A10 Swim Championships

[Anachnid]

SF must be off so I’ll fill in, not step in as the shoes are too big.
The girls are in 2nd behind GW after two of four days. They are lacking in the diving category. Lots of best times and look to have more National B cut times than ever before and it’s only day 2.
Today and tomorrow the events break out into to more individual strokes with 100s and 200s of fly, back and breast.
Pretty darn good for a program that is shoved under the rug and only around to satisfy title ix and minimum sport requirements.

KUDOS to the SID for the meet reporting on athletic dept website.

Second day results

 

[SFspidur]

I am on a work trip this week, so posting less here, but keeping eye on swim champs.

Melissa Nwakalor is a beast...winning the 50 free by almost a second is incredible. She's on the border for making NCAAs, which would be the first Spiders since 2019 when Hannah Gouger went. Melissa's time of 21.98 (which she's done twice this season) would have easily made it last year, but we'll have to see how the rest of this weekend's champs shake out to see where she stands. I imagine they may send her to a last chance meet next weekend to see if she can drop any more time if things are looking really close for qualifying.

The Spiders are getting some great swims, but the A-10 has vastly improved in recent years and our lack of depth makes it hard to come out on top.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

I am on a work trip this week, so posting less here, but keeping eye on swim champs.

Melissa Nwakalor is a beast...winning the 50 free by almost a second is incredible. She's on the border for making NCAAs, which would be the first Spiders since 2019 when Hannah Gouger went. Melissa's time of 21.98 (which she's done twice this season) would have easily made it last year, but we'll have to see how the rest of this weekend's champs shake out to see where she stands. I imagine they may send her to a last chance meet next weekend to see if she can drop any more time if things are looking really close for qualifying.

The Spiders are getting some great swims, but the A-10 has vastly improved in recent years and our lack of depth makes it hard to come out on top.

Melissa in a recent interview said she built up arm strength since she is not a strong kicker. She is a soph so imagine if
she develops a strong kick what her times would be.

 

[SFspidur]

With two events to go, UR trails GW by just half a point...524.5 to 524. Unfortunately, it's not looking good for the Spiders to pull out the win.

If placing from prelims were to hold, GW would score 32 points and UR would score 11 in the 200 fly. GW has two in the A final and one in the B final, while UR has two in the B final, so barring a DQ by an A-final GW swimmer, the Spiders will likely have a ~20-point deficit heading into the 400 free relay.

UR and GW should both be very strong in the relay, so the Spiders are very unlikely to have a big enough gap in placing (if any) over GW to make that up. I'm sure GW will coach their swimmers to have safe starts to make sure the relay doesn't get DQ'd.

Still a very impressive performance going up against a GW squad with much better resources.

Edit: Things swing even further GW's way in the 200 fly, outscoring the Spiders 42–7 to take a 35.5-point lead. GW's relay would now have to get DQ'd for the Spiders to take the trophy, as the relay point difference between 1st and 11th (last) is only 28 points.

There will be a decent break before the relay as the men have a diving final coming up.

 

[SFspidur]

Spiders with the outside smoke from lane 1 take the win in the 400 free relay as Nwakalor closed just strong enough to out-touch Mason by .16 in a new school record of 3:19.32.

Great swims all around for the Spiders this week, led individually by Nwakalor's gold in the 50 free (tying her school record from earlier in the season) and silver in the 100 free (new school record). Frosh Hannah Wieczorek had the third-fastest times in Spider history in both the 100 and 200 back, while fellow frosh Carys Edgar had the second-fastest time in Spider history in the mile. Two other frosh Gabbie Primiano and Lena Amare also with some excellent swims showing the future is bright.

Final scores:
1. GW 598.5
2. UR 571
3. Duquesne 525
4. Fordham 339
5. Mason 324
6. Davidson 300.5
7. UMass 284
8. La Salle 268
9. Bona 241
10. Rhody 189
11. SLU 72

 

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[spiderstudent17]

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Coach not looking too happy in this photo. My guess is he’s wanting another team championship badly.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

Well deserved since we were not suppose to be contenders, but here we were fighting for the
championship up to the last event.

 

[SFspidur]

The Spiders were picked to finish second with one first-place vote (GW coach not voting for his own team?), but yeah, I think the consensus would have been that GW was going to win by a lot more than they did.

To my knowledge, GW is operating with a full 14 schollies compared to 8 for UR.

 

[Wood Hall]

The Spiders were picked to finish second with one first-place vote (GW coach not voting for his own team?), but yeah, I think the consensus would have been that GW was going to win by a lot more than they did.

To my knowledge, GW is operating with a full 14 schollies compared to 8 for UR.

Ridiculous not to be fully scholarshipped in every sport.

 

[SFspidur]

Of course, the definition of that is about to change...would be able to scholarship all 22 if we want and the A-10 allows it.

 

[SFspidur]

Nwakalor is headed to NCAA championships. Qualified in the 50 free and will also get to the swim the 100 free with her B-cut in that.

 

[SFspidur]

Nwakalor just placed 24th out of 71 in the 50 free with a time of 22.01, just off the 21.98 she did twice during the season. She doesn't make it back for finals tonight, but a very respectable performance considering those like her that were close to the selection cutoff needed to push to the limit to make it in the first place.

She'll have the 100 free on Saturday, but she's not ranked as highly in that one...62nd out of 76 on the psych sheet before scratches and seeding.

 

[SFspidur]

After two years as a Spider, Nwakalor is transferring to 5-time defending NCAA champs UVA down the road.

NCAA Qualifier Melissa Nwakalor Transferring From Richmond To Virginia

Nwakalor holds the Atlantic-10 conference record in the 50 freestyle as she swam a 21.98 twice in February. She has 2 years remaining.

swimswam.com

As one of the commenters says, "While Richmond did a lot for her, just being able to train in a decent facility will likely do wonders for her. If Richmond wants to be able to recruit and keep top talent, they need to upgrade their natatorium ASAP."

 

[Anachnid]

Good for her. UVa has a terrific program as shown by the results. Very scientific based. Coach Barany is also awesome as he gets the most out of the least support.
UR blew off a good segment of possible big contributors when they ditched mens swimming and water polo and have ignored them since.
But that’s ok, they’ll probably use this as a reason to fill in the RC pool for another practice faculty for the flagship program run by the losingist coach in UR history.

 

[Eight Legger]

Well, unfortunately we're probably never going to be able to keep someone from transferring to the 5-time national champion, no matter what we do.

 

[SFspidur]

For sure. I'm actually a little surprised they took her. UVA is so good that they have to leave a few people who make NCAA cuts home because they max out the team cap, and almost everyone who goes for them is a scorer, so she would probably be borderline to go even if she made the cut.

That said, she has dropped a ton of time in her two years at UR, so she may have more to go and UVA is banking on that.

 

[KE Spider]

Good for her. UVa has a terrific program as shown by the results. Very scientific based. Coach Barany is also awesome as he gets the most out of the least support.
UR blew off a good segment of possible big contributors when they ditched mens swimming and water polo and have ignored them since.
But that’s ok, they’ll probably use this as a reason to fill in the RC pool for another practice faculty for the flagship program run by the losingist coach in UR history.

PQ has done a tremendous amount for our University, particularly in monetary support and contribution of untold hours in leadership positions. Had the vision to support establishing a MLAX program. {The jettisoning of other sports to accommodate it may not have been his idea, but surely must have been conveyed to him before that fateful Trustees' vote.}

Despite all of these contributions, believe his blind support for a faltering MBB program is a black eye for him...and our University. As our flagship sport, be willing to do what is necessary to make it a consistent success. Hint - facilities and NIL ain't the problems holding the Spiders back.

 

[SFspidur]

A new pool was being bandied about as a possibility early in the latest master plan process, but appears to have fallen off the radar. There’s only so much lipstick you can put on a 53 year old pig. When schools like W&L and VMI have opened new pools in just the past few years, it’s hard to not feel like a slap in the face to a very successful program. Never mind the athletic administrators who have been surprised to learn we ever had a men’s team. Yes, pools are expensive, but plenty of other schools have figured out how to make it happen.

Anyway, an indoor field facility for lax and other sports seems to be the most likely addition over the term of the new plan. Maybe 2040 will be the year for a new pool.