back	136	279
Samson Crawford	Newark	SR	50 Free	133	100 Breast	143	276
Sean Minderlein	Salesianum	JR	200 Free	130	500 Free	138	268
Tyler Gehrs	St. Andrews	SR	50 Free	138	100 Free	130	268
Tommy McKee	Brandywine	SO	200 Free	138	500 Free	128	266
Ricky Agresta	Archmere	JR	50 Free	136	100 Free	129	265
Curtis Ramsey	Charter	SR	50 Free	132	100 Free	131	263
Eric Materniak	Tatnall	JR	200 IM	134	100 Breast	128	262
Ryan MacLeish	Caesar Rodney	SR	50 Free	127	100 Free	128	255
Michael Moore	Mt. Pleasant	SR	100 Fly	129	100 Back	126	255
Dylan Coggin	Archmere	SR	200 Free	125	100 Free	125	250
Wayde Marsh	Salesianum	SR	100 Free	123	100 Back	124	247
Jack Reardon	A.I. duPont	SO	50 Free	126	100 Fly	119	245
Greg Miraglia	Wilmington Frien	JR	1st place diver		No Second Event		N/A

2nd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Luke Minka	A.I. duPont	SO	200 IM	122	100 Breast	122	244
Brad Brooks	Charter	FR	200 Free	121	500 Free	123	244
Joseph Creekmore	Archmere	SO	200 Free	121	500 Free	119	240
Zack Pryor	Salesianum	JR	200 IM	116	100 Fly	119	235
Wills Cooper	St. Andrews	SR	50 Free	119	100 Free	115	234
Jeong Shin	A.I. duPont	SR	50 Free	117	100 Free	114	231
Alex Hampel	Salesianum	SO	200 IM	115	500 Free	111	226
Mike Marando	Middletown	SR	200 Free	113	100 Breast	112	225
Bryan Brown	Dover	JR	100 Fly	103	100 Back	118	221
Alan Panaccione	St. Mark's	SO	200 IM	100	100 Back	119	219
Jeffery Brooks	Charter	SR	200 IM	101	500 Free	107	208
Jordan Lingo	Milford	SO	200 Free	98	500 Free	102	200
Seth Klair	A.I. duPont	FR	100 Breast	123	No Second Event		123
Tim Stradley	A.I. duPont	JR	200 Free	115	No Second Event		115
John Gravatt	Salesianum	SO	2nd place diver		No Second Event		N/A

3rd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Total
Lee Whitney	St. Andrews	SR	100 Breast	113	113
Benjamin Hitchcock	Newark	SR	100 Back	112	112
Adam Stilwell	A.I. duPont	SR	100 Back	112	112
Matt Jennings	A.I. duPont	JR	100 Breast	110	110
Robert Pagan	Charter	JR	100 Fly	107	107
Jon Champagne	Tatnall	SR	100 Fly	107	107
Nicholas Perkucin	Mt. Pleasant	SO	500 Free	106	106
Adam Keup	Del Mil Acad	SO	200 IM	99	99
Eric Wegner	Brandywine	SO	100 Back	98	98
Kyle Fagan	Newark	SR	200 IM	84	84
Kyle McCormick	Charter	SR	3rd place diver		N/A

Girls Finals - CSW Champs, 2 New Records

Charter girls are champions for the second straight year. Team scores are here. Individual results are here. Two new records were set, the Charter girls Medley Relay and Nicole Vernon of Tatnall in the 500 Free. Congratulations to all on a great meet, the boys will compete tonight with some guaranteed close races and maybe at least one new record.
Preliminary All-State selections are as follows (keep in mind these are NOT official):

1st Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Nicole Vernon	Tatnall	SO	200 Free	147	500 Free	157	304
Kaitlyn Jones	Tatnall	8	200 IM	148	100 Back	151	299
Katherine Rechsteiner	Charter	JR	200 IM	129	100 Breast	149	278
Shannon Foreman	Charter	FR	50 Free	134	100 Free	138	272
Nicole Osman	Newark	JR	200 IM	130	100 Fly	138	268
Megan Northshield	Tatnall	JR	100 Fly	134	500 Free	131	265
Calli Marando	Middletown	SO	100 Free	123	100 Breast	134	257
Brittany Rehrig	Charter	SR	50 Free	120	100 Breast	129	249
Kendall Towe	Sanford	JR	200 Free	122	500 Free	123	245
Alexis Coon	Milford	SO	100 Fly	124	100 Breast	121	245
Katie Steeves	St. Mark's	SR	200 IM	123	100 Free	117	240
Molly Willingham	St. Andrews	SO	200 IM	111	100 Fly	129	240
Samantha Shelley	Padua	JR	200 Free	114	100 Breast	126	240
Laura Askin	Caesar Rodney	SO	200 Free	118	100 Free	121	239
Annie Carter	Ursuline	SR	50 Free	117	100 Free	122	239
Christina Freibott	Tower Hill	FR	1st place diver		No Second Event		N/A

2nd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Nicole Haag	Cape Henlopen	SR	50 Free	123	100 Back	114	237
Corinne Capodanno	Padua	FR	50 Free	121	100 Free	115	236
Kelly McKinley	Brandywine	JR	100 Fly	117	100 Breast	118	235
Alyssa Sanders	Milford	FR	50 Free	117	100 Back	113	230
Haley Arasim	Brandywine	JR	200 IM	111	100 Back	118	229
Meghan Lam	Tower Hill	JR	200 IM	107	100 Back	117	224
Aly Paxton	A.I. duPont	SR	200 Free	106	500 Free	108	214
Meghan Holliday	Charter	JR	200 Free	107	500 Free	104	211
Caitlin Towe	Sanford	JR	100 Fly	106	500 Free	103	209
Haley Novak	St. Mark's	FR	100 Fly	96	100 Breast	107	203
Rebecca Murray	Archmere	SR	100 Breast	128	No Second Event		128
Bridget Sauer	Archmere	SR	100 Back	114	No Second Event		114
Clare Thomas	Sussex Tech	SO	50 Free	111	No Second Event		111
Taylor Shelley	Padua	FR	100 Back	111	No Second Event		111
Katie Lounsbury	Tatnall	SO	2nd place diver		No Second Event		N/A

3rd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Total
Cecily Gordon	Padua	FR	100 Fly	110	110
Megan Blazovic	Padua	JR	50 Free	107	107
Leslie Linn	Tatnall	SR	100 Back	105	105
Claire Mesko	A.I. duPont	FR	100 Free	104	104
Mary Caitlin Samuels	Ursuline	SO	200 Free	101	101
Colleen Cannatelli	Cape Henlopen	SR	200 Free	100	100
Angelina Corrado	Brandywine	SO	100 Free	100	100
Beth McKee	Brandywine	SR	200 IM	98	98
Alicia Howard	Charter	SO	500 Free	94	94
Kristen Holliday	St. Mark's	FR	500 Free	85	85
Mikaela Gekas-Robinson	Ursuline	8	3rd place diver		N/A

Finals Preview

Girls
Barring anything too unusual, the top few teams for the girls' meet tomorrow look pretty predictable, but one mistake anywhere could make for an interesting team points race. As for individual races, it looks like we will see plenty of excitement. All three relays should be close, with the top two teams in each being within a second or a little more. As for individual races, the 200 IM may be close, certainly closer than was expected based on the prelims seeds. The 50 Free should be a thriller, with all of the top 8 swimmers within half of a second, and 9th through 16th all within three quarters of a second. The start, turn, and finish will probably make all the difference. The 100 Fly should be close, with Nicole Osman taking the first seed, but not by much. The 100 Free, much like the 50, should be closely contested, with the top 8 all within a second and a half. While most of the other races don't look quite as close as far as the top few seeds go, there certainly will be close races throughout the top 16 swimmers, and maybe some unexpected close races. A few records have a chance to go down, the best chances are in the 500 Free and the 100 Breast, with an outside chance at the 200 Medley or 200 Free Relay records being broken.
Boys
As for the boys, Sallies is the favorite by a large margin, but second place is definitely up in the air, and 4th and 5th places still could change pretty easily. All three relays again look to be exciting, with the Medley having 5 teams within slightly more than a second. McKee looks to be ahead by a moderately large margin in the 200 Free, but I don't doubt that there will be a closer race than the prelims times. The boys' 50 Free should be an exciting race as usual, again with the top 8 within about a second of each other. The 100 Fly will almost definitely be close, especially if Tanner is feeling better than he was yesterday. The 100 Free features 4 swimmers under a 48, and will definitely be a race to the finish. My guess is the 500 Free will not be as close as it is seeded - Minderlein has gone a 4:37 in USA swimming. The 100 Breast will probably be exciting, with the top 4 possibly capable of breaking the 1:00 barrier. The 200 Free Relay record has a legitimate chance of being broken, with St. Andrew's only .03 away from the record at prelims, and the next few teams within a few tenths of the record. Otherwise, there are outside chances at record-breaking swims in the 200 Medley Relay, 100 Fly, and 100 Breast, but I wouldn't count on seeing any of those go down.
Both meets should be exciting tomorrow, and plan on a full house, tickets sold out quite some time ago.

Boys Results

After the preliminaries, boys results can be found here.
Here are the point spreads if the results stay the same:

School	Points
Salesianum School	394
A.I. duPont	299
Charter Sch of Wilm	297
Archmere Acad	175
St. Andrews School	164.5
Newark HS	150
Delaware Military Acad	139.5
Tatnall School	127
Brandywine HS	124
Mt. Pleasant HS	121
Middletown HS	99.5
St. Mark's HS	83
Seaford HS	46
Wilmington Frien	40
Sanford	40
Caesar Rodney	37
Dover HS	35
Milford	24
William Penn HS	18.5
Concord HS	16
Cape Henlopen HS	10
Appoquinimink	7
Lake Forest HS	6
Glasgow	4
McKean	2

The original website that I had posted for the girls' results is not functioning, but thankfully Bruce was able to make it work. Just got All-State Predictions:

1st Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Samson Crawford	Newark	SR	50 Free	133	100 Breast	143	276
Tyler Gehrs	St. Andrews	SR	50 Free	139	100 Free	131	270
Curtis Ramsey	Charter	SR	50 Free	136	100 Free	133	269
Clifton Gordon	Salesianum	SO	100 Fly	132	100 Back	133	265
Ricky Agresta	Archmere	JR	50 Free	134	100 Free	127	261
Ryan MacLeish	Caesar Rodney	SR	50 Free	131	100 Free	130	261
Tanner Kurz	Del Mil Acad	FR	100 Fly	127	100 Breast	132	259
Eric Materniak	Tatnall	JR	200 IM	132	100 Breast	126	258
Tommy McKee	Brandywine	SO	200 Free	128	500 Free	125	253
Luke Minka	A.I. duPont	SO	200 IM	121	100 Breast	128	249
Sean Minderlein	Salesianum	JR	200 Free	121	500 Free	128	249
Brad Brooks	Charter	FR	200 Free	119	500 Free	122	241
Jack Reardon	A.I. duPont	SO	50 Free	127	100 Fly	113	240
Wills Cooper	St. Andrews	SR	50 Free	120	100 Free	120	240
Greg Miraglia	Wilmington Frien	JR	1st place diver		No Second Event		N/A

2nd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Wayde Marsh	Salesianum	SR	100 Free	120	100 Back	118	238
Michael Moore	Mt. Pleasant	SR	100 Fly	117	100 Back	120	237
Dylan Coggin	Archmere	SR	200 Free	118	100 Free	117	235
Jeong Shin	A.I. duPont	SR	50 Free	119	100 Free	113	232
Mike Marando	Middletown	SR	200 Free	110	100 Breast	115	225
Zack Pryor	Salesianum	JR	200 IM	110	100 Fly	113	223
Joseph Creekmore	Archmere	SO	200 Free	113	500 Free	109	222
Bryan Brown	Dover	JR	100 Fly	104	100 Back	116	220
Alan Panaccione	St. Mark's	SO	200 IM	100	100 Back	118	218
Alex Hampel	Salesianum	SO	200 IM	108	500 Free	108	216
Jordan Lingo	Milford	SO	200 Free	105	500 Free	101	206
Jeffery Brooks	Charter	SR	200 IM	100	500 Free	101	201
Adam Stilwell	A.I. duPont	SR	100 Back	114	No Second Event		114
Jon Champagne	Tatnall	SR	100 Fly	111	No Second Event		111
Daniel Callaghan	Salesianum	JR	2nd place diver		No Second Event		N/A

3rd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Total
Benjamin Hitchcock	Newark	SR	100 Back	110	110
Seth Klair	A.I. duPont	FR	100 Breast	109	109
Robert Pagan	Charter	JR	100 Fly	109	109
Matt Jennings	A.I. duPont	JR	100 Breast	108	108
Lee Whitney	St. Andrews	SR	100 Breast	108	108
Tim Stradley	A.I. duPont	JR	200 Free	105	105
Adam Keup	Del Mil Acad	SO	200 IM	101	101
Nicholas Perkucin	Mt. Pleasant	SO	500 Free	100	100
Kyle Fagan	Newark	SR	200 IM	98	98
Eric Wegner	Brandywine	SO	100 Back	96	96
John Gravatt	Salesianum	SO	3rd place diver		N/A

Looks like we are in for a great day of fast swimming on Saturday, with excitement in both the boys' and girls' meets.

Boys' Prelims Tonight

Boys' Prelims are tonight, look for an update here with the same stats as for the girls from last night. It should be sometime around the same time as last night, or whenever I get the results. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to discuss some of the results, and give some sort of preview to Saturday's Finals.

Girls Prelims Results

Unofficial team result prediction after the girls prelims (results found here):

Team Rankings
School	Points
Charter Sch of Wilm	296
Tatnall School	259
Padua Academy	226
Brandywine HS	192
A.I. duPont	179
St. Mark's HS	154
Ursuline Acad	131
Archmere Acad	115.5
St. Andrews School	113
Milford HS	110.5
Sanford	107
Cape Henlopen	106
Newark HS	101
Tower Hill School	88
Concord HS	82
Sussex Tech HS	46
Caesar Rodney	37
Middletown	35
Glasgow	26
Mt. Pleasant HS	25
Dover HS	7
Seaford HS	5
Del Mil Acad	1

Thanks to Bruce Deakyne, who graduated from Charter last year, for creating the program that scored this out
Also, he has a program to calculate power points and predict All-State teams, here are the unofficial predictions based off of Girls' Prelims:

1st Team All State
Name		School	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Nicole Vernon		Tatnall	200 Free	132	500 Free	142	274
Katherine Rechsteiner		Charter	200 IM	119	100 Breast	147	266
Kaitlyn Jones		Tatnall	200 IM	128	100 Back	133	261
Nicole Osman		Newark	200 IM	128	100 Fly	130	258
Brittany Rehrig		Charter	50 Free	113	100 Breast	126	239
Calli Marando		Middletown	100 Free	118	100 Breast	121	239
Megan Northshield		Tatnall	100 Fly	125	500 Free	113	238
Molly Willingham		St. Andrews	200 IM	112	100 Fly	123	235
Katie Steeves		St. Mark's	200 IM	120	100 Free	114	234
Annie Carter		Ursuline	50 Free	115	100 Free	118	233
Kendall Towe		Sanford	200 Free	113	500 Free	119	232
Alexis Coon		Milford	100 Fly	119	100 Breast	112	231
Laura Askin		Caesar Rodney	200 Free	113	100 Free	118	231
Nicole Haag		Cape Henlopen	50 Free	119	100 Back	106	225
Christina Freibott		Tower Hill	1st place diver		No Second Event		N/A

2nd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Event #2	Points #2	Total
Shannon Foreman	Charter	FR	50 Free	119	100 Free	111	230
Kelly McKinley	Brandywine	JR	100 Fly	115	100 Breast	115	230
Meghan Lam	Tower Hill	JR	200 IM	109	100 Back	119	228
Alyssa Sanders	Milford	FR	50 Free	116	100 Back	111	227
Samantha Shelley	Padua	JR	200 Free	107	100 Breast	120	227
Haley Arasim	Brandywine	JR	200 IM	109	100 Back	113	222
Haley Novak	St. Mark's	FR	100 Fly	110	100 Breast	112	222
Corinne Capodanno	Padua	FR	50 Free	113	100 Free	107	220
Aly Paxton	A.I. duPont	SR	200 Free	110	500 Free	108	218
Meghan Holliday	Charter	JR	200 Free	105	500 Free	104	209
Caitlin Towe	Sanford	JR	100 Fly	105	500 Free	97	202
Bridget Sauer	Archmere	SR	100 Back	112	No Second Event		112
Megan Blazovic	Padua	JR	50 Free	112	No Second Event		112
Rebecca Murray	Archmere	SR	100 Breast	112	No Second Event		112
Katie Lounsbury	Tatnall	SO	2nd place diver		No Second Event		N/A

3rd Team All State
Name	School	Class	Event #1	Points #1	Total
Clare Thomas	Sussex Tech	SO	50 Free	111	111
Cecily Gordon	Padua	FR	100 Fly	110	110
Colleen Cannatelli	Cape Henlopen	SR	200 Free	108	108
Claire Mesko	A.I. duPont	FR	100 Free	108	108
Angelina Corrado	Brandywine	SO	100 Free	108	108
Leslie Linn	Tatnall	SR	100 Back	108	108
Mary Caitlin Samuels	Ursuline	SO	200 Free	103	103
Taylor Shelley	Padua	FR	100 Back	102	102
Beth McKee	Brandywine	SR	200 IM	102	102
Alicia Howard	Charter	SO	500 Free	94	94
Kristen Holliday	St. Mark's	FR	500 Free	84	84
Mikaela Gekas-Robinson	Ursuline	8	3rd place diver		N/A

Keep in mind that these can change drastically after finals. Also, this works under the assumption that getting first place in an event guarantees a First Team selection (which explains why Haag at 225 points is ahead of Foreman and McKinley with 230 points).
Good luck to all of the boys tomorrow and to everyone on Saturday, it looks like this is going to be a fast year in Delaware High School Swimming!

2 Days Until Girls' Prelims

More news today regarding the situation with Tanner. First, I heard that the officials had all been contacted and asked if an exception would be made, without naming any individual or event. They were all in agreement not to make an exception, end of story. But, the drama continued, and later I got word that DMA was able to provide documentation that in fact the error was on the DIAA, not on DMA, so supposedly he is swimming again now. Honestly, at this point, I don't know who or what to believe, I am sure more rumors will circulate over the next few days, but I think we will all just have to wait until Thursday to find out.
On a different note, Girls' Prelims are only two days away, and I thought I'd give a few notes about the facility. First of all, as I am sure most of you will know, parking will not be easy to find any of the days, and there are a few options: 1) Park in the Carpenter Sports Building Lot, however you do risk getting ticketed for being parked illegally, if you don't have a permit, by the University of Delaware. 2) Across North College Avenue, there is a parking lot at the Studio Arts Building, which the University doesn't typically ticket there, but I will not guarantee that they will not. 3) You can pay for parking across Main Street in the lot behind the Galleria, or other various lots along Main Street. Secondly, the pool has gone under some renovations since last year for anyone who hasn't been there. Mainly, it is brighter than it used to be, there is a new ventilation system, and a huge new scoreboard. I don't believe any lights were added, but the light bulbs at least were replaced, making it appear so much brighter. The scoreboard is maybe the most exciting part. This year, it is a large video-capable full color scoreboard. It will (hopefully) have the names of every swimmer in their heat and lane, with columns for total time and split times for each lane. I have worked with the new scoreboard earlier in the year, and assuming that it is working properly, the scoreboard is very helpful and useful during the meet.
Hopefully everyone is ready for their meets Wednesday and Thursday, and we'll see some fast times.

Latest States News - Latest breaking news

***Update***This is the latest I have heard regarding the state meet, again, no word on whether or not it is official, but it seems to be the most concrete I have heard to this point:
Tanner was trying to get into the 100 Fly, but the entry was not saved properly by the coach, and the error was not noticed until after the Psych Sheets were released. The other coaches voted down a request to get it fixed at that point.

I have recently heard a rumor that Tanner Kurz has been entered into the 100 Fly, no word yet on whether it is official, but we'll probably know more in the coming days. Also, the girls team scores, close as they are, might not end up quite so close, if all follows the psych sheets. It appears as though Tatnall's relays are entered at their best times with the top 4 swimmers in the relays, which will not be possible - they will most likely only have the depth to swim 2 strong relays, which gives Charter a slightly larger edge than previously predicted. I was going to post preliminary All State lists, but have decided against it until after prelims, when we know who is in the top 8, and we'll have a better idea about times. And I have updated the top 10 boys and girls teams today, after rechecking the scoring, and now the boys meet has Charter in 2nd, with AI 2 points behind. St. Mark's girls fell to 7th, but I wouldn't be surprised if they jumped up to a 5th or 6th place finish. A final thought on All State selections until prelims, should all swimmers 1-16 in the events be considered for All State Power Point Rankings? Since they can score points for the team, should they be allowed to score points for All State. This also gives an advantage to a swimmer who makes top 8 in one event, and top 16 in the other over a swimmer who only makes top 8...your thoughts?

Girl's Psych Sheets UPDATED

Updated 2/22/09
I found a few errors within the results I calculated, and the new scores reflect these corrections.

Here is my update for the Girl's State Meet, with the team scores of who I see as the top 10, again, any noticeable errors, please don't hesitate to comment on them, I was relatively tired going through these results, so I won't try to claim perfection.
1. Charter-261
2. Tatnall-260
3. Padua-226
4. Brandywine-184
5. A.I. DuPont-156
6. Cape Henlopen-146
7. St. Mark's-137
8. St. Andrew's-127
9. Archmere-119
10. Concord-118
So again, it looks like this meet should be exciting, and I don't doubt that between the Boys and Girls Meets, some of these team point races will come down to the 400 Free Relay at the very end. Throughout the next week, I will occasionally post thoughts, comments, or anything else that seems important to talk about between now and the State Meet.

A few notes...
1. Just as a reminder: Prelims follow "Pyramid Seeding" meaning that the first place qualifier swims in the last heat lane 4, second place in the second to last heat, lane 4, third in the heat before that lane 4, fourth in the last heat, lane 5, and so on.
2. Point scoring for the State Meet breaks down as follows:
1-20
2-17
3-16
4-15
5-14
6-13
7-12
8-11
9-9
10-7
11-6
12-5
13-4
14-3
15-2
16-1
(Relays score double those point totals)
3. All State Teams are chosen (I believe) based off of only swims within the 'A-Final' Heat (Top 8), and are decided by Power Points for boys and girls but more on All State to come later in the week.

State Meet Psych Sheets 1 UPDATE

This is now reflective of updated calculations (the Psych Sheets did not change, I just added correctly now). Definitely should be a close meet.

For anyone who hasn't heard or seen, the Psych Sheets for the State Meet are available.
Girls
Boys
(Thanks to Newark's website for the links).
As for what the Psych Sheets tell us, first of all, and probably most notably, Tanner Kurz is only entered in one individual event. Not sure whether that is for good or if it will change in the coming days. Secondly, we can take a look at scoring out the meet as if everyone swam their seed times, and for boys the top 10 would look like this (assuming I didn't miss anyone - if you notice an error, let me know)
1. Salesianum 334
2. Charter 272
3. AI DuPont 270
4. St. Andrew's 206
5. Archmere 184
6. Tatnall 152
7. Brandywine 136
8. Mt. Pleasant 127
9. Newark 120
10. DMA 113
I don't think I missed any teams, and hopefully not any athletes on teams either, I tried to do this quickly earlier today. I have just started with the girls, and hopefully will have the point spreads up tomorrow, but from what I have heard that other people have calculated, Tatnall was up 1 over Charter.

Downstate Schools, Henlopen Conference Meet

After the Henlopen Conference Meet, a little more became clear regarding downstate schools, so I will do my best to say what I am comfortable saying about them (it is hard to compare times from their Conference Meet as well as many other meets, because of the use of 25 Meter Pools). Now, the level of competition is not nearly as high downstate as it is upstate, the times aren't necessarily as fast, but it doesn't mean things are any less exciting. With a dearth of year round swimming clubs south of the canal, it makes things tougher on swimmers to be able to train for the few months during the high school season and make it to the state level. Looking through the top 3 results from the Conference Meet, there certainly were close races, making it I'm sure an exciting meet. And the girls' meet had some close team matchups, with Cape taking first by 8 over Seaford and Dover taking 3rd by 3 over Milford. Ryan MacLeish and Bryan Brown of Caesar Rodney and Dover respectively look to play a factor in the state meet in 2 weeks, each winning 2 events and MacLeish setting 2 meet records in the process. On the girls' side, Laura Askin from Caesar Rodney set a new meet record in the 100 Free, and won the 200 Free. NicoleHaag from Cape Henlopen took first in the 50 Free with a meet record, as well as the 100 Back. Alexis Coon from Milford won the 200 IM and the 100 Fly. While realistically, these teams do not have a shot at a top 2 finish at the state meet, they certainly have some swimmers who will get into top heats and add to the competition.
Next update will be on the Delaware Independent Schools Conference (DISC) Meet, and then I will focus primarily on the state meet, which is coming up in only 2 weeks!

Downstate Schools, Part I

As I was beginning to look through results from southern teams for swimming, and start to formulate a post about them, I noticed a great article on DelawareOnline about Cape Henlopen and the team's three swimmers with Autism. It truly is a great story, and I wish that more of our news articles were so positive. I have friends who have family members diagnosed with Autism, and the challenges they face because of it are huge, so to hear of three boys working against Autism and the challenge of swimming on a team is really heartwarming. Kudos to Coach Geppert, the three swimmers, and the entire team for being so supportive.

Article: http://delawareonline.com/article/20090205/NEWS/90205021

A Thought on High School Swimming

Just something I was thinking about recently...

With many swimmers also competing on club teams, swimming is one of the few sports at the High School level where teams do not typically practice together. Many coaches see the club swimmers on their teams once a week, or only at the meets, often encouraging these swimmers to go to the other teams, where the workouts are often of higher intensity. On one hand this might lead to disunity on the team, but on the other hand, it leads to faster swimming by the club swimmers, and an increased ability for the coaches to focus on the high school only swimmers. Now, obviously swimming does not have the teamwork factor like maybe basketball, where teamwork is so essential to winning a game. Is there really one conclusive answer? I would say not, but logically it seems to make more sense for the club swimmers to practice mainly with their clubs, and occasionally go to the high school practices and meets to check in with the coaches, and make sure all is well.
For my next post, I am going to attempt to take a look at some of the downstate schools as best as I am able, considering I have an admittedly limited knowledge of the schools south of New Castle County.

Blue Hen Conference Meet?

I seem to recall last year there was talk of trying to organize a Blue Hen Conference Meet for this year, something similar to how the Independent Schools have the DISC meet before states. I realize it would be tough to try to schedule that meet into the season, but I think it would be fun, especially in order to maybe have a smaller meet than states, and a chance to include more swimmers that wouldn't normally get to take part in a big championship meet. I understand that organizing meets can be a real headache, but I think there are enough people around the conference with experience running meets that it could happen, possibly at a site like McKean, Obviously not this year, but maybe in the near future. I think if each team donated volunteers and helped with planning, it could definitely work out.

Girls Update

Just this past week previously un-ranked Padua pulled off an upset over #2 Tatnall. Padua remains undefeated, but still has to face St. Mark's and Charter. My thought is that Padua won the meet with help from having a larger team than Tatnall, which I assume cannot fill all of the lanes in every event in a 6-lane pool. Those 3rd, 4th, and 5th place finishes mean so much in high school swimming. But don't write Tatnall off just yet. The state meet means an entirely different scoring system, and with Tatnall looking to put swimmers in the top few spots in some events, they will still be a threat to second, and even first place.
The next rankings should show Charter staying in first, with a commanding win over St. Mark's, Brandywine maybe will move to 2nd, possibly a 3rd place for Padua, Tatnall in 4th, St. Mark's in 5th, but it could go any way with those teams, we'll see how it plays out.

Update

Seeing as The News Journal is publishing the Swimming Honor Roll this year, as well as the availability of the lists at delawaresports.com, I have decided to do away with trying to keep an up-to-date top 5 list.
Anyway, some thoughts:
St. Andrew's boys only beat Tatnall by 4 points, and while Tatnall does have a few strong swimmers, they tend to not be a very deep team, leading me to believe St. Andrew's is also not very deep, so do they deserve the #5 ranking from The News Journal?
And things are getting interesting in the Blue Hen Conference. Brandywine lost to Mount Pleasant, who I believe I heard lost to Newark (I didn't see results, but I seem to remember hearing they had a close meet but lost), but now Brandywine has handed Newark its first loss of the season. And, although St. Mark's isn't in the BHC, they beat Mt. Pleasant and Brandywine, but lost to Newark. So, from the looks of it, those teams should have a very interesting matchup going into States this year, sounds like it will be an exciting meet.
As for The News Journal's top 5 teams, Sallies definitely looks to be the real #1 thus far, AI belongs ahead of Charter, with no one between, but should they be 2-3 or 3-4? It is tough to tell, with Archmere swimming a limited schedule, their two strongest wins being St. Andrew's and Tatnall. However, this again comes down to a question of depth. From the newspaper, and from what I am assuming they make their top 5 choices on, all that is seen is the first place swimmers in each event. While both St. Andrew's and Archmere have some very fast swimmers, what happens past the first place finishes? Is there a drop off? And possibly more importantly, can they have 3 strong relays at once, with the event limitations? Archmere swims Sallies in one week, maybe then we can have a better idea as to what depth they have by seeing how close they can pull to Sallies. No matter what, this year's state meet is looking to be a good one, even if Sallies can take first without too many issues, the battles for the rest of the places should be interesting, with Charter and AI having a close meet, Archmere and St. Andrew's with some high expectations, and Newark, Brandywine, Mt. Pleasant, and St. Mark's having an interesting combination of wins and losses leaving us with little idea as to who is the strongest team of that group. Only time will tell.
Any thoughts?

Top 5 by Event, Boys Only

Here is my first edition of the Top 5 by event for Boys' Swimming. Keep in mind that it comes from only the Event Winners at all meets as published on the High School Sports section of Delawareonline. Also, please forgive any errors, I do not stand by the accuracy of the times, and any typographical errors are entirely unintentional. Look for updates as more results become available.

200 MR
AI DuPont 1:40.79
Salesianum 1:43.03
Charter 1:43.24
DMA 1:43.84
St. Andrew's 1:44.50
200 Free
T. Kurz DMA 1:45.41
McKee Brandywine 1:46.27
Stradley AI DuPont 1:47.72
Materniak Tatnall 1:47.87
Minderlein Salesianum 1:48.80
200 IM
McKee Brandywine 1:59.90
Gordon Salesianum 2:01.11
Gehrs St. Andrew's 2:01.16
L. Minka AI DuPont 2:03.62
Pryor Salesianum 2:05.61
50 Free
Ramsey Charter 21.61
Gehrs St. Andrew's 21.96
MacLeish CR 22.57
Crawford Newark 22.58
Coggin Archmere 22.62
100 Fly
Moore Mt. Pleasant 53.53
Gordon Salesianum 53.54
Brown Dover 55.29
Pryor Salesianum 55.38
Pagan Charter 56.03
100 Free
Ramsey Charter 47.25
Agresta Archmere 47.87
Moore Mt. Pleasant 48.75
McKee Brandywine 48.85
MacLeish CR 49.05
500 Free
Minderlein Salesianum 4:44.61
T. Kurz DMA 4:53.75
B. Brooks Charter 4:54.79
McKee Brandywine 4:59.80
Hampel Salesianum 5:02.57
200 FR
Archmere 1:30.34
DMA 1:31.88
AI DuPont 1:32.37
St. Andrew's 1:32.63
Tatnall 1:34.53
100 Back
Gordon Salesianum 54.46
Moore Mt. Pleasant 55.51
Brown Dover 55.70
Panaccione St. Mark's 56.04
Gehrs St. Andrew's 56.09
100 Breast
T. Kurz DMA 58.39
Crawford Newark 1:00.19
Materniak Tatnall 1:00.97
L. Minka AI DuPont 1:01.28
Klair AI DuPont 1:01.29
400 FR
Charter 3:20.81
Brandywine 3:27.75
Newark 3:29.91
Mt. Pleasant 3:33.86
St. Andrew's 3:34.84

First Post

A little about this blog...
I am Jeff Brooks, and although I am from Charter, I will do my best to remain as unbiased as possible. I will be updating this periodically throughout the season, and you can expect comments on meet results, as well as rankings as defined on Delawareonline. Feel free to add any comments, so long as they are generally constructive, and wouldn't be considered offensive by most reasonable people. Hope you enjoy.