{"id":281002,"date":"2017-10-19T07:30:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T14:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=281002"},"modified":"2017-10-18T14:45:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T21:45:21","slug":"the-unique-quirks-of-the-usa-college-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-unique-quirks-of-the-usa-college-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unique Quirks of the USA College Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Katie<\/strong> Ledecky<\/strong>, Simone Manuel<\/strong> and Kathleen Baker<\/strong> competing against the United States? Sounds weird, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

The fact is, that trio has been at the center of the U.S. women\u2019s dominant efforts at both the 2016 Olympics and at the 2017 World Championships. Ledecky\u2019s excellence is nothing new, while Manuel has developed into one of the world\u2019s premier sprinters and Baker into an elite backstroker.<\/p>\n

And this weekend, in one of the year\u2019s most unique swim meets, the USA College Challenge<\/a> in Los Angeles, those three lead a squad of Pac-12 all-stars into a dual meet against an American team that won\u2019t be nearly as much of a mismatch as the concept suggests.<\/p>\n

The top swimmers from one conference against the best of the rest of the country? No contest, right? It wasn\u2019t last November, when an American team crushed the Big Ten All-Stars in Indianapolis, 349 to 247.<\/p>\n

But many of the country\u2019s best swimmers currently compete in the Pac-12\u00a0and will compete for the conference this weekend in LA. Aside from the aforementioned trio of Olympic medalists, sprinters Abbey Weitzeil<\/strong> and Katrina<\/strong> Konopka<\/strong>, butterflyers Katie McLaughlin<\/strong> and Louise Hansson\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0IMers Ella Eastin<\/strong> and Brooke Forde<\/strong> highlight the squad.<\/p>\n

\"brooke-forde-\"

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

Of the entire Pac-12 roster<\/a>, Forde is the only College Challenge veteran. She actually had a breakout meet at the 2016 edition, winning the 400 IM in 4:02.67\u2014a time which would have been good enough for fifth a few months later at the NCAA championships.<\/p>\n

Graduates of Pac-12 schools are not eligible for the conference team, so Ryan<\/strong> Murphy<\/strong>, Jacob Pebley<\/strong> and Josh Prenot<\/strong> will all compete for the American team\u2014against their coach, Dave Durden<\/strong>, who leads the conference squad.<\/p>\n

That Pac-12 men\u2019s team doesn\u2019t have quite the name-brand recognition of the female squad, but Stanford\u2019s True Sweetser<\/strong> and Abrahm DeVine<\/strong> both swam at the World Championships this summer, and\u00a0Grant Shoults<\/strong>, Dylan Carter<\/strong>, Cameron Craig<\/strong> and Andrew Seliskar<\/strong> all scored individual points at the 2017 NCAA championships.<\/p>\n

That group is representing an entity\u2014their conference\u2014they never have before and likely never will again. Conference pride will replace intra-conference rivalries, at least for one weekend.<\/p>\n

And that Pac-12 squad, representing the best top-end conference in NCAA swimming, has a real chance at scoring a victory against the U.S. National team.<\/p>\n

Well, those from the National team that agreed to participate. Of the 29 named to represent the United States in LA, 14 of them are holdovers from this summer\u2019s World Championships squad. That might not sound like a great percentage, but only six 2016 Olympians swam at last year\u2019s version of the College Challenge.<\/p>\n

The American roster<\/a> is an interesting mix of professionals and high schoolers, with none of the 29 currently swimming in the NCAA. The women\u2019s team is split down the middle, with seven postgrads and seven high schoolers, while the men\u2019s team sees Kieran<\/strong> Smith<\/strong>, Daniel Krueger<\/strong> and 18-year-old pro Michael Andrew<\/strong> mixing with 12 postgrads.<\/p>\n

\"matt-grevers-\"

Matt Grevers — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s impossible to predict the final score of any dual meet, especially one in October, when most swimmers have started to buckle down in training. But a quick roster analysis shows a superior Pac-12 women\u2019s team and an American team that, despite its holes, should out-score the college squad with Murphy, Prenot, Matt<\/strong> Grevers<\/strong>, Tom<\/strong> Shields<\/strong>, Jack Conger<\/strong> and others scoring big.<\/p>\n

Looking for storylines and anticipated races, there should be a few. Certainly, it\u2019s always exciting to watch Ledecky any time she\u2019s in the pool, and Grevers and Murphy should provide some excitement in the men\u2019s backstrokes.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s IMs should be exciting, with Eastin clashing with Melanie Margalis<\/strong> and Madisyn<\/strong> Cox<\/strong>\u2014the same two women who beat her out for World Championships spots in the 200 IM this summer.<\/p>\n

For the men, how about the 200 free, which could feature Conger, Clark Smith<\/strong> and former Italian Olympian Mitch D\u2019Arrigo<\/strong> for the United States against Carter and Craig? Sean Grieshop<\/strong> and Kieran Smith aren\u2019t quite household names yet, but watching them compete against Prenot and DeVine in the IMs should be exciting.<\/p>\n

All in all, some interesting racing\u2014and a potentially compelling team race\u2014at a point in the swimming calendar that typically lacks any meets of national significance. Even if none of the athletes will be in peak racing form, dual meets are fun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a high bar to clear, but this year\u2019s College Challenge the best national meet held in the month of October in a long time. If nothing else, watching Katie Ledecky compete against the U.S. for the first and likely last time in her career should be worth a chuckle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder. Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel and Kathleen Baker competing against the United States? Sounds weird, doesn\u2019t it? The fact is, that trio has been at the center of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":281018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6,17,7],"tags":[63668,31769,32825,25422,41020,32394,27592,53661,25659,25617,34417,36695,27596,25843,25833,59679,25418,25031,26463,34365,53502,31274,30891,12011,25178,25824,25269,25841,25400,327,59721,25424],"class_list":["post-281002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","category-commentary","category-usa","tag-2017-usa-college-challenge","tag-abbey-weitzeil","tag-abrahm-devine","tag-andrew-seliskar","tag-brooke-forde","tag-cameron-craig","tag-clark-smith","tag-daniel-krueger","tag-dave-durden","tag-dylan-carter","tag-ella-eastin","tag-grant-shoults","tag-jack-conger","tag-jacob-pebley","tag-josh-prenot","tag-journalist-david-rieder","tag-kathleen-baker","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-katie-mclaughlin","tag-katrina-konopka","tag-kieran-smith","tag-louise-hansson","tag-madisyn-cox","tag-matt-grevers","tag-melanie-margalis","tag-michael-andrew","tag-ryan-murphy","tag-sean-grieshop","tag-simone-manuel","tag-stanford","tag-sweetser","tag-tom-shields"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe 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