NESCAC season begins tonight at midnight

I am interested to see what happens with the stud freestyler from Williams that got himself into some trouble. ANyone know what is going on with that.

Man Nescacfan, I was just about to start a happy NESCAC season eve thread. What is going on at Williams, does anyone have more specific information?

That is a huge hit for them. That guy was a relay machine last year

I’m not sure what is going on with Ben, but a few of his high school teammates have told me he was nearly non-participant at New Trier practices last year. Not that that has anything to do with this.

I have a hard time believing Kuster would let this slide.

Yes but as of now they have not had official practice. Although Kuster may have glanced outside the window of his office and noticed that Ben was not among members of the team independently gathering to condition prior to the season with no instruction involved (there are no captain’s practices in the NESCAC).

http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?sawContrib=yes&view=article&section=news&id=8959

That is the last that I’ve heard of it. I would assume that he’s been suspended by the college. The article mentions something about disciplinary actions from Williams.

Oh, and I thought you could have captain’s practices in NESCAC, or am I mistaken? As long as they are not mandatory, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a captain writing up a workout independently of the coach’s wishings…

Oops I guess I was assuming the wrong stud sprinter involved at Williams. Griz, there was a directive handed down in 02, spearheaded by the President of Colby College, that affirmed that it is against NESCAC rules to hold a captains practice. Its a bit complicated and it had to be clarified what exactly a captain’s practice was. Basically any action attempting to compel guys to appear at practice would be illegal and offering any skill instruction (helping a guy with his technique) was strictly forbidden. Now, these rules are nearly impossible to enforce and like all rules governing sports are probably applied differently at different schools.

Maybe I have a different idea of what a captain’s practice is. If it’s voluntary, then it seems OK to me. Good ol’ NESCAC.

When does official practice start again…? 😀

Yeah its very confusing. No captains practices, but a group of swimmers getting together to do the same workout is fine. I think its just to make the NESCAC presidents feel better about the academic integrity of the league. On another note, anyone want to report on any time trials conducted in the first day of practice? How did Bates look? Any 25s on the block being put on the stopwatch out there? If you have official splits please post them.

I believe captain’s practices are outlawed for all D3 schools now, not just the NESCAC. I agree it is dumb though, people are still practicing.

@silentp wrote:

I believe captain’s practices are outlawed for all D3 schools now, not just the NESCAC. I agree it is dumb though, people are still practicing.

If this is true, I wonder how many people really know that this is the rule or how to enforce it. And I wonder what they’ll come up with for division 4…

Colbybr: How did Bates look?

You mean to say that someone from Bates is actually on this site? And intelligent enough to comment? Ha, I’m only kidding. Only the best and brightest students go to school in a town widely considered to be the armpit of Maine.

They only have three freshmen on their roster. The diver/freestyler looks pretty decent, and he will be a bonus for CBB meets. That kid Peem, is actually pretty decent. The kid is more or less coming in with pretty decent times for a NESCAC sprinter at a CBB, but he’s 5′ nothing.

I will be interested to see how the team improves throughout the year with the new coach, Casares. He had a lot of success at Wabash, and he’s the only other coach to win a men’s and women’s national championship in the same year ever…. 😀

It will be even more interesting to see what kind of recruits he pulls in next year.

I’d love to know what Bowdoin and Bates have, but they are never in a hurry to put up new rosters…

Some observations:

1) Tufts has another huge team (15 Frosh alone!) … fortunately, M&W swim teams control the pool for the entire day during the season and the divers are off to another pool. It will be interesting to see if Tufts men can pull of their magic from 2 years ago (top 10 finish at NCAA’s).

2) The November 1st start date in the NESCAC is just another example of “dumbing down” in our society. I saw this with my son in HS over a debate of whether to allow HS swimmers to swim club during the regular season … I called it the “pursuit of mediocrity”

These kids are now 18+ … if they want to pursue excellence in the pool … why stop them? If someone has already chosen a NESCAC school, you can be pretty sure they already know that academics are at the top of the priority list … but what is wrong about giving a kid the best possible opportunity to achieve excellence in sports AND academics?

@d3swimmeranddad wrote:

Some observations:

1) Tufts has another huge team (15 Frosh alone!) … fortunately, M&W swim teams control the pool for the entire day during the season and the divers are off to another pool. It will be interesting to see if Tufts men can pull of their magic from 2 years ago (top 10 finish at NCAA’s).

2) The November 1st start date in the NESCAC is just another example of “dumbing down” in our society. I saw this with my son in HS over a debate of whether to allow HS swimmers to swim club during the regular season … I called it the “pursuit of mediocrity”

These kids are now 18+ … if they want to pursue excellence in the pool … why stop them? If someone has already chosen a NESCAC school, you can be pretty sure they already know that academics are at the top of the priority list … but what is wrong about giving a kid the best possible opportunity to achieve excellence in sports AND academics?

You bring up a good argument D3dad. I do have to agree with you to a certain extent. From my experience no amount of legislation is going to make athletes, coaches, and schools put the value on academics that these rules intend. Some student athletes will put a high value on their academics, and some won’t. In all honesty, although the purpose of this rule is to “protect” student athletes from the horrors of athletics impinging on their academics. However, in all truth I think most people agree that people handle the academic rigor better when they are forced to balance it with athletics.

Here are my men’s nescac subplots for the year:

Conn College: Have gone from conference doormat to kicking some serious ass in a very short amount of time. In the past, Benvenuti has always done a great job recruiting but at times the program has for one reason or another struggled to retain their recruited talent. Will they be able to build on their success for last year or regress to their former status

Hamilton: Are they back? 06 was a terrible year for the Continentals, and they managed to bounce back and be competitive again in 07. Is this a sign of things to come? Can TJ continue to bring in good recruiting classes? Will Todd Johnson drop any time from november?

Colby College: Have managed to rise into NESCAC mediocrity the past couple years. However, they may struggle with numbers this year. Can Evan Mullin step it up and qualify for nationals? Will Sam Wampler show up to practice?

Tufts: Took a big step forward in 06 but their team seemed to regress last year. 2006 Coach of the year Adam Hoyt deals with the biggest roster in the league but something went wrong on the Tufts taper.

Williams: Perched atop the NESCAC perenially. However, they had an uncharacteristically small recruiting class and their top sprinter from last year is embroiled in a legal imbroglio (really wanted to say that). Are their chinks in the Kuster armor?

Middlebury’s John Dillion was impressive NESCACs but was not at NCAAs… if he goes this year… hes gonna be a dark horse

@3 6 Mafia wrote:

Middlebury’s John Dillion was impressive NESCACs but was not at NCAAs… if he goes this year… hes gonna be a dark horse

i totally agree, he was a 57 in meters in his 100 fly his senior year. i wonder if he is still still swimming.

Tried to google my own school’s freshmen this morning…could only find info on one of them. Although Peter Williams does share the name of the former world record holder in the 50 m free.

@Colbybr wrote:

@d3swimmeranddad wrote:

Some observations:

1) Tufts has another huge team (15 Frosh alone!) … fortunately, M&W swim teams control the pool for the entire day during the season and the divers are off to another pool. It will be interesting to see if Tufts men can pull of their magic from 2 years ago (top 10 finish at NCAA’s).

2) The November 1st start date in the NESCAC is just another example of “dumbing down” in our society. I saw this with my son in HS over a debate of whether to allow HS swimmers to swim club during the regular season … I called it the “pursuit of mediocrity”

These kids are now 18+ … if they want to pursue excellence in the pool … why stop them? If someone has already chosen a NESCAC school, you can be pretty sure they already know that academics are at the top of the priority list … but what is wrong about giving a kid the best possible opportunity to achieve excellence in sports AND academics?

You bring up a good argument D3dad. I do have to agree with you to a certain extent. From my experience no amount of legislation is going to make athletes, coaches, and schools put the value on academics that these rules intend. Some student athletes will put a high value on their academics, and some won’t. In all honesty, although the purpose of this rule is to “protect” student athletes from the horrors of athletics impinging on their academics. However, in all truth I think most people agree that people handle the academic rigor better when they are forced to balance it with athletics.

Colbybr: to expand a little on my comments: I have always preached”to my sons to “find their passion” and “pursue excellence”. I’ve never told them what to pursue (as long as it was not destructive) … just passion and excellence. I always cite the example of Tony Hawk … pursued skate boarding (“conventional” wisdom said just a fad) with passion and excellence in mind … and he now has more money than you and I can ever dream about.

I assume your comment about “protecting” is sarcastic … and you and I are of a like mind.

My son has chosen, at this time in his life, to pursue swimming and engineering with passion and excellence in mind. He has shown me that he can pursue both at the same time (as you suggest) .. a pursuit which I encourage 110%. I reject any idea that he should not be coached until November 1st by some bureaucrat.

Pursuit of excellence (at ANY level) should be encouraged and not discouraged.

I’ve watched my son rise at 4:30AM 4 days per week for 3 years … please Mr. Administrator, do not hold my son back if he wants to the best he can be!

Amen! My “protect” surely was sarcastic. Lets be honest, we should be teaching these kids how to pursue anything they want at a college to the fullest. I coach at a school with some level of academic bureacracy similar to the nescac. Constantly students would like to miss practice for academic reasons. I try to convince them that it is possible for them to excel academically…and make all the practices! This, for the most part, is not what they have been taught by their parents. They have been taught that if its “too much”, accomodations will be made.

@3 6 Mafia wrote:

Middlebury’s John Dillion was impressive NESCACs but was not at NCAAs… if he goes this year… hes gonna be a dark horse

Dillon’s gone. Failed out of Middlebury. Hurts to lost him AND Collier.

One a side note, Hannigan is gone until spring semester 2008, so Williams will have to make do without him.

Here’s the only thing I would change: Let coaches work with swimmers prior to Nov 1 on an optional basis. Maybe supervised captain’s practices where coaches can give stroke instruction. Obviously there are a lot of possible pitfalls but I feel that entirely preventing coach/swimmer contact outside of Nov 1 through the end of the season is silly.

@Nescacfan wrote:

I don’t think the November 1 rule is that bad. Swimmers who want to work out can; those that that don’t can pursue other activities including other sports such as water polo.

NESCAC swimmers make a choice to pursue a blended academic/athletic approach at a top- notch liberal arts college. I too am a big fan of excellence and not dumbing things down. Most of the swimmers perform very well in academics, in the pool and in other extracurriculars.

As for performance when it counts at the end of the season, NESCAC swimmers have amazed me with their ability to figure out how to excel at both NESCAC championships and the NCAA’s. Take for example the NESCAC women at nationals last year. Most of them were swimming personal bests every time they got in the water. Nearly all of the NESCAC women at nationals could have been swimming in a “full-time” DI, DII or longer seaon D-III school. I bet to a person they are all pleased with their decision to swim at one of the NESCAC schools.

As NESCAC fan, I sure am.

NESCACFan: I am all for choice at the non-scholarship DIII level and do NOT think that swimming should be mandatory “out of season” … my beef is that swimmers are PREVENTED from being coached “out of season”.

Imagine if you were a star musician and you were PREVENTED from being taught 8 months out of the year!

Schools (especially NESCAC schools) should WANT to cultivate and nourish passion and excellence.

I was delighted when my son chose a NESCAC school and I am sure that he will not regret that decision when he finishes up in 4 years (I hope) … I just don’t see any harm in my son being coached from September 1st IF HE WANTS!

Anyway, it should be a great season … especially for a “rookie dad”.

Ok lets get into some discussion of other NESCAC related topics. I dont know how much its been discussed, but there were some NESCAC swimmers doing some good work over the summer. I believe Norman Scott was 56 LCM 100 Fly and I also witnessed Kevin O’Rourke doing some high quality training over the summer at Harvard. Any thoughs/information on some swimmers who may have break out years?

We don’t have a good look at their freshmen yet, but as far as teams go, Conn College is definitely moving up the ranks.

I guess you could say that last year was their breakout year, but they will solidify themselves this year regardless of whether or not they have any good freshmen. They graduated only one kid from last year’s team.

Yeah it seems as if Benvenuti has is solving the problem that plagued them in the past. As I recall since he started he has been pulling in great recruiting classes, certainly good enough to make Conn contenders in the league. However they had shockingly severe attrition. Now that they are retaining their top level swimmers it will be interesting if their is a power shift within the league.

I can’t see a current roster for Conn … anybody know if they got any more studs like Troy and Moryan?

Word on the street is that they did, but we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves.

The hardest part of NESCAC season as an alumni is waiting for these teams to get going. It feels like everyone else in the country has had a meet and shown some of their stuff. We probably have another week and a half until any teams have a meet and even then we may be left with a lot of questions. Anybody have any word on standout swimmers we haven’t already heard about already entering the conference?

@Colbybr wrote:

I also witnessed Kevin O’Rourke doing some high quality training over the summer at Harvard.

…only for a few weeks.

True. Quinlan Sievers from Williams was also there.

Spoke with a Conn alum today, he told me to watch for Conn to improve on last years finish. No specifics but it seems that Benvenuti has pulled in another good class.

i get the feeling that conn hasn’t updated their roster yet because they want to go into their two meets this weekend with a “we’ll shock the world but we won’t shock ourselves” attitude. they are at midd on saturday then at williams on sunday.

with a good freshmen class, i can see them pulling off the win at midd. i think it’s more of a long shot for the williams meet, but anything is possible.

You may be right Griz. Benvenuti seems to believe, unlike the coaches of some of the other coaches of mediocre performing NESCAC teams, that he can challenge the top of the conference and change the power structure.

“Dillon’s gone. Failed out of Middlebury. Hurts to lost him AND Collier.”

Do you mean Brooks Farrar, the diver? Dillon’s been swimming, but Farrar hasn’t been diving — and isn’t on the roster.