Hats off

I’ll throw Chris Heintz onto that list as well. After 6 years, he finally breaks the 5:00 barrier in the 500, then comes back and swims 2 PRs in the 400 IM, and in his final swim has another PR in the mile. Great meet for him.

As for the rest, it was a great meet, there were a lot of exciting swims, and swim-offs really are always fun to watch. Maybe next year we’ll get that femtosecond timing system in place…

I’d also like to add a congrats to Calvin women. Not only did they win, but they did it graciously. Possibly the nicest team in the MIAA.

Also, how about Resseguie using that 50 Free swim-off to springboard his way to two great 50s at night on Thursday, esp. that 20.9 lead off.

I would like to say hats off to the MIAA Alums. I am continually impressed by your enthusiasm for swimming, even long after you have graduated. Not only do you guys keep up with the sport and your teams, you manage to make it back for the conference meets every year. Its impressive. That was a pretty big alumni meet, and pretty darn fast too. Its cool to see people having fun with college sports and building that type of atmosphere. So congrats to the old men and women too, you deserve a little applause after that meet on saturday.

Bo here…

I was in Texas all weekend and was very disappointed that I couldn’t make it to the meet. Thank God for mobile Internet! I stayed glued to my phone and watched the results as they came in. I really thought Hope had a great shot being down only a handful of points going into Saturday and with no diving to give Olivet a huge edge. But Olivet seemed to step up when they had to and those jumps from 6th to 5th etc. won them the meet. Congrats to Olivet.

Great times and a lot of meet records, both men and women. This says a lot about the level of swimming talent in the MIAA both currently and for the future. No matter what team you root for, you have to be proud of that.

To the Hope guys…congrats on a great effort. I’m sure I speak for all the Hope alumni when I say we’re very proud of all of you. Defeats are hard to swallow, especially close defeats, but I think you guys silenced many doubters that thought Hope couldn’t win.

On another note, to the GR Press…shame on you for not having made mention of the meet in any form. Not one word. At least the Hope basketball team got an article for beating Adrian…woohoo.

@facenorth wrote:

I’d really like to see Resseguie and King on the blocks at the same time. I’m not sure who gets off the block quicker but I do think they have the two best starts in the league.

1. I would have to say that RVZ should be in the mix for quick starts. Also, props to his 20.5 split.

2. Meisner’s 55.9 split was impressive.

3. KZoo relays lived up to all the hype. All those guys were hitting on all cylinders. I was a little nervous about them living up to the expectations but they sure made a statement. They will make some noise at nationals.

4. The MIAA freshman class proved to be very impressive. Props to them.

@LaBouche wrote:

Great times and a lot of meet records, both men and women. This says a lot about the level of swimming talent in the MIAA both currently and for the future. No matter what team you root for, you have to be proud of that.

Watching the league improve in the past four years has been one of the best experiences of my career. I think that there are a lot of people out there who share LaBouche’s opinion and look forward to the league continuing to grow stronger in the next few years. I’m partial to Kzoo, and I think they are destined for great things in the next couple years, but some of the young guns at Olivet and Hope this year showed that this is going to be an extremely strong conference for some time.

@LaBouche wrote:

At least the Hope basketball team got an article for beating Adrian…woohoo.

I really hope you are being sarcastic.

Just to add to some comments

To all the athletes, coaches, and alumni: This year was among the best that I’ve seen in regards to mutual respect, congratulations, and post swim “Good Jobs”. You stay classy MIAA.

No matter what people have said, the league is back on top form. Some of the events this year were as tight and as fast as they have ever been.

Jenison Meet Management: Way to learn from some of the mistakes from last year and run a very solid, very classy meet. Congrats to all those who helped make it happen.

To all you alums: Thanks for making an out of shape swim nerd like myself not feel *too* lonely out there. It’s great to see you all, and your enthusiasm (for smack talk or whatever) amazes me.

To d3swimming staff (derek): Thanks for putting this site up. Even if I don’t post as much as I used to, you deserve more credit (and donations) than you receive.

So for some of you, see you around over the next month, and some in Houston. The rest, when do we start complaining about next year’s rosters?

Next up, young man, is Fantasy Nationals.

@facenorth wrote:

22. Ellis shows he can swim further than 100 yards and does it in MIAA record time. I never doubted his talent but didn’t see this coming.

I think only Mike actually predicted it, but several of us saw it as possible. I didn’t think he’d go that fast to do it though, that was insane and maybe the best race of the meet (to me it was).

Here’s the story:
Ellis out quick as suspected, in 53.1, about a second ahead, Heyboer made his move on the 3rd 50, as expected, but then Ellis laid the smack down on the final 50, especially in the last 25, not expected.

Great swims by both guys, Ellis is just a better backstroker and his turns are amazing.

Even though I couldn’t attend (could that have something to do with the prevalence of mutual respect and overall good vibes???), I feel compelled to congratulate Olivet for staging a come-from-behind victory to repeat as champs (I had Hope ahead on points going in to Saturday night’s finals). The first Stubbs class graduates this year, and I don’t think Olivet is going anywhere for the next few years.

Also, kudos to Ellis and his 200 back, taking down one of the “ancient” MIAA records in the process. With two strong relays and three potential top-8 individual finishes, Kzoo looks like they can crack the 100-point barrier and maybe even muster a top-10 finish at nats. Lucky for them that Cheadle is hosting nationals this year.

Now it will be interesting to see how much they have left for Nationals. Heyboer and Espinosa may have missed their taper some and probably have some decent time drops in them still. Ellis had a great meet, hopefually at the very least he can maintain. Now that Dekker is a nationals veteran maybe he can get quicker as well. I have no idea what to expect out of Nelis, CVB and Rose, outside of fast relay splits and I see Krone maintaining his great swims from leagues.

I would have loved to see one of the K freshman sprinters really assert themselves in this first year, but they have time. Fenwick had me seeing him at nationals with his in-season swims, will he be trying a second-chance meet? Looks like he and especially Contreras may have missed the bubble this year.

Its easy to over look but, Olivet’s Brian Johnson, with his 9th place finish in the 200 fly, out touching both Hope guys, in an event that he wasnt even supposed to qualify for, was a huge step to Olivet not haveing to rely on the finale relay to win.

@Captain Insano wrote:

@LaBouche wrote:

At least the Hope basketball team got an article for beating Adrian…woohoo.

I really hope you are being sarcastic.

No way man. I thought everyone knew how much I love Hope basketball. I think it’s great that they get so much press. How cool was it that the president of the NCAA was on Hope’s campus this week? I mean, seriously, they deserve even more press than they’re getting now. Kudos to the GR Press people for so diligently covering my favorite sports team, and for being so nice as to leave it out of the paper when players get suspended for alcohol violations. I’m sure the players and their families are very grateful…I know I am.

At least we could share your pain there, K’s basketball team was awful, and it still got 10 times the press we did.

Hey, at least K swimming made it to the front page of the Index (that fine pilar of journalistic excellence) AND the story was continued on the back.