Swimming World Presents – Guttertalk: Should Relays Be Held As Timed Finals At Future NCAA Championships? – Sponsored By Colorado Time Systems

Swimming World May 2021 Guttertalk Should Relays Be Held As Timed Finals At Future NCAA Championships - Sponsored By Colorado Time Systems

Carol Capitani (Left) [PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK]

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Guttertalk: Do You Think Relays Should Be Held As Timed Finals At Future NCAA Championships?

By Andy Ross

Ray Looze (on left)-brooke wright1
RAY LOOZE
Head Coach, Indiana University
[PHOTO BY BROOKE WRIGHT]
I liked it. For teams that are a little thinner, I think it helps you get through it a bit better. We had a smaller team at NCAAs than year’s past. I thought it helped manage the event load a little bit better. We still ran out of gas, but I think that was because we went into the meet not as fit as we normally would have been because of the stringent protocols that we had in our conference. I like the timed finals relays.

I did the extra lane as a swimmer, too. We had separated lanes in the past when I was a swimmer and in my first few years at Indiana until they stopped doing it. I don’t think that is something that needs to continue, but I liked having it timed finals.

I would like to take it a step further and reduce the squad size to 12 to keep the same overall number of people. I think it would be a compelling meet. It would add more teams into the mix.

Photo Courtesy: Virginia Athletics

TYLER FENWICK
Associate Head Coach, University of Virginia
We loved having timed finals at NCAAs. It allows athletes to be at their best. Virginia a strong proponent going forward. We can’t wait to have parents, friends and fans in the stands. Their energy heightens performances at every meet. We miss our biggest supporters!

CAROL CAPITANI
Women’s Head Coach, University of Texas
[PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK]
NCAAs is already hard enough. It’s the fastest meet, and it showcases the best kids. It’s the most intense, and it’s a lot of racing, so why would we make this one meet harder?

At international meets like Worlds and Olympics, the very best swimmers may have 10 or 11 swims over eight or nine days, and at NCAAs, the very best may have the same amount of swims over three-and-a-half days. I don’t think we need to make it more difficult. It would be like in basketball if we moved the three-point line back three feet just for March Madness.

I think the 200 medley relay should be moved to Wednesday night with the 800 free relay and clean it up so there is one relay each night. That would make the most sense to spread it out. If we are looking for great performances, those prelim relays take away the best performances, and by the end of the meet, those kids are fried. It would be cool to have the 4×100 free go a little bit faster or have these individual swimmers be just a tiny bit fresher on the last day. What are we losing if we take prelim relays away?

If you took the prelim relays out of it, there would be more emphasis on getting fast times at conference or mid-season.

I thought having just timed finals was better. The only thing we didn’t like was the COVID stuff with four teams in one heat and four empty lanes. It would have been a different experience if eight people were in one heat, and it would significantly cut back on time, and there would be more rest between prelims and finals.

Those relays are super exciting, and it would put a premium on swimming fast during the season. No one really goes that much faster in prelims. It’s not like if you took prelim relays away that people would think the meet was easy. It makes the meet just as intense.

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Swimming World May 2021 Issue

FEATURES

014 WOMEN’S NCAAs: A NEW NO. 1
For the first time in the history of the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships—since 1982—the University of Virginia finished first. It was also the first time it cracked the top 5 with its previous highest finish sixth in 2019.

VIRGINIA’S ROAD TO HISTORY
by Dan D’Addona
NC STATE ADDS TO ACC DOMINANCE
by Dan D’Addona
THE TALK OF THE MEET: MAGGIE MacNEIL
by John Lohn

018 MEN’S NCAAs: THE PERFECT RETIREMENT GIFT
Days before their coach, Eddie Reese, officially announced his retirement from coaching after 43 years, the Texas men’s team won their 15th men’s NCAA national team championship.

THIS ONE’S FOR EDDIE!
by Andy Ross
SCINTILLATING PERFORMANCES: SHAINE CASAS & RYAN HOFFER
by John Lohn
PATIENCE REWARDED: MAX McHUGH & NICK ALBIERO
by Andy Ross

022 NCAA D-II CHAMPS: SOME THINGS NEVER SEEM TO CHANGE
by Andy Ross
A year into the pandemic that has completely changed our world, Queens University of Charlotte brought about some stability to the 2021 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships by sweeping their sixth straight women’s and men’s team titles.

023 NO LIMITS!
by David Rieder
Claire Curzan has been swimming fast since she was a young age grouper and has continued to do so in high school. Last March, she came within 13-hundredths of the American record in the short course 100 fly, and in April, she found herself within 22-hundredths of the long course U.S. best. She’s versatile, she’s coachable, she has international experience, and she’s moved from a fringe Olympic contender to an Olympic favorite. Curzan is only 16, and her promising future couldn’t be brighter.

026 TAKEOFF TO TOKYO: WHEN IRISH EYES WEREN’T SMILING
by John Lohn
Ireland’s Michelle Smith—a four-time Olympic medalist in 1996 who received a four-year ban from the sport in 1998 for tampering with a doping sample—has been defined as being a poster girl for cheating, and by her willingness to cut corners and take advantage of performance-enhancing drug use to make the leap from an athlete of very-good skill to one of elite status.

029 50 SWIMMERS, 6 MEDALS
by Dan D’Addona
The Tokyo Olympics will mark the fourth occasion that open water swimming will be contested on the Olympic level, and even a 10-kilometer marathon race can bring exciting moments and dramatic finishes.

030 JOSH MATHENY: RISING STAR
by Matthew De George
From a middle-schooler newly committed to swimming full-time in 2016, the future looks encouraging for 18-year-old Josh Matheny, who approaches the U.S. Olympic Trials for Tokyo in June as a dark horse to make the team in men’s breaststroke.

032 ISHOF: THE ART OF SWIMMING
by Bruce Wigo
This is the story of Hero and Leander, Lord Byron and the birth of open water swimming.

035 NUTRITION: HYDRATION—BEYOND THIRST!
by Dawn Weatherwax
Hydration truly has a daily importance for all kinds of swimmers from age groupers to Olympians to Masters swimmers, but it tends to get more notoriety when the weather gets warmer.

COACHING

012 THE POWER OF POSITIVE COACHING
by Michael J. Stott
Relationships built upon honesty, trust and communication go a long way toward cementing a bond between coach and athlete. Coupling that with knowledge of the individual first and athlete second produces a positive working relationship that can last for a lifetime.

038 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: MAXIMIZING SWIMMING VELOCITY (Part 1)—STROKE RATE vs. STROKE LENGTH
by Rod Havriluk
Swimming velocity is the criterion measure for swimming performance and is the product of stroke length and stroke rate. This article explains how stroke length and stroke rate vary and how stroke time provides insight into maximizing swimming velocity.

042 Q&A WITH COACH STEVE HAUFLER
by Michael J. Stott

044 HOW THEY TRAIN CHARLOTTE SHAMIA
by Michael J. Stott

TRAINING

037 DRYSIDE TRAINING: THE IM DRYLAND CIRCUIT
by J.R. Rosania

JUNIOR SWIMMER

047 UP & COMERS: TEAGAN O’DELL
by Shoshanna Rutemiller

COLUMNS

008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT

011 DID YOU KNOW: ABOUT THE MOREHOUSE TIGER SHARKS?

046 THE OFFICIAL WORD

048 GUTTERTALK

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