VARSITY ATHLETICS

February 14, 2009

The Yutzy Report: 2009 UAA Swimming & Diving Championships

Thoughts from Chicago – UAA Day 2
By Assistant Coach & Alumnist Steve Yutzy

After a highly successful first day, our swimming and diving teams were looking to move up in the standings with our day 2 swims. Historically speaking, day 2 is a much better day for us, as it features more stroke events. This year has proven to be no exception. The women are continuing to pile on the points and trying to catch up to Rochester to take 5th place, while the men recovered beautifully from a day 1 that saw us swim amazingly fast but score about 150 points less than last year due to a relay disqualification and the loss of a few injured athletes.

Both teams started the meet with a bang with the 200 medley relays. The women swam 3 seconds faster than our relay last year, and only a few tenths off of the varsity record. The men's relay broke our varsity record and recorded another NCAA B qualifying time, while placing 2nd in the conference. After building some good momentum with the medley relays, the strokers and 200 freestylers took over to start racking up the points. Highlights include Alex Hostoffer winning the 100 breaststroke to become Case's second ever men's UAA champion, freshman Michael Lin swimming a 200 freestyle about a half second off the varsity record, junior Drew Swartz breaking his own varsity record and placing second in the 100 backstroke, and freshman Stephanie Campbell breaking 1:00 for the first time in the 100 fly. I kind of feel like a segment producer for ESPN, who has to reduce all the day's fantastic plays down to a top few, because really just about every time our athletes dive in they're laying down an outstanding performance: lifetime bests, varsity records, and national qualifying times. This is a fantastic problem to have!

I think both of our teams have built some great momentum going into day 3 (200 strokes, 100 free, 1650 free), which is always the hardest day of the meet. It's also my favorite day, not just because I was a 200 breaststroker, but because once you get to day 3 everybody in the building is absolutely exhausted from 2 solid days of racing and success on day 3 really comes down to who wants it more. It's not about who has a fancier swim suit, or who placed where at nationals last year, or even who swam well the day before; it's all about wanting to win more than the guy/girl next to you. And that's a really fun thing to watch, since our kids are always exceptional at stepping up and beating people on day 3.

Just a reminder, you can watch all the swimming and diving action live from the University of Chicago's event homepage.

Let's go Spartans!

Click here for Day One Blog

Posted by: Creg Jantz February 14, 2009 12:12 PM | Category: Women's Swimming

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) February 14, 2009 12:12 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback