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ECAC Times Removed from Men’s Pre-Selection Psych Sheets

Update: according to one coach, ECAC times have been reinstated, reversing the decisions below. Click here for more details.

The men’s pre-selection psych sheet for the 2017 NCAA Championships has seen a major alteration on Tuesday afternoon. The primary driver is that times from last weekend’s ECAC Championship meet have been removed from the psych sheets.

The ECAC meet is a conference meet hosted by the Eastern College Athletic Conference. The ECAC championship meet is a little unique in that most of its swimming member teams are also members of other conferences – giving them two conference championship meets in a sense.

The big takeaway is that Towson sophomore Jack Saunderson, who was seeded 26th in the 200 fly, has dropped to 32nd, which means that barring a last-minute change of any kind, he won’t be qualified for the championship. Based on our projections, now Texas A&M’s Angel Martinez will be invited as the 29th-best 200 butterflier. His other events are the 200 free (1:37.19) and 200 IM (1:48.46).

Also impacted is Loyola-Maryland’s Ben Cono. His 52.50 in the 100 breaststroke was removed from the pre-selection sheets and bumped to a 52.83. That drops him from 23rd to 36th in the new rankings. In this case, Michigan’s Chris Klein was bumped up to 29th, but because he’s already qualified (he has the 9th-best 200 breaststroke), Clayton Forde from Georgia, who was the 1st alternate, should be invited based on his 400 IM.

SwimSwam has reached out to the NCAA and Towson University to determine why ECAC results were invalidated from consideration (they were also removed from the official NCAA results database). The ECAC meet, treated by many teams as a “Last Chance Meet,” is not one of the 9 approved post-conference NCAA qualifying meets.

Official invited lists are expected to be posted on Wednesday morning.

 

 

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YoungFish11
7 years ago

Braden,
Can we get an updated alternate list after some alternates were moved into NCAAs?

Swammerererer
7 years ago

This is a complete load of crap. Why would any collegiate program bother sending their teams to swim at ECACs if it doesn’t count. How many schools send kids to this meet hoping for a last chance to make NCAAs. Do they get their money back? Meals, hotels, entry fees, etc…..just doesn’t seem right.

7 years ago

Please remember that the NCAA does NOT exist to just to serve student athletes.

It also exists so its administrators can make up silly rules, line up corporate sponsorships, and make bank with bloated paychecks…….or so it seems.

jp merchant
Reply to  Donald P. Spellman
7 years ago

“It also exists so its administrators can make up silly rules, line up corporate sponsorships, and make bank with bloated paychecks…….or so it seems.”

this seems to be the NCAAs primary purpose.

barbotus
7 years ago

Wow. Not a cool outcome. Maybe Tanner Boyle can run out and steal the blocks while the fans shout “Let them play”. It worked for the Bad News Bears.

Aquaman
Reply to  barbotus
7 years ago

Agreed, totally bogus- I feel for those who put it all out there. This is a long established meet that is part of the college season- not simply a last chance meet.

QD Dad
7 years ago

That’s really unfortunate for that Towson kid to get his hopes up about qualifying for the meet just to have the rug yanked out from under him by a seemingly stupid technicality.

He Gets It Done Again
7 years ago

Also Ben Cono from Loyola may be affected. He went from 52.83 to 52.50 in the 100 breast

jay ryan
Reply to  He Gets It Done Again
7 years ago

Yeah, 52.50 in the time trial. I missed that!

Swim Fan
7 years ago

This also would mean Loyola’s Ben Cono would be bumped from the meet

KDSwim
7 years ago

I find it somewhat interesting that Angel Martinez was “bumped out” by the NCAA approval of Cal’s Zheng Quah swimming in a single last chance meet to get to the Championships. Glad for Angel, but sorry for others impacted with what I assume was a protest about the ECAC meet.

jay ryan
Reply to  KDSwim
7 years ago

The ECAC is an old school “inclusive” East Coast Championship meet and was historically a parallel to what used to be called the EISL, or the “Easterns”. The EISL is now only the 8 Ivies (minus Princeton men) this year. Both the ECAC and the EISL were inclusive of many schools from various conferences. The ECAC remains a especial meet taking “all comers” from many different East Coast Schools including some from non D-1 conferences, such as Adelphi. It is a novel venue for good swimmers from lesser programs to “punch above their weight” and sometimes it leads to top swims and D-I cuts. I was not aware that only “Certified Last Chance” meets are valid for NCAA qualifying after… Read more »

Joe
Reply to  jay ryan
7 years ago

There is a list of meets that have been approved that was available before the last few weeks of the season. I think there were something like 9 ‘approved’ last-chance meets. I don’t know the rules about how they get certified or not, or why only certain meets are certified, but if ECAC was not a last-chance meet it was knowable in advance.

John
Reply to  jay ryan
7 years ago

This couldn’t be more wrong…EISL was not a combination of ecac. EISL was Ivy League with Navy and Army.

Tomato
Reply to  John
7 years ago

That’s what he said. Read it again.

jay ryan
Reply to  John
7 years ago

Trust me I know this. EISL was Ivies plus Army and Navy for the dual meet season, but the EISL championship meet was the 10 conference participants plus essentially anyone in the East who wanted to go. This meet was won by NC State a few times in the 70’s and included many east coast teams, including Drexel, Lasalle, Colgate, etc. The ECAC was a parallel meet and was often dominated by Pitt and Penn State. These meets both had parallel attendance. I understand that certifying Last Chance meets is a good idea, lest someone throw together a poorly officiated group of time trials with “coaches’ starts and turns” to qualify. DECERTIFYING an established meet with some history seems capricious,… Read more »

jay ryan
Reply to  jay ryan
7 years ago

carefully

dmswim
Reply to  jay ryan
7 years ago

Last year ECAC’s was a qualifying meet. I’m not sure if it was designated as one last year or if there wasn’t a limited number of qualifying meets last year. Regardless, this system of only having certain qualifying meets puts smaller schools like Towson at a disadvantage. The closest qualifying meet to Towson for men was Georgia or Ohio State, neither of which is within realistic driving distance. I can understand an AD from a small school being unwilling to pony up extra money for an athlete to fly to a last chance meet when they had a chance to qualify at their conference meet. It’s unfortunate that the NCAA has implemented a policy that favors rich schools over smaller… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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