The Stanford men are sending only two swimmers to the 2013 World Championship Trials, and one of those two is taking on a surprisingly thin schedule.
Daniel Thomson and David Nolan will be the only two members of Ted Knapp’s men’s collegiate training group in Indianapolis, with the rest of the team tapering fully for the U.S. Open in early August in Irvine, California.
Nolan’s schedule is shockingly thin, and won’t include the 100 backstroke that he won at the 2013 NCAA Championships, nor will it include the 200 backstroke in which he was 2nd at the 2013 NCAA Championships. He will swim just the 100 free (50.84 – 37th seed), the 200 free (1:49.95 – 15th seed), and the 200 IM (2:04.91 – 31st).
He was also the NCAA Champion in the latter of those events.
Thomson, a freshman distance swimmer who had a very good year, will swim the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles.
Justifications for the small Stanford roster centers mostly around the fact that finals just finished last week, much later than most schools, and combined with moving out of dorms, it is not an ideal run-up to Trials. Further, with Stanford starting so late in the fall as compared to their NCAA competition, it will keep more swimmers engaged throughout the whole summer, rather than swimming hard at Trials and coasting through July and August.
Not sure why this article is surrounded around Stanford. Is there some reason to call out Stanford in particular (which seems to happen more often than any other team in the NCAA on this website)? If you look through the pysch sheet there are many top collegiate teams (on the men’s side) that have small roster sizes. By my count of returning swimmers it appears:
Cal: 7
Michigan: 8
Texas: 3
Zona: 3
USC: 1
Obviously, Cal and Michigan are sending a good group of guys, but that is in relative comparison to the other teams. However, to single out Stanford seems like pretty weak reporting. A more interesting article or report would be about the… Read more »
LENNARDUS, the article is titled “David Nolan Not Swimming Backstroke Races at Worlds Trials”, and that is the main purpose of this article. A lot of people thought Nolan would be an A-Final contender in the 100 fly, 100 back, and 200 back. It makes sense as to why he would limit his events to maximize his chances at making a team. I just thought he might give the 100 fly or 100 back a shot anyway.
The points about Stanford happen to be included because, well, that’s where David goes to school. An article addressing the smaller college representation was kind of in the works, but that point about lower-end collegiate/younger swimmers has already sort of been discussed here… Read more »
I think everyone would agree that Florida is called out the most.
ummm what? Florida without a doubt gets called out way more than Stanford. Everything about your comment is just wrong
If you can’t make the FINA “A” times, then this is probably not the meet for you. Why waste the time and money when you are probably better off being home and training for a major meet in August.
Justifications for the Stanford men apparently do not apply equally to the women who have eight entrants…
Does the US Open count as a selection meet for anything other than World Juniors? It seems like anyone who isn’t close to a shot at the Worlds team is saving their taper for this meet. Just wondering the rationale.
You can use times from the US Open for selection to the 2013-14 senior National Team, even though no senior level travel squads are selected from the meet. Could be that some people feel like the US Open would fall at a better spot in a training cycle for them.
A lot of people seem to be skipping this meet or not tapering for it. No pros or contenders for roster spots but high school and college kids. Hopefully that means Juniors will be fast because I’m swimming there but haven’t made trials yet
I’m sorry fot the OT but why don’t you care about Russian Championships this week?
Paolo – we’ll have a recap of the full meet posted tomorrow after it ends. It is the Russian Championships, but it is only a qualifier for Junior Worlds.
You’re right, thanks!
I think because Stanford just finished up school it must be hard for them to focus on training for this meet and instead fully taper for US Open