Best Swim of the Meet?

@Volume wrote:

What do you feel was the best swim of the meet. It doesn’t have to be the fastest or anything. I didn’t see much of the meet, only times online. A few that I can think of off hand are: westby 200 IM, stewart 500 and 200, Skyler mile, Olaf MR’s, GAC FR’s, Men 100 free final. Any thoughts…..

And the related questions – The most surprising Finals swim? Biggest improvement over the Prelim? And I am including women AND men here.

All of those swims you named were just awesome. Westby has a strong chance to be national swimmer of the meet. All of his swims were great, and his 50 fly split in the medley was mind-boggling.

Skylar’s mile was 28.9/29.0 on the dot, he was like a robot.

the 100 free final was pretty neat for two seniors that are such close friends (what I’ve heard.)

Stewart just blew me away. His 500 was the easiest 4:29 I’ve ever seen. (OK, so I’ve never seen a 4:29 before, but it still was silky smooth!) That was the most impressive swim to me, maybe because I felt like Westby could go those times I wasn’t as surprised. Matt has 5 times that will be invited: 500,200,1 fly, 2 fly and his 100 free was darn close. Who knows where the ceiling is on this kid.

By my estimation, every single men’s event was won with a time that will go to nationals. That is pretty sweet.

I’d have to say either Stewart’s 500 and 200, or Westby’s splits on the MR’s (especially considering he probably wasn’t fully tapered). Both those guys swam one hell of a meet.

If stewart had been in the 2 free rather than the 1 fly, i wouldn’t be surprised if he got swimmer of the meet.

Kudos to both and good luck at Nats!

I was not there, but checking the times online, I was very impressed with the Oles. I usually think that Olaf guys don’t drop a lot of time from their seed since they usually rest for some in-season invite. But Wareham’s 100 and 200 breast strokes were both great drops. There were a lot of other guys who did well too.

I think Stewart stood out the most for me. Everyone knew Westby would be a stud this year (and has a shot at winning nats in an event or two). But for Stewart to go 4:29 in the 500 and 1:39 in the 200 really surprised me.

Also, I don’t think anyone since Casson has had an A-cut in the mile from the MIAC… so nice work to Sky-Dave.

From the non-powerhouse teams…

Mitch Stepleton from Mac had a great meet as well. Didn’t win anything, but got 6th in the mile and dropped like 15 seconds in his 500.

I also thought John Fox stood out as a sprinter… 21.67 in the 50 His breast stroke didn’t drop as much as I thought (still sub minute though).

Best two swims of the meet, in my opinion, were by Gustavus junior Maggie Luke.
She was seeded 15th in the mile…ended up finishing 5th after dropping over a minute from her seed time. Then later in the day, she placed third in the 200 fly, her very first all-conference finish.
Bravo!

@lirpa wrote:

By my estimation, every single men’s event was won with a time that will go to nationals. That is pretty sweet.

Well, as a backstroker, I must point out that the 200 back winning time of 1:54.37 by Kukla would definately not get him in, it is barely a B cut. However, Kukla will get in with his in-season time which I believe was a 1:51.something.

Matt Stewart’s 200 free.

William Khoury Hanold had 3 top-8 finishes. Mitch Stepleton had 2. And David Manley went from 16th to 4th in the 200IM.

I would have to say one of the most exciting races was the women’s 800 free relay with olaf coming from behind to win and gustavus gaining about 3 seconds on carleton’s lead. Another great race was the men’s 200 IM with Nelson’s 1:50.96 and Ted’s 1:51.42 which are now ranked 1 and 2 in the nation. Both the men’s and women’s 200 breastrokes were great races to watch… actually most of the races this year were pretty impressive/exciting.

@Tiger2 wrote:

Best two swims of the meet, in my opinion, were by Gustavus junior Maggie Luke.
She was seeded 15th in the mile…ended up finishing 5th after dropping over a minute from her seed time. Then later in the day, she placed third in the 200 fly, her very first all-conference finish.
Bravo!

I agree that Maggie Luke had a great meet with surprising finishes, though I would probably not call them the best swims of the meet. Speaking of surprising finishes, what happened to Beth Hartman (who shocked the conference with 3rd last year in the 5) in her races?
That said, my vote for best race would be the women’s 800 free relay or the men’s 200 IM.

In my opinion best swim of the meet has absolutely nothing to do with time or placing. I think the best swim of the meet would be something more along the lines of most unexpected result or most impovement. Really, who didnt expect Westby to go a 1:50, he had proven time and again that he is a great swimmer and expecting fast times from him is a given. But when a swimmer such as Maggie Luke (and many others who had a great meet) drops a ton of time and places much higher then expected, that is what I would consider one of the best swims of the meet.

from gustavus, i would have to say it was between stewart (all events period) maggie luke and dan mikkelson…for never swimming breaststroke all season..he did an impressive job, even if his times don’t match up with the faster people in the MIAC.

olaf, westby. i don’t care if he was expected to go his times…he swam lights out. what ever happened to kelly dolan? i was expecting some great swims from her to give carrie gundersen some competition. layla clauss from st. thomas is who surprised me in the 500

@backstroker02 wrote:

In my opinion best swim of the meet has absolutely nothing to do with time or placing. I think the best swim of the meet would be something more along the lines of most unexpected result or most impovement. Really, who didnt expect Westby to go a 1:50, he had proven time and again that he is a great swimmer and expecting fast times from him is a given. But when a swimmer such as Maggie Luke (and many others who had a great meet) drops a ton of time and places much higher then expected, that is what I would consider one of the best swims of the meet.

Great meet and lots of hotly contested races. 2 more observations in line with the criteria mentioned in the quote above:

[1] Only one of the 26 individual races was won by a swimmer not in the top 3 on the psychsheet – Erica Hickey in the 200 Fly who was the #8 seed.

[2] Only one individual Finals race of the 26 was won by a lane other than 4 (15.5) or 5 (9.5) – Karin Brown who won from lane 7 in the 200 Free.