You knew this post was coming, didn’t you? Well, if not, then you must be new to the Swim Aid following!

Now that the major International meet of the year is over, we’re going through a bit of withdrawal already. Yes, the US Open is going on now, but the writing’s on the wall. We’re pretty much not going to have any swimming to follow until October-ish when NCAA season kicks into gear. That’s when we’ll be back to stanning for the Michigan Wolverines, I guess. Different year, same ol’, same ol’.

So, we’re already looking ahead to next summer’s Conoco Phillips Summer Nationals in Irvine, CA. Can anyone say “party”?! Well, we can!

The Swim Aids conquered the 2005 and 2006 Summer Nationals that were held in Irvine and had a blast doing so! Well, except for some unnecessary drama and having to drive on Cali roads (I thought I was going to die). We can’t wait to do it all over again and here’s why:

1. It’s an outdoor meet! Most of us reside in states where meets are contested indoors. So the chance to enjoy swimming outside — and the frolicking that goes along with it — is just wonderful. We don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that we don’t inhale as much chlorine, but we just enjoy outdoor competitions. We’re more spirited and fun, if you can believe that. Actually, most of us lost our voices cheering during the Irvine ‘06 Nationals.

2. In-N-Out Burger. ‘Nuff said.

3. Hot tub parties! The Swim Aids, for some reason, are obsessed with hotel hot tubs and jacuzzi’s. If our hotel has one, you will find us in it every night. That’s not even an exaggeration.

4. Most of the Swim Aids, if not all, will actually be able to make this meet. Our quality time together has been severely limited in the last 1.5 years. We aim to change that as soon as possible!

5. Tailgate possibilities. We’d like to think we were some of the first people to tailgate at a swim meet. Don’t be surprised if we bring that back next summer. Gotta make sure we get clearance/permits/etc. It’d be fun! Our last (and first) tailgate was a success! We had a pretty nice guest list which included Sir Phelps briefly, Katie Hoff, Kaitlin Sandeno, and Davis Tarwater. Debbie Phelps also stopped by and brought us cookies and balloons; which we later fought over. If we end up pulling off an Irvine tailgate, you won’t want to miss it. Trust us!

6. Post meet after parties. There will be some, and if we don’t have one ourselves, we will be cruising for others. Last time out, we partied with the Florida Gators and the Lochtenator. We owed him some Heineken (and still do), so we were able to get him some after the meet. It was a good time until hotel security shut it down! *shakes fist*

So, clearly we’re already psyched about next year! Show of hands: Who’s in?

So, now that I think about it, this should have been the post that had the title “The Return of ___”, but since that one’s already taken by the previous post, and it’d be terribly tacky to repeat a post title like that, I had to switch things up!

After Trials, which brought an extreme wave of sadness to the Swim Aids when Davis Tarwater didn’t make the team, we thought we’d seen the last of him in the pool. That night in Omaha, there were tears, or maybe “man tears” would be a more accurate description. Point is, we were devastated.

Our sources didn’t know any more than we did about the future of his swimming career, so we thought it was a past tense thing. To make matters worse, we knew that there were only 2 post-grad swimmers training in Ann Arbor, and both of their last names are Vanderkaay. So T-Dub!! had to be done, right?

WRONG!

Last week, I took a quick look over the Austin Grand Prix psych sheet and I saw something that made my jaw drop:

So, apparently after the quadrennium came to a close, T-Dub!! said to himself: “Take me to another place. Take me to another land.” And the Lord guided him (back) to Tennessee and the local Tennessee Aquatics swim program.

Davis is competing this weekend, in Austin, and is already off to a great start. He turned in the fastest time in the men’s 100y Fly prelims this morning.

So, can I get a “T-DUB!!” or what?

This post is brought to you by Arrested Development (the group, not the TV show, you damn young’uns):

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I know what you’re thinking. Two posts that close together? What’s going on? Is Swim Aids back? Well, I hope so! Anyway…

I’m all about spreading the love, even for projects that I’m not involved in. So, welcome to “The Pimpin’ Corner”, where I give a little plug to someone or something in the swimming community.

Two of our absolutely favoritest swimmers, Klete Keller and Davis Tarwater, have joined forces to form Big Fish Clinics.

Kletus and T-Dub!! will offer one-day clinics, multiple-day camps, speaking engagements and parent workshops. If I’m a swimmer or a swim parent, I’m all over this. It’s amazing to think that both of these guys’ larger-than-life personalities will be able to fit in the same room in order to conduct a clinic. You will learn and laugh a lot. Seriously. Just check ‘em out!

So I realized that I didn’t do one of these yesterday and now, unfortunately, the days are starting to blur together. So here goes on another edition of “Tales From The Deck”

After tonight’s session we felt extreme sadness. I’m talking like being on the verge of tears. Why, you ask? Because T-Dub!! finished 3rd in the men’s 200 Fly, thus not making the Olympic Team. I don’t know if there was anyone else in the meet we wanted on the team more than him, so when Gil Stovall swam the race of his life (props to him, that was badass!) we knew Davis‘ chances at punching a ticket for Beijing were reduced to zero. But he left it all in the pool. That was his best time. For our own selfish reasons, we want him to continue one more year — like a couple of his teammates — but we understand if he’s ready to move on. Seeing how upset his mom (whom we adore) was after the race, was almost too much to bear.

And the sadness didn’t end with T-Dub!! It also extended to Miss Kaitlin, a regular Swim Aid reader. She’s been fighting a string of health maladies and injuries in recent months, the after effects causing her to lose critical strength and stamina. But, she’s been dealing with it like a champ and with the smile we’ve all come to love. She’s going to be in the AquaZone Friday, so everyone go, say “hi”, and wish her well! And please know that she’s ok. She wants people to know she’s not on suicide watch or anything.

Other National Team veterans who look to be on the outside looking in include Tara Kirk, Rachel Komisarz, and Neil Walker. Both Tara and Neil were regular Team USA captains. So this is going to be an adjustment. Tara has another race in the 200 Breast, but with such a deep women’s field, you just never know! We wish her good luck in that race!

Today’s session really broke our hearts though. There were a lot of happy moments, but I think the sad outweighed the good from our point of view. We were elated at Allison Schmitt and Caroline Burckle making the team. I’ve called Allison to the team before, and as recently as last night. She’s such a great kid and we love how her personality calms others before races. She was classic in her press conference tonight. Classic. It didn’t even sink in that she was on the relay until that presser when a reporter asked her about it.

I’m going to put the rest of this post behind a cut because it is looooooong as hell. I’m not kidding! So get to clickin’ to read on.

Continue Reading »

I’m looking forward to a long night of sleep tonight, but before I do that it’s update time suckas!

1. Keep an eye on SwimNetwork.com in the near future. You’ll be able to get to know yours truly a little better. That includes a little more insight on my work at SwimStars.org

2. Because of the previous line, and a couple of other events this weekend, I’m beginning to realize that my so-called anonymity is disappearing in the swim community. Not sure if that will ultimately be a good or bad thing! I guess I’ll have to wait and see!

3. Everyone send good thoughts to dear ol’ T-DUB (Davis Tarwater, for those of you who are new around here). He’s sick and shouldn’t have even made the trip down to Columbus for the Grand Prix. Get better, playa! Pimpin’ aint easy, and you can’t do it when you’re sick.

4a. I am personally taking credit for “breaking” PVK. It’s taken a while, but I finally have him trained very well. Not only does he look more comfortable on the awards podium, but he poses for my camera too. Another thing we Swim Aids have been chomping at the bit to witness was a show of any kind of emotion out of him after a race. Well, I got to see first-hand, the Vander-fist-pumpâ„¢. It was well worth the wait and I successfully captured it for all to see. No, not right now. Later. Although I will be sending his mama the first picture. She couldn’t be here this weekend and I know she’d love to see it!

4b. BTW, props, again, to PVK for his 400 & 1500 Free swims. Holy cow!

5. Felicia Lee swam 5746726094 races his weekend and still had a smile on her face at the end of the night. She’s too cute. Unfortunately, I was unable to fold her up and put her in my pocket. There’s always next time!

6. I got caught in the crush of young fans/volunteers trying to get autographs from PVK, Phelps, and Kaitlin. They told me they were leaving immediately after the session to head back up to Ann Arbor, so I was getting in my social time then. I wasn’t planning on sticking around that long, but before I knew it, I was surrounded. So I just went with the flow, helping fans get their autographs and taking pictures for them as they posed with the CWers. I always enjoy seeing the swimmers interact with their fans. I can almost picture them, when they were younger, doing the same thing. There were so many fans that wanted autographs, but they had to leave and hit the road, so the informal signing was cut short. I got a couple of shots of Phelps, but couldn’t take any of PVK and Kaitlin since they were signing right next to me. I don’t make a habit of sticking Bertha right in the face of someone standing inches from me. Talk about awkward!

7. It’s been a while since I’ve covered a full meet. Now I’m itching for another. Could it be Santa Clara? We’ll see!

8. My SPA groupies wanted to go out after their coach went to sleep, but there aren’t any places near campus or downtown that don’t card, so they were out of luck there. That may have been different if my brother, who works as a bouncer, were working tonight. But alas, he wasn’t, so no party there.

9. I shall miss Peter Bick, but I will see him at Trials. If I do make it to Santa Clara, it will be weird to not pal around with him. However, if I’m at Santa Clara, I’ll have my dear kiwi to keep me company!

10. Final Thoughts: I really hope that this Ohio State Grand Prix is a yearly event. I really like having a big national meet here in my own backyard. It’s nice to not always have to travel to meets. I thought everything went really well and the meet ran very smoothly, was well-attended by fans and top swimmers alike, and featured some fast swimming. Can’t ask for much more, can you?

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.

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.