VARSITY ATHLETICS

February 15, 2009

The "Final" Yutzy Report: 2009 UAA Swimming & Diving Championships

Thoughts from Chicago – UAA Day 3
By Assistant Coach and Alumnist Steve Yutzy

The great thing about a 3 day meet is that there are lots of opportunities to get better, but at the same time there are also lots of opportunities to slip up. With having as fast of a conference as we do, if you can't step up and swim well in the morning prelims, you won't even get a chance to improve at night. By the time we get to day 3, everybody in the whole building (coaches included) are absolutely exhausted, so to do well you really have to dig deep and rely on your training (all those double workouts pay off!). Our kids did a fantastic job of swimming through the pain and setting themselves up for an excellent evening session and finish to the meet.

To qualify for the NCAA championships, there are two qualifying times: the A and B standards. If you achieve the A time you automatically are invited to the championship meet, and then the fastest B time swimmers are invited until the meet is full. Alex Hostoffer won the 200 breastroke in a time of 2:03.01, almost two full seconds under the existing conference record and the first A qualifying time recorded by a Spartan in many years.

As the men's meet came down to the last relay, we knew we were only a few points behind Rochester, and the relays had to beat them in order to move up in the standings. Our B relay fought neck and neck with Rochester for the first 300 yards until a fantastic anchor leg from freshman Pat Flanagan dropped the hammer and let them pull away. With the A relay only needing to beat Rochester, Alex Hostoffer lead off in a new varsity record 100 freestyle time on the way to a new varsity record 400 free relay (along with Michael Lin, Dan Wolak, and Drew Swartz) to seal the deal and cement our place in 6th overall.

All in all, we achieved 6 NCAA qualifying times, broke 7 varsity records, and set one UAA record, while 4 men and 4 women achieved all-UAA status by finishing in the top 3 in their events. We were absolutely amazed at how fast the competition in the UAA has become this year, and were very proud of how well our swimmers and divers stepped up to the competition and achieved countless lifetime bests on their way to top to bottom one of the best conference meets we've ever competed in. Looking forward to the NCAA championships in Minneapolis MN March 18-21, we know that Alex will be invited to the meet, and are crossing our fingers that our relays are fast enough to qualify.

This whole meet has had a special significance for me, as it was in Chicago 4 years ago that I finished my career as a Case swimmer, and now the first class that I've coached for all 4 years is graduating and finishing their careers in the same place. To our 5 seniors (Bernie Jacobson, Peter Whalen, John Somerville, Janine Machala, and Kate Pollard): you guys have been an absolute privilege to work with, and I just hope the last 4 years have been as fun and memorable for you as they have been for me.

218 days until the next season starts...

Posted by: Creg Jantz February 15, 2009 09:51 AM | Category: Women's Swimming

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) February 15, 2009 09:51 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback