Now that’s what I’m talking about! Nothing better than when swimming’s elite come to your city! I used to burn up the highways and airways traveling to swim meets all over the country, but now I stay pretty close to home. Lucky for me, that this time it means I get to see a USA Swimming Grand Prix in an Olympic Year! SCORE!

The last time Ohio State hosted a Grand Prix was 2010, and it was practically a ghost town. It took place over Easter Weekend and was so sad. I was there, of course, covering the event for SwimStars.org, and was the only full-time media member in press row and 1/3 total. Seriously. No one was there!

This time around, the list of National Team members attending is much higher, headlined by Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin. No sign of Mr. Vanderkaay, but we’ll be graced with the presence of familiar names such as newly engaged couple Matt Grevers & Annie Chandler, Jason Lezak, Kim Vandenberg, Whitney Burnett (née Myers), Allison Schmitt, Chloe Sutton, Mike Alexandrov, and even international star Kosuke Kitajima. Adam Ritter, who trains at Tuscon Ford, is a Columbus, Ohio native, so it should be a nice homecoming for him as well.

And stopping our presses, the Austin Staab fanclub will be back in full effect as Mr. Staab’s name is also included! We haven’t seen him for a hot minute, and we’re not sure what happened to him, but YAY!

Check out the full psych sheet here and catch all the action next weekend, March 9-11, from McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

Everyday he's hustlin. . .

Heeeeeyyyyy! Remember us?

We’re slowly getting back into the swing of things. That means we’re bound to be slow on general swim news for a while. We tend to peak during the summer when we’re up to our armpits is lots of swim news and swim trips. We hope this summer is no exception.

But for now, we thought we should say a little something as founders of the Austin Staab Fan Club. The latest news is that he has taken a leave of absence from Stanford.

“In other news, defending NCAA 100-yard butterfly champion, Austin Staab, has taken a leave of absence from Stanford University for a private and personal matter and will return to Stanford at a later date. Staab (Westerville, Ohio), a junior and 13-time All-American for the No. 2-ranked Cardinal, informed the team of his decision this week. Stanford asks for privacy in regards to this matter, both to the Staab Family and the Stanford Swim Program”

We’re not going to pry, not that we’d know how to even if we wanted to. We wish Austin well, but are a little bummed given that the Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship are right here in his hometown (Columbus, OH) and you know he would have received a ton of support as he defended his 100y Fly title.

That’s life, though. Best wishes, Austin! But in his absence, the Fan Club will carry on!

The Staabster strikes again!

It’s only been a short while since we revived the Austin Staab Fan Club and here comes news that Austin has claimed the NCAA record — and his first individual title — in addition to bettering his own brand new American Record set at the recent Pac-10 Championships. The new record stands at 44.18.

It’s been an eventful month for Austin, and it’s nice to see him continue to excel! The Fan Club is impressed.

Thanks to my local newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, I finally have learned that Austin was M.I.A. last Spring/Summer due to shoulder surgery. Yay for the internet research!

I know it’s appeared that our posts reppin’ for Austin Staab have disappeared. We can explain!

See, what had happened was…

#1. He completely fell off our radar last Spring/Summer after NCAAs. And, to our knowledge, did not compete at the Olympic Trials.

#2. Our West Coast Correspondent left the Bay Area, in favor of SoCal, and no longer can make a short 20 minute trip to Stanford to check in on young Austin.

I’m from his hometown, but it’s not like he competes for WAC anymore. So, our bad!

Anyway….this post is to congratulate Austin on that bad ass 100y Fly he swam Friday at the Pac-10 Championships. He turned in a 44.69 to establish not only a new Pac-10 and Stanford Record, but also American Record that previously belonged to teh Crockah. You may now refer to Sir Staab as ‘American Record Holder Austin Staab’. Bad. Ass.

It does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Continuing our role of being the Austin Staab Fan Club, we are pleased to report that Austin has just been named the “Pac-10 Swimming Newcomer of the Year”. Congrats to him!

Austin Staab, Fr., Stanford
Staab, from Westerville, Ohio, is a six-Time All-American in his freshman season and Pac-10 Champion in the 100 fly. Staab finished third at the NCAA Championships in the 100 fly (45.61). He was a member of the school-record 400 medley relay team (3:05.43) that finished third at the NCAA Championships. He also was a member of the 200 free relay (1:17.47) team that finished 4th. Staab was a member of the 200 medley relay (1:24.95) that finished 4th at the NCAA Championships and a member of the 400 free relay (2:51.46) that finished 4th at the NCAA Championships. Staab finished 15th in the 50 free (19.59) at the NCAA Championships and 20th in the 100 free (43.33) in the prelims of the NCAA Championships. Staab also tied Ben Wildman-Tobriner’s school record in the 100 fly (45.36).

I saw Austin’s former club team at the Ohio State Grand Prix last weekend. I thought about how cool it would have been if her were here competing too. But he was likely recovering from his awesome showing at NCAAs the previous weekend.

Check out some pics from NCAAs at TheSwimPictures.com.

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!

Stanford has developed quite the pipeline to Ohio and its swimming talent. We’ve mentioned Austin Staab and David Mosko, who are freshman now. But haven’t mentioned Nate Cass, who is in his 3rd year at Stanford.

Nate is also a local boy, like Adam Ritter. He did his high school swimming at Upper Arlington. (I recently posted about the rape controversy involving the men’s head coach; Nate’s former coach.) His entire family went to Ohio State, but he decided to carve his own path and head west. What a trend-setter!

In the summer of 2006, Nate caved to his Buckeye tendencies and swam with the Ohio State Swim Club at the CP Summer Nationals in Irvine, CA. Combining with the awesome Joe Doyle worked well as the Buckeyes turned in a 7th place men’s finish; and with just a handful of athletes.

Check out the new USA Swimming feature on Nate here. It’s always nice to see area swimmers thrive as their swimmer career continues. Keep it up, Nate!