conference predictions

I see Kalamazoo being a similar team from last year, but with the addition of some great freshmen. Not to take anything away from the senoirs last year, but with 2 people making it back in the short freestyle events that will be a huge difference. The free relays will also move up a spot, not to mention the 800 free relay will actually score. The big thing is what team stay healthiest for the second half of the season.

It will be way more interesting without Yuri for Olivet, and i also noticed Jon Hon (who scored at league meet last year) not on Olivets roster. This league meet will be fun.

Guy redid the scores and it is even closer meet for the top two spots.
hope 488
olivet 492
kalamazoo 502
This is going to be on hell of a meet.
I just changed it I am editting guys predictions

It it’s going to be that close Hope should consider getting a couple of their guys who have questionable 3rd events on the 1M!

Guy or Ruby or whoever, I’m curious which 18 you included from Hope. Did you include Reznich?

And I noticed that Collins didn’t swim at Wheaton. Is he still with the team?

I figured he had that in there he has collins in the results but not reznich. We will be fixing that

Thanks after add Reznich which i am guessing he will be a little slower this year being abroad and all I readded the scores.
kzoo 499
Hope 493
Olivet 492

@Rudy Shingle wrote:

Thanks after add Reznich which i am guessing he will be a little slower this year being abroad and all I readded the scores.
kzoo 499
Hope 493
Olivet 492

Egads! I’m glad I quit scoring out meets, I would go mad trying to figure this one out.

MIAA 2008: Every Swim Matters

Everyone is so close to each other that anything can happen. It will an entertaining meet this year.

I hope we play spoiler for someone…

@SwexasTim wrote:

I hope we play spoiler for someone…

Looking at things, the spots where you have guys looking to score would be most helpful to K. Not sure that’s what you wanted to hear, but the backstrokes and consols of the breastrokes (that’s what I saw just looking, but probably overlooked some people and I apologize), which would favor K moreso than Olivet or Hope. Am I right?

@SwexasTim wrote:

I hope we play spoiler for someone…

You don’t have to be coy, we all know you’re talking about Albion.

Olivet is probably undervalued here — they actually got a good freshman class and we have seen no tapered times from them yet. Which makes them tough to predict.

I would put Olivet as the favorite by a slight degree with Hope and Kzoo shortly behind.

I wouldn’t disagree with that. All I know is that every swim will be important.

Mav and I scored it out, trying to go based on lifetime bests, and guesstimating on froshies. Here is how it played out,

Olivet 527
Hope 502
Kzoo 452
Calvin 259
Albion 237
Alma 116

That seems more in line with my ‘hunch’ — I want to see Kzoo win this year and think they have a shot, but I just did not think Olivet and Hope lost enough or K gained enough for the Hornets to be the favorites on paper right now. Definitely an upward trend for K in the making, however.

It’s good to see Kalamazoo back in the running. Back in the day, there used to be the yearly debate about what was more important…winning the MIAA or finishing higher at Nationals. Does that still happen?

the more important question is who will win the MIAA Alumni meet, assuming it happens again this year.

Oh it’s happening again this year.
Hopefully we can match the turn out from last year. Hope still has the men’s trophy around somewhere. It’s to be passed on to the winners.

Penninga wrote:

Hope still has the men’s trophy around somewhere. It’s to be passed on to the winners.

Um, about that… Lenny, any idea?

@Iceman wrote:

Back in the day, there used to be the yearly debate about what was more important…winning the MIAA or finishing higher at Nationals. Does that still happen?

I would say that unless we are talking about individual National titles or top 4-5 finishes as a team, MIAAs is more important. K might be top 10 this year and Hope will most likely be top 20, but in the end, the team who wins MIAAs will ultimately be the happiest. Until a larger percentage of the team is actually participating in NCAAs, the MIAA meet is the greater focus (for instance, K will send 6-7 guys which is roughly 1/3 of the MIAA team, and even those exhibition swimmers for MIAAs, for all teams, will still be able to “participate” in the meet.) Back when K would win MIAAs by 150, but Hope would be a top 4 team at NCAAs and both would send double digit numbers of guys, then the arguement could be made for NCAAs being more important. Last year, however, the MIAA Champion was the 4th highest scoring MIAA team at Nationals, and the 3rd place team was easily the best Nationals team… but wasn’t even top 10.

To start things off, Taber, you took it home from the meet and I haven’t seen it since, so don’t try to put that off on me.

Silentp, my fresh and soph years at nats (we were 4th and 5th) we didnt send a lot of swimmers. I know my freshman year we sent 7 and I think it was 8 the next year. But I agree unless you are top 4 or at least in a fight for 4th I would put more on the miaa title.

remove post

@Captain Insano wrote:

but I know the old HMS guys in the 1995-2003 era relished the fact that K rarely beat them at nationals and the reason they lost the MIAA meet was often diving.

I was interested, so I looked, going back to ’96 where we have some data (I don’t before that, and even in these years, the data is limited)…

1996: 679 to 527.5
1997: 681 to 442
1998: 605.5 to 560 (diving was difference)
1999: 619.5 to 521.5
2000: 688.5 to 499.5
2001: 618 to 553 (can’t find diving scores, but K had only 1 All-MIAA Diver and 2 divers total, 1 likely won both boards, worth 32 points, and the other diver wasn’t very good, in fact, Hope’s diver beat him at the dual, so not the difference likely)
2002: 657 to 560
2003: 660 to 507

So 1 year the difference was diving, based on that. Meaning, those Hope swimmers should have spent less time whining and spend more time in class… perhaps math would be good… or recruiting divers, which I don’t believe to be against the NCAA rules.

1995-2003 era relished the fact that K rarely beat them at nationals and the reason they lost the MIAA meet was often diving.

1995 Hope beat K at MIAA and at nationals — The following three years K beat Hope at both nationals and leagues.
’03 Kzoo beat Hope at Nationals as well.
5 vs. 4 and “rarely” does not entirely compute.

Now — I would love to see you back up that “the reason they lost the MIAA meet was often diving” statement. 🙄
It was also often “distance, IM and stroke events” as well… by the way.

That’s like me saying “Kzoo would have beaten Hope at Nationals if it wasn’t for Josh Boss.”
— And there is a lot more truth to that statement than the “diving statement”.

But then, I have never said that… I’m not a cry baby.

What is amazing to me is that not only are younger swimmers from Hope *not* utterly embarrassed that whiney-assed statement was ever uttered, but that they still parrot it about today. I suppose even a lack of class can be passed down from generation to generation.

Tradition, I guess.

1998: 605.5 to 560 (diving was difference)

What’s funny is the difference was not even one single diver, Jeff Gorton (32 points).

John Latham, Brett Robbins, Jeff Kamai, Matt Sheeran and Luke Stearns all scored more points than Jeff Gorton (not even counting relays).

All those guys could also be ‘the’ difference. Even merely John Latham’s individual points scored make up the difference of that meet.

You are expecting current Hope swimmers to post on this website how they aren’t satisfied with the Hope alumni posts? Are you kidding me? This website is designed to have discussions and be as biased as possible.

The roles last year (and this year) have changed where Hope is on the top end of the leauge while K has the top end talent.

It’s hard to ignore how Hope continuously won the majority of the relays, and more individual events to get beat by depth and diving. Whichever you would like to support.

Monkey boy is posting about having class? That’s ironic

It’s hard to ignore how Hope continuously won the majority of the relays, and more individual events to get beat by depth and diving. Whichever you would like to support.

Do you have diarrhea of the mouth or something? Again, I can count one single year that Hope lost league meet to Kzoo, but won more individual events (It was 2002, by a “staggering” count of 7 to 6).

What sort of tulip induced fantasy world do you guys live in? Do facts and the reality of what actually happened ever even enter into your mind before you spew these asinine statements?

just forget I even tried

So you are racist too?

Just kidding…

@Low Tide wrote:

So you are racist too?

Just kidding…

That’s what crossed my mind, but I wasn’t kidding.

I was also wondering how a guy who is studying chemical engineering can post that he relies on hearsay to form his opinions. Stevo, when you finish school and get a job make sure you tell me where you work so I can be sure to never purchase a product from that company.

Stevo: “Don’t worry, arsenic isn’t bad for you.”
Other Lab Dude: “Sweet! It makes this baby food taste SO much better.”

@Captain Insano wrote:

But I am really getting sick of the obnoxious condescending tone of certain Kalamazoo alumni. I shouldn’t have to defend my education. Give me a break.

It’s all in your head, little one.

Actually, you have not simplified what they say… I can easily say that because they were quoted in a Grand Rapids newspaper as, “We were the swimming champs” and “Every diver scores 100 pts.”

There have been similar statements on these forums and Mlive over the years as well. It is obnoxious.

We actually wanted to make hats or T Shirts for the divers with “100 Points” on them.

@Captain Insano wrote:

But I am really getting sick of the obnoxious condescending tone of certain Kalamazoo alumni. I shouldn’t have to defend my education. Give me a break.

I hope (no pun intended) you didn’t take the last bit of my post that way, it was merely in jest. I actually had my sister look at Hope (they had an accounting major), but it was too far away. And no, I would not have worn a Hope Swimming shirt to MIAAs in the years after I graduated had she been swimming for them.

I do think, despite the posts, there is a lot of respect (in addition to hatred) between most of the K and Hope swimmers.

Stevo, when you finish school and get a job make sure you tell me where you work so I can be sure to never purchase a product from that company.

Stevo: “Don’t worry, arsenic isn’t bad for you.”
Other Lab Dude: “Sweet! It makes this baby food taste SO much better.”

If you are going to judge where you do business from a swimming forum, that’s fine.I’d be surprised if you would be interested in what i sell anyway. I’m pretty sure my career has nothing to do with being in a lab, but those quotes are cute.

K swimming has great history, but if you expect us Hope guys to get on this board and talk up K swimming you are nieve. I am a Hope grad and whether they win, lose, or who won more it won’t change my opinion. Low tide i can’t find the data to back up my comments, and if i did maybe my post would have changed. Just like captain insano i dont’ put quite the time into researching, i just post how i have seen it during my years at hope. In fact in 2004 Hope won the MIAA and K won 10 events to Hope’s 9. But i sure do love my hope goggles.

You are expecting current Hope swimmers to post on this website how they aren’t satisfied with the Hope alumni posts? Are you kidding me? This website is designed to have discussions and be as biased as possible.

The roles last year (and this year) have changed where Hope is on the top end of the leauge while K has the top end talent.

It’s hard to ignore how Hope continuously won the majority of the relays, and more individual events to get beat by depth and diving. Whichever you would like to support.

Monkey boy is posting about having class? That’s ironic

I guess actually checking out the facts would be too much to ask, but whether true or not, the statement “We would have won if it weren’t for diving” is just plain pitiful, embarrassing, whiney and reeks of being a sore loser. Younger swimmers and alumni do not have to apologize for it, but they would come off looking a lot better (wise, socially adept, IE. not like blithering idiots) if they simply ignored it and did not continually bring it up again.

I am an undead Beanie Baby brutally murdered and desecrated on the very day I was presented to a loved one as a gift. Instead of being the treasured sentimental keepsake I was created for, I am damned to haunt these forums and extract my revenge on the guilty parties (they know who they are) until that time where I may return to my everlasting torment in the nonconsuming fires of Hell. It is not in any way a requirement that *I* have class.

guess actually checking out the facts would be too much to ask, but whether true or not, the statement “We would have won if it weren’t for diving” is just plain pitiful, embarrassing, whiney and reeks of being a sore loser. Younger swimmers and alumni do not have to apologize for it, but they would come off looking a lot better (wise, socially adept, IE. not like blithering idiots) if they simply ignored it.

Speaking of facts, go ahead and find the post where I said that we lost MIAA championships because of diving. Do i regret that that the teams i swam on didn’t have divers? yes. Was i pissed off that the last good diver we got loved to smoke weed, and flunked out? yes there have been Hope people who have had that argument, and i dont’ argree with it, because we make the bed we sleep in. I enjoy posts from Milhouse/silentp/maverick because they all have a K bias and a hatred for Hope, but the arrogance that some of the K alumni think us hope guys have isn’t anything different than themselves. I don’t post here so we can all sing kumbaya.

But i sure do love my hope goggles.

Interesting. Would you say your psychosis is similar to the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome the brave men and women of our armed forces struggle with? Sort of a willful ignorance triggering the subconscious into taking over all recollection of said events?

The act of competing with Kalamazoo College swimmers is so stressful and taxing on not only the mind and body, but also the very spirit; that you wrap the truth in an inner cocoon of utter buffoonery to keep the fiber and syntaxes of your mind from virtually exploding. Chilling, indeed.

Might I offer you the service of Sigismond Henry PhD? He has helped me through several delicate issues in the past.

@Stevo wrote:

I enjoy posts from Milhouse/silentp/maverick because they all have a K bias and a hatred for Hope, but the arrogance that some of the K alumni think us hope guys have isn’t anything different than themselves. I don’t post here so we can all sing kumbaya.

If your opinion mattered I’d be offended by the fact that you did not include me in that list. But that’s just my arrogance talking…

K swimming has great history, but if you expect us Hope guys to get on this board and talk up K swimming you are nieve.

When you say nieve are you referring to “fist” in the old Scottish dialect or “snow” in Spanish?

I take umbrage sir, just not sure at what yet.

I enjoy posts from Milhouse…

Milhouse, my young friend, is a jackass.

This is as good a time as any to ask because this thread is getting a lot of attention and part of the topic reminded me of something else.

I’ve asked before, but seriously, what happened to Tony Holt? How does a multiple national champion just not come back? Anyone?

I’ve asked before, but seriously, what happened to Tony Holt? How does a multiple national champion just not come back? Anyone?

I think the official reason was “stress”.
Whatever… seemed like a good kid, but I never swam with him so really can not comment on whatever it was he was going through (and probably shouldn’t even if I did know). I think that was the year he was actually voted “Michigan’s Athlete of the Year” as well (beating out Steve Yzerman, Ben Wallace and many other pros). And he did not merely just “not come back”, he quit right before nationals. Obviously very disappointing and a bit strange.

@Duck wrote:

I enjoy posts from Milhouse…

Milhouse, my young friend, is a jackass.

Guilty as charged. I traded Jason Spezza to Duck for Cam Ward and Michael Nylander in our fantasy hockey league. Then again, it took Duck almost three days to discover I hid all his “W” Scrabble tiles in his Absinthe glasses. So there.

ok, few things here, first of all I will concede that K would have beat Hope at nationals 2 of Boss’ four years at Hope. I know for a fact that they would not have in 01, but you guys don’t care about that.

Let me lay it down for ya, do I respect zoo, yes, do I want Hope to beat them in the pool every single time, yes. If they don’t, I look for some sort of positive (winning 200 free relay, beating them at nats, being more tan) any sort of positive to take away from it. Just like last year at leagues, y’all didn’t talk about how close olivet beat hope by or that fact that zoo was third, all you talked about was how sweet your freshmen were, which is fair, i’m illustrating the fact that everyone looks for the positive in their team. So let us find our positives and you find yours, quite being jerks and pissing on our school to make you feel better about yours.

That being said, go Scots.

Oh yeah, and thanks to whoever voted Alma in as League Champs, I want it to be known it wasn’t me, but we appreciate the support.

1) I am not so sure I like this new style. But that is because I am a codger.
2) Good post by Swexes. He is exactly right, it irritated me when Hope claimed to be “a Nationals Team” when they were losing to Kzoo at Leagues but you cling to what you’ve got going for you.
3) I feel responsible for some of this latest animosity and I will admit that it has gotten a little out of hand. Mostly I thought the breast feeding comment was hilarious and I really didn’t mean anything by it. If it did offend you Stevo/Insano etc… I really am sorry. Do know that it was atleast 51% meant to be humerous.

As an old fart alumnus from Hope I must say I find this entire post extremely entertaining. On the entire diving subject I will be the first to admit that I did my fair share of complaining about its place in the sport of SWIMMING. I still hold strong that it should not be apart of swimming, however it is and that is what we are dealt with. As for Brett’s (I am assuming that is who low tide is) on all the great swimmer’s you had in 98 were the reason you won the meet is ridiculous. There is no doubt that each of those guys were good swimmers, however the fact still remains that diving was the biggest difference in the meet. Yes K had a far more talented team that year, but Hope did swim out of there mind and made it a hell of a meet. The only thing I want to know is how do all of you K guys have so much time to post and research every little thing about MIAA swimming? I love it that there is this much banter out here, but seriously what do you guys do for work?

@pinto wrote:

The only thing I want to know is how do all of you K guys have so much time to post and research every little thing about MIAA swimming? I love it that there is this much banter out here, but seriously what do you guys do for work?

We have a hard time recruiting because we require that all K alums devote at least 20 hours a week to d3swimming.com. We all work part time to ensure that this is possible. While this greatly decreases our earning potential, we feel this is a worthwhile endeavor.

@pinto wrote:

I love it that there is this much banter out here, but seriously what do you guys do for work?

I have a 6 month old daughter, too btw. But to answer your question: success only comes when your time is your own.

Since you asked:I own 3 businesses: A Cartridge World Franchise (opening in January), a Financial Services Firm, and a Health Insurance General Agency.

@DonCheadle wrote:

@pinto wrote:

I love it that there is this much banter out here, but seriously what do you guys do for work?

I have a 6 month old daughter, too btw. But to answer your question: success only comes when your time is your own.

Since you asked:I own 3 businesses: A Cartridge World Franchise (opening in January), a Financial Services Firm, and a Health Insurance General Agency.

Cheadle, is this in addition to acting? When do you sleep?

Obama, why don’t you spend more time making sure the Democrats don’t nominate Hilliary Clinton and less time screwing around on the internet?

All right I feel somewhat responsible for starting up this MIAA vs. NCAA thing after a nearly 2 year hiatus from posting on this board.

1) From a team perspective, and of course this could be seen as biased, I did care more about the MIAA Championship in the 2002-2004 era where kzoo and hope were both dueling at both the conference at national level; however, i feel like the amount of effort and time going into both meets was equal…we really didn’t focus on one meet or the other regardless of what the reputation is/was. Thats not to slight any of the hope teams that were significantly better than kzoo at the national level (that 3:02 in miami for the 400 free relay was ridiculous to watch), its just an opinion from the Kzoo side–which I’m sure is countered on the Hope side. At least it makes for some interesting discussion.

2) from what I gather of this year’s class.. the MiAA meet should be one of the most exciting meets in history assuming it in fact scores out close to the way it was scored out on this website. i’m looking forward to it.

But seriously how does anybody have time to check this as much as they do.

but seriously what do you guys do for work?

Well, times have been a bit tough lately. I had a job, I had a girl, I had something going mister in this world. I got laid off down at the lumber yard. Our love went bad, times got hard. Now I work down at the carwash, where all it ever does is rain. Don’t you feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train?

As for Brett’s (I am assuming that is who low tide is) on all the great swimmer’s you had in 98 were the reason you won the meet is ridiculous. There is no doubt that each of those guys were good swimmers, however the fact still remains that diving was the biggest difference in the meet.

Actually the 100 freestyle was the biggest difference, by a lot. Coupled with the 50 free alone, it makes “sprinting” the largest difference in the meet. Add in the sprint relays, and well… who wants to let facts and statistics get in the way of your mental gymnastics and “feel good” memories of ’98.

ok, few things here, first of all I will concede that K would have beat Hope at nationals 2 of Boss’ four years at Hope. I know for a fact that they would not have in 01, but you guys don’t care about that.

I do care, I have fun going over these “what ifs”.
I’d say 3 out of 4 years pretty easily. But I would still give the edge to Hope in ’01.

Not that it matters, outside of discussions such as this — I think the “If it weren’t for Boss…” conjecture is almost as silly as the “If it weren’t for diving…” argument.

@Low Tide wrote:

but seriously what do you guys do for work?

Well, times have been a bit tough lately. I had a job, I had a girl, I had something going mister in this world. I got laid off down at the lumber yard. Our love went bad, times got hard. Now I work down at the carwash, where all it ever does is rain. Don’t you feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train?

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well, mister, they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care

@Milhouse wrote:

@Low Tide wrote:

but seriously what do you guys do for work?

Well, times have been a bit tough lately. I had a job, I had a girl, I had something going mister in this world. I got laid off down at the lumber yard. Our love went bad, times got hard. Now I work down at the carwash, where all it ever does is rain. Don’t you feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train?

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well, mister, they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care

Maverick used to work on the docks
Unions been on strike
Hes down on his luck…its tough, so tough

@maverick wrote:

@Milhouse wrote:

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well, mister, they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care

Maverick used to work on the docks
Unions been on strike
Hes down on his luck…its tough, so tough

Silentp went to Detroit workin’ on a ‘sembly line
The first year they had me puttin’ wheels on cadillacs

I do find it funny that diving still evokes a ton of debate in the MIAA. I honestly could care less about what happened in the 98 league meet.(It still does not change my opinion of swimming & diving should be different sports) Overall although I could have added more time than just about anyone in the MIAAI still LOVED my Hope College experience. It is absolutely classic that the K guys that swam in my era still get off thinking they are smarter and quicker than all Hope grads. It also cracks me up that these quotes are coming from a guy who states one of his fondest swimming memories is “being the 3rd guy to break 49 in D3.” I mean seriously who really cares about the 3rd guy to do anything? Brett I am by no means diminishing your swimming….you certainly kicked the shit out of me, but I think we need to do a quick check on who is living in the past.

By the way if anyone cares I also have a 8 month old son and work as a Regional Sales Manager for a Pharma company.

It is honestly nice to see this page is still going strong.

Pinto is funny! He’s always good for a laugh.

Brett I am by no means diminishing your swimming….

Okeedokee — “I don’t mean to be rude/racist/maniacally evil, but….”

Anyways, your post was actually so much of a student/teacher softball game lob lob that I will just simply pass on all those amazing openings and say, You *told* me. 😉

I guess I should look over my post before I hit submit…but you should be able to get the point.

Honestly, I wish I hadn’t said anything in the first place. I kind of knew I was going to get a ton of crap for that comment anyway. I didn’t even swim during that era so I have no idea what I am talking about. Actually, being a more recent graduate makes my posts on here even less worthy of sparking this kind of argument.

@pinto wrote:

By the way if anyone cares I also have a 8 month old son and work as a Regional Sales Manager for a Pharma company.

You and Michael Scott would have a lot in common. Is there an Assistant to the Regional Manager?

@pinto wrote:

It is absolutely classic that the K guys that swam in my era still get off thinking they are smarter and quicker than all Hope grads.

I have moved on. It is now about having my kid being smarter and quicker than yours (not to mention better looking). I am sure you are the same way!

…but you should be able to get the point.

*Sigh* — You had to get in one more, huh? Ok, who I am I kidding, I’ll respond.

I get your point Pinto, but it is a really dumb one.

I do find it funny that diving still evokes a ton of debate in the MIAA.

Actually, it doesn’t. It only comes up when a Hope alumni whines about how Hope would have won league meet all those years “if it weren’t for diving”. As has been pointed out, there is only one year where the entirety of the points from diving could make the difference, and that was 1998. One year. And it wasn’t even *one* diver who made the difference, when there were numerous individual swimmers who could have made the difference… it was a close meet. I believe the last time this was even mentioned and/or debated was about three years ago… and you were right in the thick of it then. Whining about diving.

I honestly could care less about what happened in the 98 league meet.

Really. I wasn’t sure at first who you were so I went and checked some of your past posts. Do you have any idea how many of your posts are about that 1998 meet or about your diving fetish which stems from that meet? It’s like 20% of your posts. And after all these years, the subject comes up again and lo’ and behold, here you are again — bitching about diving and talking about that ’98 meet. You could care less?

(It still does not change my opinion of swimming & diving should be different sports)

Of course, you could “care less”, but you just had to insert that in there again, right? You even started a thread once to make your feelings clear regarding this… which just doesn’t strike me as someone who does not care.

Overall although I could have added more time than just about anyone in the MIAAI still LOVED my Hope College experience.

You also spend a lot of time disparaging yourself, do you realize it? Over 10% of your posts contain a duragatory comment aimed right at yourself. It’s sort of like the overweight girl who makes all the “fat chick” jokes. You are so sensitive that you swam slower in college that you beat everyone to the punch before they can bring it up.

That’s great that you loved your Hope College experience…. heck, I loved my recruiting trip to Hope College. College was fun, and it is fun to talk about. So why do you comment so often on the rest of us with “too much free time” and “not being able to move on”? — That’s another 15% of your posts. You even started a thread to single out Milhouse for the “Too much free time hall of fame”. Even the most prolific poster on this site probably does not come close to averaging 30 minutes a day here. Not only did I have fun in college, but I am still interested in D3 swimming and Kzoo swimming in particular. Hey, here is a great site to talk about it. How much time do you spend talking about the things you are interested in? Is there something wrong with that?

It is absolutely classic that the K guys that swam in my era still get off thinking they are smarter and quicker than all Hope grads.

It’s tough to quantify “smarter” so I will just comment on the “quicker”. I guess I take a little pride knowing I was faster than every single butterflyer to come out of the school we had our biggest rivalry with. Yeah, that’s nice, and I am sure guys like Blohm take a little pride in that same thing… but I hardly masturbate to it. Heck, Nelis has a great shot of going faster than I ever did. I honeslty do not think I will lose any sleep over it — I care a lot more about Dekker beating Nelis.

Pinto on Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:42 pm

Who was the MIAA swimmer that drove you nuts? ……..
7. Brett Robins, I don’t know him at all but he also kicked the crap out of us.

It also cracks me up that these quotes are coming from a guy who states one of his fondest swimming memories is “being the 3rd guy to break 49 in D3.” I mean seriously who really cares about the 3rd guy to do anything? Brett I am by no means diminishing your swimming….you certainly kicked the crap out of me, but I think we need to do a quick check on who is living in the past.

You waited a long time to get that little “digg” in didn’t you? You even had to go hunt down my alumni profile at the new K-swimming site to come up with it… and it doesn’t even make sense. What do any of my posts have to do with *my* fondest swimming memory?

Just to clarify, the question was about my favorite swimming memory, not about “What swimming memory will impress every one out there? Especially Mike Porter.” I am sure you have a favorite swim, maybe from middle school, where everything was clicking and it just felt great to be swimming and competing. That race was mine, and I can’t believe I even have to defend it… but I swam it with two other guys who also went under a 49 — two of the fastest D3 butterfylers to date and in a time that would have won several national titles since then. I’m sorry if my fond memory does not impress you — maybe I should have written “Absolutely obliterating Mike Porter in everything I ever swam against him. So much so that I barely even remember who he is.” Would that impress you more? If I still remembered how to change my online alumni bio, I would go there right now and change it for you.

I come here to talk about current swimming, recount stories of the past and have fun posting and taking jibes at old college rivals with old friends. You come here to 1) Bitch about diving and the 1998 swim meet 2) Make fun of people you think have “more free time” than you 3) Berate yourself for swimming slower in college 4) list people and things you “don’t like” from your college days and finally 5) post about your job in an attempt to validate yourself.

Who is holding the grudge and who is living in the past? Kzoo swam a great league meet in ’95 but still lost to Hope at league meet… how many newspaper articles, comments or posts do you see or read with Kzoo swimmers/alumni stating, “If it weren’t for _________ we would have won.”? Or any other league meet where Hope won? Isn’t that just a tad bit juvenile and smell of being a “sore loser”?

And about that job, are you really so inept at managing a dozen pharmaceutical sales reps that you can not “waste” thirty minutes a day? How hard is it to tell them to “look pretty” when they meet with an attention-starved doctor? Are you not able to multi-task?

Finally, just so you know — this entire post is based on the online persona you have created fo yourself over a mere 60 posts. You got personal armed with what little you know of me so I had a bit of fun with what little I know about you. I know it is ridiculous to think that is who you really are and that you wake up every morning bitching about those “damn divers”. Because I have a lot more posts, I am sure you are able to “get me” a little better, but believe it or not, I do not spend every waking moment thinking how I can “one-up” a Hope alum. It’s just a fun diversion.

It’s tough sometimes to admit, but we might actually enjoy each other’s company over a beer (that is, if you can handle a beer 😉 ) — but by all means I will continue to take pot shots at Hope and I would be disappointed if you stopped directing them at Kzoo. I just don’t think we really need to get as personal as even the small amount we displayed here.

Wow. There were like 10 great points in that, my favorites being:

How hard is it to tell them to “look pretty” when they meet with an attention-starved doctor? Are you not able to multi-task?

and

You are so sensitive that you swam slower in college that you beat everyone to the punch before they can bring it up.

Best post ever.

@wonderboy33 wrote:

Best post ever.

+1

Hahaha, just out of curiosity, who is pinto?

@silentp wrote:

@pinto wrote:

By the way if anyone cares I also have a 8 month old son and work as a Regional Sales Manager for a Pharma company.

You and Michael Scott would have a lot in common. Is there an Assistant to the Regional Manager?

Dwight: Don’t be mad, it is a business trip.
Angela: But I don’t understand. It’s for managers.
Dwight: Monkey, I am an A. R. M., Assistant Regional Manager.

this thread cannot get enough dwight schrute.

@Nasty Natti wrote:

Hahaha, just out of curiosity, who is pinto?

Pinto is this guy who got owned on d3swimming.com

Or atleast that is how he will be remembered.

@DonCheadle wrote:

@Nasty Natti wrote:

Hahaha, just out of curiosity, who is pinto?

Pinto is this guy who got owned on d3swimming.com

Or atleast that is how he will be remembered.

that’s the only way i know him.

Yah gotta give him credit (or pity) for coming back for more, and more, and more….

viewtopic.php?p=314#p314

Brutal.

@Monkey Boy wrote:

Yah gotta give him credit (or pity) for coming back for more, and more, and more….

viewtopic.php?p=314#p314

Brutal.

but at least he’s married!

Thank you for your time and effort Brett.

@pinto wrote:

Thank you for your time and effort Brett.

Alright enough. This could have been resolved from the beginning if the Kzoo front had simply accepted my apologies for the ignorant post.

I think what pinto is trying to say is that writing posts that are ambiguously serious in an attempt to piss off Hope College alumni and swimmers (congratulations) is a pretty pathetic pastime, especially during work hours. Great job to others for jumping on the teasing bandwagon.

L’Chayim! Vee geyts my friends???

Oy, this is what my zeidy always sez, so I sez, hocken a tchinick…
A schlemiel is a waiter who spills hot soup, and the schlimazel is the one who gets it in his lap. No? Good. Az men est nisht kayn knobl, shtinkt men nit! Is true!

Captain Meshugener sez, “Oh Vey! Ven der nar volt nit geven mayner, volt ich oykh gelakht!” Azoy geyt doz…

Hey, may we all be a kobtzen!

Zay gezunt,

Reb K

Aye-yi-yi… I need these posting loch in kop! Ha Ha Ha!

Diving should happen during summer…separate from swimming!

it would be nice to have diving in the summer, then the hot diving chicks would also have nice tans, not those fake bake, old catcher’s mitt tans that the hope guys seem to get off on.

predictions for miaa meet:
-olivet, hope or kzoo will dq a relay
-the alumni meet will be slower than last year

@maverick wrote:

it would be nice to have diving in the summer, then the hot diving chicks would also have nice tans, not those fake bake, old catcher’s mitt tans that the hope guys seem to get off on.

predictions for miaa meet:
-olivet, hope or kzoo will dq a relay
-the alumni meet will be slower than last year

Would you rather have the “old catcher mitt tan” or would you rather paint your toenails black?

All things considered, I haven’t heard any scientific studies that correlate black toenail paint with skin cancer, so I think I’ll opt for the toenails.

@vazzy vazquez wrote:

Would you rather have the “old catcher mitt tan” or would you rather paint your toenails black?

Noone paints their toenails because they think it is sweet and that it will help them get the ladies. They do it as a joke and is kind of an indication that said person doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Tanning is pretty much the exact opposite. Which is what makes it so incredibly lame.