The Psych Sheet

Colorado Well Represented at Speedo Championship

Many of the state’s top swimmers are in Oregon participating in the 2008 Speedo Western Long Course Section Championship, which kicked off late yesterday at the Mount Hood Community College Aquatic Center. The meet, which runs through Saturday, features swimmers from the Western region with teams from Arizona, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho and Utah.

Unlike the state championship meets or Western Zones, there are no qualifying times for age groups. Instead, the qualifying times are set for each event. Once a swimmer qualifies in one event, he or she is eligible to participate in that event, and may also swim a bonus event per each qualifying event up to a maximum of six events for the meet plus five relays.

To view this year’s qualifying times, click here.

Nearly 20 Colorado teams are represented at the meet, where the preliminary sessions average more than 600 swimmers.

Those Colorado teams with participants are:

Aces, Castle Rock Swim Club, Colorado Athletic Club, Colorado Springs Swim Team, Colorado Stars, Duncan YMCA Riptide, Durango Swim Club, Falfins, Foothills Swim Team, Fort Collins Area Swim Team, Greenwood Tiger Sharks, Highlands Ranch Aquatics, Loveland Swim Club, Mission Aurora Colorado Swimming, North Jeffco Swim Team, Pueblo Swim Club, RallySport Aquatics and University of Denver Hilltoppers.

After the first afternoon of competition, Colorado swimmers are already making their mark. In the Women’s 800M freestyle, Colorado swimmers took four of the top eight spots. Overall, through the first four events, in the men's division, Colorado teams held four of the top 10 spots with the University of Denver Hilltoppers in first place. While on the women's side, through three events, Colorado Stars were in second while the Hilltoppers held fifth.

You can follow your favorite swimmers or Colorado teams by going to the real-time results.

Pressure Cooker

Based on the headlines, you’d think the Olympic Trials was an incredibly fast meet where personal best times were the norm. After all, there were nine world records set or equaled during the eight-day competition along with 21 American records and 45 meet records.

Granted it was a fast pool, and it seemed like nearly everyone was outfitted in a high-tech LZR Racer, but clocking your best time at the Trials is in no way a given.

Of the 14 registered Colorado swimmers who competed, just four posted best times in all their events: Missy Franklin, 13, of Colorado Stars, Bonnie Brandon, 14, of Mission Aurora Colorado Swimming, Kristen Lahey, 20, of RallySport Aquatic Club and Ellie Freeman, 19, of University of Denver Hilltoppers.

Should you think that’s some kind of Colorado oddity, bear in mind that even though the majority of our swimmers didn’t have their best times, they nearly all moved up in their event ranking. That includes Justin Day, 21, of the Air Force Academy who went in seeded 38th with a time of 1:03.79 in the men’s 100M breaststroke and finished in 25th place even though he swam more than 2.5 seconds slower! That’s right. His time in prelims was a 1:06.04.

On the flip side, those swimmers who did get a personal best or were pretty darn close fared incredibly well, moving up some 20 to 30 spots, and in the case of Bonnie Brandon, who managed an astounding 3.5 second drop, catapulting herself into the semi-finals.

Admittedly, I have no idea when most folks made their Trials cut. The qualification period stretched more than three years with swimmers having to make the cut in a long-course pool sometime between April 1, 2005, and about a week before the meet. That’s likely a factor is some cases. Throw in the possibility of injury or illness, a prelim, semi-final, final structure, the jitters or just a bad taper, and anything can happen.

For more perspective, let’s look at day 4 of the prelims and finals when Missy Franklin swam her 100 free and set a 13-14 national age group record. According to a posting from Colorado Stars Coach Nick Frasersmith, USA Swimming provided the following:

Improved times data from day 4 Prelims -- Women 26% Men 57% Total 46%
Improved times data from day 4 Finals -- Women 69% Men 81% Total 76%

Which just makes some of these Colorado swims even more impressive.

Here’s a closer look at the Colorado contingent and how they fared:

Bryan Avery, 21, Air Force Academy
100m butterfly --  Seeded: 55.58, ranked 108; Finished: 58.29, ranked 105

Justin Day, 21, Air Force Academy
100m breaststroke -- Seeded: 1:03.79, ranked 37; Finished: 1:06.04, ranked 25

Benn Gunn, 19, Air Force Academy
100m butterfly -- Seeded: 55.53, ranked 102; Finished: 55.63, ranked 83

Rob Yeager, 25, Colorado Athletic Club
200m breaststroke -- Seeded: 2:20.30, ranked 57; Finished: 2:22.13, ranked 54

Missy Franklin, 13, Colorado Stars
200m IM – Seeded: 2:19.12, ranked 64; Finished 2:18.77, ranked 40
100m freestyle – Seeded: 56.84, ranked 70; Finished: 56.14, ranked 37
50m freestyle – Seeded: 26.21, ranked 61; Finished: 26.13, ranked 39

Susan von der Lippe, 42, Loveland Swim Club
100m butterfly – Seeded: 1:02.37, ranked 139; Finished: 1:02.41, ranked 105
100m breaststroke – Seeded: 1:11.83, ranked 65; Finished: 1:12.12, ranked 60

Marty Wahle, 21, Loveland Swim Club
200m backstroke – Seeded: 2:04.31, ranked 42; Finished: 2:04.71, ranked 36

Bonnie Brandon, 14, Mission Aurora Colorado
200m backstroke – Seeded: 2:16.64, ranked 46: Semi-final: 2:13.12, ranked 13: Finished: 2:13.41, ranked 14

Katie Johnson, 17, North Jeffco Swim Team
200m breaststroke – Seeded: 2:35.48, ranked 75; Finished: 2:36.08, ranked 55

Kristen Lahey, 20, RallySport Aquatic Club
100m backstroke – Seeded: 1:02.97, ranked 24; Finished: 1:02.77, ranked 27

Madeline Rovira, 21, RallySport Aquatic Club
100m freestyle – Seeded: 56.73, ranked 61; Finished: 57.19, ranked 72

Ellie Freeman, 19, University of Denver Hilltoppers
200m breaststroke  -- Seeded: 2:33.20, ranked 38; Finished: 2:32.60, ranked 25
100m breaststroke – Seeded: 1:12.07, ranked 78; Finished: 1:11.85, ranked 52

Kelsey Totura, 21, University of Denver Hilltoppers
200m backstroke – Seeded: 2:17.64, ranked 76; Finished: 2:18.60, ranked 72