The first big invite of the season went down over the weekend in Dallas at the SMU Classic. The field for this meet was stacked, with select squads from Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisville, and the hosts SMU all participating.
Dallas has become a hub for these types of events across college sports. The Metroplex has two Division 1 sports teams – TCU and SMU – but neither is (yet) in a major, BCS Conference. Still, the city attracts some of the biggest college sporting events every year.
This meet was very much a “top-on-top” atmosphere, with teams sending only the creme-de-la-creme of their best swimmers; it was probably even more elite of squads than you’ll see at NCAA’s (each team got one relay entry and two individual entries in each event), but that not only made the meet very exciting, it gave us a strong early-season indicator of each team’s quality headed towards NCAA’s (with the caveat that this is not the top swimmers from each team, Florida’s Teresa Crippen and Virginia’s Lauren Perdue, for example, were absent, as was Wisconsin’s Ashley Wanland, who was at the Pan Am Games).
Leading the way for Texas was senior Karlee Bispo, who took wins in the 200 free (1:47.35) and 100 free (49.45), each of which stands amongst the top three times in the nation this year.
And those races weren’t won against slouches, either. In the 200 free, she took out Florida’s Jamie Bohunicky (1:47.98) and SMU’s Nina Rangelova (1:48.47), both of whom have been 1:47’s this year.
Possibly even more shocking was her win in the 100 free over Florida’s Sarah Bateman. Bateman has been absolutely on fire early this year, as has much of the Florida lineup, but she was 2nd here in 49.57, a tenth behind the Longhorn.
The only of Bispo’s five events that she didn’t come away from a win in was the 200 IM (2:01.63), where she was runner-up to Florida’s Elizabeth Beisel. Beisel touched in 1:58.77. That’s the second time this season that she’s gone a 1:58, whereas nobody else has gone under two-minutes yet. Beisel also won the 400 IM (4:10.79) in dominant fashion ahead of Leah Gingrich (4:16.32), and the 100 back in 54.65 (faster than she was two weeks ago).
One of the biggest rivalries in swimming this year will be Beisel versus Hosszu in the IM’s, and for reference, Beisel’s 400 time is two seconds better than Hosszu went over the weekend.
We mentioned above that Florida’s Bateman lost the 100 free to Bispo, however she tore up the rest of the meet to the tune of wins in the 50 free (22.53) and 100 fly (53.27). That 100 fly is not only her best time of the season, and the best time nation-wide this season, it’s the fastest she’s been in her career outside of last year’s SEC Championships.
There’s something going on in Gainesville. The swimmers are racing at speeds that are unheard of given their typical level of training in October, and then they’re coming back even faster at the next meet. This will be a situation to keep an eye on before we can make any long-term conclusions, but for now, the Gator elite are swimming very fast.
The event wins were swept by Florida and Texas, but that is not to say that the other competitors were not without their excitements. For Virginia, the ever-masochistic Rachel Naurath took on a brutal 6-even schedule, but still managed to take 3rd-place honors in the second-to-last of those events, the 200 fly, in 2:01.11. Also in that race was an impresive performance from Louisville freshman Abby Chin in 2:01.58.
The Wisconsin Badgers are already taking to the training of new coach Whitney Hite. Whereas under Eric Hansen, the Badgers were putting up better sprint times at this point in the season with the 200’s to come around later, at this meet, the Badgers put up some good 200 times, but were a bit slower in their 100’s. Take, for example, Amie Osten, who was a 57.1 in her 100 backstroke (seven-tenths slower) but a 2:05.3 in her 200 backstroke (a second faster).
Team Scores
- Texas 350
- Florida 330
- SMU 257
- Louisville 256.5
- Virginia 248
- Wisconsin 214.5
Melanie Margalis- 4:09 this weekend against UNC… everyone tends to forget about her.
For me Mr Keith, the IM races are not only between Elizabeth Beisel and Katinka Hosszu, you forget Caitlin Leverenz and especially Maya DiRado. If her butterfly and her breaststroke improve, Maya DiRado is a real contender for NCAA titles next year.
Elizabeth Beisel is on another planet since this summer. She isn’t the most talented swimmer but she works like no one else in the world of swimming. To swim these times with all her hard work is very impressive. But for me Mr Keith, the IM races are not only between Elizabeth Beisel and Katinka Hosszu, but you forget Caitlin Leverenz and especially Maya DiRado.
i was hoping to see the badger ladies perform better! Granted i didnt expect them to win the meet or anything, but maybe throw down a couple faster swims. Clearly whitney is working them pretty hard (or at least differently then hansen). Itll be interesting to see if they take the arizona or wisconsin approach towards the texas invite in december (full taper vs. few days rest). good luck to them the rest of their season!!!!