Swimming World, Rutgers Partner to Reintroduce College Carnival Concept

PHOENIX, Arizona, January 14. THIS weekend, the partnership between Rutgers head coach Chuck Warner and Swimming World Magazine will come to fruition as the pair have been working to bring back a lost tradition first hosted by Yale University more than a half-century ago.

January 16-17, 2009 that tradition is revived as Coach Warner and Swimming World Magazine partner to honor the past when they host the Swimming World Magazine College Conference Carnival at Rutgers University.

Tickets are still available to the meet. Ticket information is available at the Rutgers web site.

Bob Kiphuth, the head coach at Yale for 42 years from 1917-1959, created the Yale Swimming Carnival, which ran through the 50s, 60s and 70s. The Carnival not only boasted some of the best swimming in the country, it also provided those in attendance with a carnival atmosphere.

The creation of the Rutgers-based event comes at a unique nexus for Swimming World Magazine. In 2009, we celebrate the beginning of our 50th year of publication as a magazine. However, our history goes deeper than the first issue of Junior Swimmer in January 1960. Kiphuth created a mimeograph/newsletter publication back in January 1951 called Swimming World, which was the first iteration of our publication. We couldn't think of any better way to kick off our celebratory year than by honoring our founder's vision by working with Coach Warner at Rutgers to bring it back to life.

"Bob Kiphuth, arguably the world's greatest swimming coach, began the Yale Swimming Carnival," Warner said. "I actually swam in it, and then was a spectator in the annual sold-out audience of about 2,000 people. We are going to combine Coach Kiphuth's ‘Carnival' with the type of format that Eddie Sinnott uses for the SMU swim meet."

A maximum of four teams will participate. Each "championship squad" may include a maximum of 11 swimmers and two divers. Members will compete in 12 swimming events and two diving events in an "A-Finals Only" format. Each of the previously identified members of the squad of 11 will swim in the final heat. Each swimmer may swim two individual events and one relay per night. To fill lanes, each swimmer must race the two events in which she is entered. A "B squad" may enter if the team so chooses. This squad will compete in the same format but all in the "B" heat, which will precede the "A" heat. This will be scored separately as a second meet.

"I also think that we need to inject more entertainment in college swimming to compete for interest on our campus with other entertainment-oriented sports," Warner said. "The SMU meet is just for men, but the Swimming World Magazine College Conference Carnival will be just for women, while also featuring age-group relays for both genders."

Here is where Swimming World enters the equation. The meet will be streamed LIVE and will also be available on demand at the event landing page as we provide our users a 360 degree look into the event.

"Swimming World Magazine has always tried to be on the forefront of new and innovative ideas that promote the sport of swimming," Swimming World CEO Brent Rutemiller said. "When Chuck Warner contacted us about the concept of integrating all of Swimming World's media vehicles to promote this event, we did not give it a second thought. College Swimming, especially Rutgers, needs as much exciting exposure as possible."

The inaugural edition of the competition will include swimmers from Florida, North Carolina and Richmond as well as hosting Rutgers. The team invitation process begins by inviting conference champions from around the country on a rotating conference basis, while the winning Carnival team has the automatic right to come back to defend its title.

What they are saying about the Swimming World Magazine College Conference Carnival:
North Carolina's Rich DeSelm
We are excited to be invited to the first Swimming World Magazine College Conference Carnival at Rutgers in January. When Chuck Warner contacted us, I thought this would be an exciting venue for our North Carolina women's swimmers and divers to compete in. We look forward to racing and diving against some great competition.

Richmond's Matt Barany
Way to go Rutgers and Swimming World! What a great idea to bring the different conferences together in this format and include a mid-major! We have a good group of swimmers from New Jersey and I think their families will be excited to watch them race again locally. There will be some events where we will set the standard, and there are some events where we will be the students. In both cases, it will be an important weekend as we attempt to win the school's eighth-consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship in February.

Florida's Gregg Troy
The College Conference Carnival has a unique format and should give us an ideal opportunity to see some top-quality competition prior to the championship season.

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