It continues!

Alain Bernard - 100 Free (again) & 50 Free
Survey Says: He blows our mind!

Sophie Edington - 50 Back
Survey Says: This WR just won’t stay put!

Dayum! This is an exciting time to be a swim fan!

Wonder what’s going down next!

And not just because their facilities are the shizz. And no, there weren’t cheerleaders on deck tonight either.

I have to give it up for Ohio State.

I know, I know. This never happens. Maybe I’m turning the corner? Maybe you guys should question my Michigan fanhood?

Nah, I wouldn’t go that far. Although I am starting to turn when it comes to football. Don’t tell anyone else, though! What can I say? I miss Mike Hart, Jake Long, Chad Henne, Mario Manningham, Lloyd Carr….the list goes on and on. There isn’t anyone else on their roster that I feel connected to. As a result, my cousin is starting to turn me into a Buckeye football fan. Yes, hell has frozen over. That’s not the point of this post, though.

The point is that Ohio State finished in 15th place (yes, 15th) at the NCAA Championships hosted in their home pool. What was most impressive is that they did it solely with diving points. I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen the OSU women crack the top 25 of the CSCAA dual meet rankings and rightly so. So for them to rock it with a Top 15 finish, without any swimming points, is extremely impressive!

My hat goes off to coach Vince Panzano, and I’m not the only one who is tipping their hat. Coach Panzano was named the NCAA Diving coach of the Year during tonight’s session. Not to be outdone, OSU diver Chelsea Davis was named NCAA Diver of the Year; an honor she shares with Miami’s Brittany Viola and Hawaii’s Emma Friesen.

Another tidbit is that none of OSU’s divers are seniors (1 junior and 2 freshmen), so provided they don’t regress, OSU will be able to count on all of those points at next year’s meet. Wonder if any of the swimmers will help the divers out next time around. Only time will tell!

JOE DOYLE RULES

NOTE: I needed to add that shout-out in this post, since I saw him tonight. It was nice to see him come out and show his support.

Oh how I wish I could watch this competition!

Especially after these 2 World-record breaking swims. I am a little shocked by Stephanie Rice’s 400IM performance. Don’t get me wrong. I knew she’d win, and win big, but I didn’t think she’d take down the World Record. Congrats to her for achieving her childhood goal! I look forward to seeing her battle The Hoff in Beijing.

Disclaimer: We’re extremely pro-Hoff around here. Probably to the point where it completely clouds our judgement. Yes, she’s that cool. So forgive our bias when reading the next line.

Katie will take back her WR this year. Just watch.

And as for Emily Seebohm…she just might be the cutest thing ever! Congrats to her on the 50 Back WR. That record just doesn’t seem to last very long anymore! Hayley McGregory only held that WR for 13 days!

I also would like to say that I wish that the US Trials were earlier in the year. Maybe not right now since NCAAs always occupy the late March slot. Having them that close to the Olympics just doesn’t seem like a good idea. It’s almost as if the US athletes peak for Trials and some have a hard time re-tapering for the Games themselves. The turnaround is really quick. I think a mid-May Olympic Trials date would work better.

Then again, what do I know? I don’t swim. I’m just an outsider looking in and making observations.

Just work with me here. Another new idea; just links, no commentary.

• Alain Bernard finally takes down the 100 Free World Record
• Milorad Cavic causes stir at Euro Champs with his wardrobe choice
• 6 year old does not live to fully recover from tragic pool injury
• The Lochtenator’s woman does the damn thing at NCAAs
• Libby officially takes her husband’s last name, Trickett

I know, I know. I get a little too excited when swimming shows up on TV. That excitement is increased exponentially when swimming is covered by the local news media.

So, since the Women’s NCAA Championships are being hosted here in the magnificent McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion — and Buckeye Basketball is in the tank — it pretty much commanded the attention; or at least that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

The University of Kentucky women’s swim team has not 1, but 2 Columbus area natives on its roster. Those 2 outstanding athletes are twins Heather and Jenny Bradford. So NBC4 was kind enough to do a nice little fluff piece on the pair. Naturally it had to air after the obligatory Terrelle Pryor story.

Here it is:

I swear. We need to make it our mission to get The Hoff to a dance club. I know we’ve been joking about it for a while, but it needs to become one of our priorities; right up there with going drinking with Mama VDK.

Katie’s still taking hip-hop dance classes and has been known to be apprehensive on the dance floor. I guarantee that one night with us and she will never again hesitate to hit the floor. As a result of our tutelage, she may even become a club rat.

So maybe us taking her out may not be in the best interest of her swimming career.

The Ohio State Grand Prix would be the most convenient opportunity to take Miss Hoff out. It’s my hood and my brother works as a bouncer at a few downtown clubs. Perfect, no?

Paul, we will discuss this at length in a couple of weeks, ok? And if we can’t take Katie out, we’re taking you!

Should we even bother this year?

Last year we made both men’s and women’s predictions for who would sign with which swimwear co. after NCAAs.

The fun part was how wrong we were on a lot of those. We aren’t afraid to admit when we’re wrong around here!

The problem with this year’s cycle is trying to figure out if this class of departing seniors is actually going to sign with anyone and/or stay with the sport past Trials. Would Speedo/TYR/Nike sign an athlete for just 3-4 months? We have no clue how that works.

So what I think we might do is go ahead and take a look into our crystal balls and predict some of the National Team as if they were looking to continue in the sport past this summer. If they do, great! If they don’t, well, we still had fun with it!