TSC Gives Out Our 2011 NCAA Women's Championship Awards!

Full Meet Results

This was a great NCAA Championship meet. Aside from the 2009 polyurethane meet, it was arguably the fastest in history. There were a ton of surprises, a ton of standout swimmers, a ton of breakout swimmers, and a ton of great races.

An interesting trend developed in this meet: more often than not, the swimmer who took the race out the hardest had the most impressive swim, which is not always the case. Maggie Meyer’s winning 200 backstroke, where she took the first 100 out in 53.14, is a great example. That opening split is the second-fastest ever by an NCAA champ in history, behind only the great Natalie Coughlin. Another instance is Virginia’s Lauren Perdue. Though she wasn’t able to hold on and win the 200 free, she took out a body-length lead on the first 50, and pushed to a huge career-best time (1:42.51), and a runner-up finish, when not many expected it. It goes to show that in a short course race, it’s a lot harder to make up ground at the end of a race.

And then there were the Champions Cal. They had contributions from every level of their team. They had wins from freshmen, and they had wins from senior. Some of their points were seeded that way (Cindy Tran in the 100 back) and some were not (Deborah Roth in the 100 back). They played relays perfectly, with saving their energy in prelims, and then busting out great performances in finals. They actually received scoring contributions from 12 of the 13 swimmers they had at the meet, which is an impressive ratio.

Though Georgia didn’t win the National Championship, at the end of the meet they still seemed very satisfied with their performance. They ended the meet in spectacular fashion by setting an American Record in the 400 free. Also, Allison Schmitt broke an NCAA Record- one of the best ones on the book-, in the prelims of the 500 free. The team definitely had their ups and downs, but on the final day they fought hard, and for that they’ll keep their chins up.

TSC Awards

Swimmer of the Meet-Katinka Hosszu, Jr., USC-This was a relatively easy pick. Hosszu won 3 individual races in this meet, the 200 IM, the 400 IM, and the 200 fly, and all 3 were in convincing fashion. In the process, she also became only the second woman under 4-minutes in the 400 IM. Fun fact: the runners-up in each of Hosszu’s 3 wins were freshmen, and in fact, there wasn’t a senior in the top 3 of any of her races. This means that, as only a junior, she’s going to have to stay on top of her game next season to hang on to those titles, though in an Olympic year there’s no doubt that she will.

honorable mention: Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace- She didn’t break any records, including her own in the 100 free, but she still had a dominant double in the 50 and 100 freestyles.

honorable mention: Allison Schmitt- She won two individual events, the 200 and 500 freestyles, and set an American Record in the latter. She also anchored the Georgia 400 free relay to an American Record.

Coach of the Year-Teri McKeever, Cal-It seemed like every move McKeever made in this meet was exactly the right move, and she needed every single one of them to pull out his win. She had her relays back off in prelims to come back and smoke finals. She had Tran scratch the 100 fly, which turned into gold in the 100 back. She had the right swimmers tapered at the right time: some came in as top seeds, and some left as top seeds. And on the final day, the Bears came out on top with their second National Championship in three years. In 2009, McKeever became the first female coach to win a National Championship, in 2010 she was named the first female head coach of the U.S. Olympic Team, and in 2011, she became the first female coach to win a second National Championship. It’s almost secondary to the award, but the inroads that she has been making into the coaching world is unbelievable.

honorable mention: Pat Mead, Towson- All recognition for Coach of the Year doesn’t always have to go to the big boys. Pat Mead definitely earned recognition for his impressive work with the Towson distance crew, including double-silver medalist Meredith Budner. He led the Tigers to a 21st-place finish, ahead of powerful programs like North Carolina and Michigan.

honorable mention: Steve Bultman, Texas A&M- Bultman had a very young team this season, but he has brought a lot of freshman to some very impressive heights. This includes silver-medalists Breeja Larson and Cammile Adams. Despite 5-straight top 5 finishes, this year’s team broke a ton of school records. Even more importantly, this is the second-straight year that an Aggie has won the “Elite 88” award, showing that Bultman puts an important focus on academics as well.

Freshman of the Year- Breeja Larson, Texas A&M-The breaststroke races in this meet were wild and crazy, but through it all, the constant was that Breeja Larson was 2nd in both of them. No other breaststroker earned two medals in this meet, which is in itself an impressive feat. If you consider that Larson only started club-swimming during her senior year of high school, that becomes even more impressive. There are plenty of instances of late bloomers; swimmers who started swimming seriously later in their youths and turned into great swimmers after a few years in college. But I can’t think of another swimmer who has ever combined starting so late in high school with such an explosive freshman year.

honorable mention: Cindy Tran, Cal- Tran only scored in one event, but that one was a huge splash. She won the 100 back in 51.31, one of the best freshmen times ever.

honorable mention: Margo Geer, Arizona- Geer was 3rd-place in both of the sprint freestyles, which is awesome for a freshman. USC’s Kasey Carlson is the only other swimmer to place top-16 in either race.

Race of the Meet- 200 breaststroke- There were a lot of great races in this meet, but none was better than this 200 breaststroke. Caitlin Leverenz took this race out early, and given her history of closing speed, it didn’t appear as though anybody was going to catch her. And by anybody, I mean Minnesota’s Jillian Tyler, who was the top seed after prelims. While Tyler didn’t catch her, two other swimmers that nobody was focusing on did. All attention was focused on those two in the middle lanes, but on either side, Breeja Larson and Minnesota’s Haley Spencer were lurking. They waited until the last 10 yards to make their moves, but in those 10 yards they both made up about 6 feet in distance and finished 1-2. Spencer’s reaction was simple incredulity, since she wasn’t the Gopher that was expected to win this race. This was yet another step in the evolution of Larson, who showed great maturity and broke the freshman record (previously held by Spencer). If you only have time to watch one race during this entire meet, make it this one.

Elite 88 Award

Alyssa Conner, Jr., Texas A&M- This is a very special award that the NCAA began giving out last year. It is given out to the athlete with the highest GPA at each of the NCAA’s 88 Championships. To be eligible for the award, the student-athlete must compete at the NCAA’s final site (final 4, championship meet, etc.), meaning that they have combined elite academic achievement with elite athletic achievement. This year, the award went to Alyssa Conner from Texas A&M, with a perfect 4.0 GPA in her three years at Texas A&M. A&M is actually the only school to ever win this award for Division I women’s swimming, with Ella Doerge winning the award last season. This speaks volumes about the entire A&M program, from coaches to athletes to support staff, that they can achieve top-10 finishes every year and still turn out great academic numbers.

Scoring

If you read anything we post, you know that we wouldn’t get away with just posting the scores and having that be the end of it, we’ve gotta break down the numbers and see what has changed from last year.

• All expectations pointed to a lower-score winning this year’s NCAA Championship. In Austin, however, that did a complete 180, and the rich got much, much richer. Winners Cal scored 424 points, which was 40 more than Florida’s winning score last year. The 2nd-and-3rd place scores, however, were very similar to last year’s.
• Not all top 10’s are created equal. It took a lot more to make the top 10 this season than it did last. Tenth-place Texas A&M scored 182 points this season; last year 10th place Indiana scored only 133.
• There were only two new entrants in this year’s top 10, with Texas and Minnesota moving into the place that Virginia and Indiana held last year.
• Taking it a step further, the only new team in the top 15 was LSU, who finished 14th as Michigan fell out.
• The Pac-10 dominated this meet. They earned 4 out of the top 5 spots. In terms of power-rankings, if you average each conferences top 5 finishers, the strongest conferences are: Pac-10 (avg. 6.2), SEC (avg. 10.6), Big Ten (avg. 12.83), ACC (avg. 20.6), and the Big 12 (avg. 13.0, 3 scoring teams). No big surprises there.

Total Scoring

1. Cal Berkeley 424
2. Georgia 394.5
3. Southern Cali 351
4. Stanford 272
5. Arizona 266
6. Texas 232
7. Florida 226
8. Auburn 202
9. Minnesota 192
10. Texas A&M 182
11. Wisconsin 160
12. Tennessee 148
13. Virginia 105
14. Louisiana St 89
15. Indiana 86.5
16. Miami (Fl) 67
17. Ohio St 64
18. Arizona St 59
19. Duke 54
20. Ucla 45
21. Towson 43
22. Maryland 42
23. Missouri 40
23. Unc 40
25. Purdue 36
26. George Mason 33
27. Western KY 20
28. Kentucky 18
29. South Carolina 15
30. University of Iowa 13
30. Michigan 13
32. Arkansas 12
32. Hawaii 12
34. Denver 11
35. Penn St 10
36. University of Houston 9
36. So. Methodist 9
38. Wyoming 7
39. Boise St 5
40. Louisville 4
41. Toledo 2
41. Alabama 2