After being denied the WR from Duel in the Pool last year, Libby vowed to claim the 100 Free WR and dip below 53 seconds. Well, that she did. And because we love Libby, and her beautiful smile, we wanted to share the video with all of you.

And check out Bee’s YouTube Channel here. Lots of Aussie Trials goodness over there!

P.S. I challenge anyone to upload a race from the US Trials this summer and see how long it lasts on YouTube…

Remember back in 2005, at the World Champs in Montreal, where we heard all about (and saw) the US diver that smacked her head on the board while attempting a dive?

Remember how they showed its replay over and over again?

Well, I remember that my dad showed me a full paged picture of the diver. He also said that she was from Columbus. I completely forgot that last tidbit until I watched the late local news on NBC4 last night. (They’ve been showing a lot of love to swimming recently!)

Turns out that the diver was none other than the recently crowned 2008 3m NCAA diving champion, Chelsea Davis, of Ohio State!

See, you really do learn a new thing every day!

P.S. If you were living under a rock and missed the original story, click here.

Updated March 29, 2008

From time to time, I like to check up on Mr. Austin Staab and see how he’s been doing out there in Stanford. After a very good showing at his first Pac-10 Championships last month, I had hoped he’d also swim well at NCAAs.

He is. He was the only freshman to make the finals field in the 50 Free tonight. And with the opportunity to score for Stanford, he posted a 5th place finish in the ‘B’ final with a 19.68 swim.

Awesome job, Austin. Way to represent!

ETA: On the second night of NCAAs, Austin finaled in the 100 Fly and finished 3rd with a 45.61 swim. Only freshman in the ‘A’ final. Keep it up, Austin!

Already posted the Phelps scans on MGoSwim, and have been sitting on these for a few days. My bad.

Because of all the attention I’ve been giving Miss Ziegler these days, I was reminded that these needed to be shared ASAP. I’m working on her official website, so any excuse to give her some shine I’ll take!

My only gripe is that this may quite possibly be the most unflattering picture of her ever. This is the best Annie Leibovitz could do? Really? I find that hard to believe. I loved what she did with the gymnasts. No love for Kate?

Anyway, check ‘em out!

The Honda Award honors the top women collegiate athletes in all sports. The winner of the swimming and diving honor will become a candidate for The Honda-Broderick Cup awarded annually to the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.

Southern Cal’s Rebecca Soni, Florida’s Caroline Burckle and Gemma Spofforth and Arizona’s Lacey Nymeyer are nominated for the award.

Voting is done by NCAA senior women administrators. Balloting closes March 31 at 5 p.m. PDT.

Congrats to Rebecca, Caroline, Gemma, and Lacey for their nominations. I’m not even going to bother making predictions. KLJ won last year and that could have been easily predicted given her performances throughout her collegiate swimming career. This year is far more difficult. I’ll save my predictions for the Signings Sweepstakes instead!

P.S. Does anyone else love the name Gemma as much as I do? It’s no Spindrift, but I still love it!

I said in the comments of a previous Aussie Olympic Trials post that I hoped that since Stephanie Rice had taken down The Hoff’s 400 IM World Record, I also hoped she’d take down that 200 IM mark. (It shouldn’t even still be valid anyway).

Well she did, and to that The Swim Aids say:

Enjoy those World Records while you have them. It is a great accomplishment! Just don’t get too attached to them. We know a certain US swimmer who will probably re-write the record books this summer.

Seems like a lot of folks are getting antsy and searching for the psych sheet.

Y’all know those aren’t released that far in advance! Wishful thinking!

What we can tell you are some of the teams who have already committed to compete. This is the best we can offer without a psych sheet.

They are Club Wolverine, North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC), Swim Atlanta, Germantown Academy, Bolles School, Dynamo Swim Club, Kansas City Blazers, Nashville Aquatic Club, St. Petersburg Aquatics, Dayton Raiders, Cincinnati Marlins, University of Louisville, & Longhorn Aquatics.

Putting 2 & 2 together, you should be able to surmise that a fast group will be in C-Bus for the meet, in less than 2 weeks!

Oh, and tickets are already on sale.

ETA: There is a new press release out from USA Swimming. Read it here. I’ve updated the post with some more of the additional clubs I hadn’t already mentioned.