Stanford Rules the Speedo Cup

Photo: Stanford Cardinal

Last weekend was the Speedp Cup hosted by U C Irvine. I had a really nice time. Thank God for Terrie! I took a bazillion pictures (like I do) and she helped me put the names on them. She has pulled me into her intrest in Stanford as you can tell by my photos and her knowledge of the team really made labeling the pics a lot of fun. The Stanford Cardinal Women finished the meet on top followed by Nevada and BYU. The and Stanford Men also scored high point followed by US Air Force Academy and BYU. Stanford's Elizabeth Durot and Hongzhe Sun were both named swimmers of the meet. It is always fun to see new meet records set and there were a few swims that made NCAA cuts. It should be fun to see the next meet at my home pool which will be the Women's Pac-10 Championships. Again, I have to say how much I love to see school spirit. The winners of that award for me went to U C Santa Cruz and UC San Diego. Those people had a blast! The team seemed really tight and alot of fun. I also watched the Coaches quite a bit and I am really impressed with the new women's Coach at Stanford, Lea Maurer. I think she will make a good transition easier after the retirement of the great Richard Quick. I also really loved the horned helmet worn by a few of the AF men. It was a fashion risk, but a good one. And all I have to say about Caroline Bruce is, "Wow!" Chick has a mean breast stroke. I have never seen anyone start a Breast Stroke race from in the water, at the wall before. But she was still almost 4 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. She has one hell of a push. Thanks again Terrie!

TYR Swim Meet of Champions

Photo: Jason Lezak, Nick Brunelli and Lydon Ferns

I'm sorry it is taking me forever to edit these pics. The TYR meet is held in Mission Viejo, California. The facility doesn't have nearly enough parking for this event but it is in such a beautiful location that it is almost a joy to walk to the venue. ALMOST! This meet had some interesting energy because the Japanese Worlds Team was there. And they brought the media with them. These are the superstars of Japanese Swimming and the country really supported them here. Because of the filming, the local cable company was able to air the meet too. Of course I don't use the local company so I never got to see it, but I was there so I guess I win. Kaitlin Sandeno and Justin Mortimer were the big point winners of the meet. That had to be really sweet for Justin since that is his home pool. Again that 50 Free just blew me away. As Did the 1500 Free. Kaitlin broke the Meet record in the 100 Free in personal best time. I missed it. Dammit. Teach me to miss finals. I met the amazing Mrs S, and she re-affirmed the strength of my theory that Swim!Parents are the greatest people ever. Try starting up a friendly conversation with a Soccer Mom. Hehe. This was the meet where it became obvious to me the difference between good swimmers and Elite swimmers. As the prelims were going on for the 50 free the guys just kept getting bigger and the whole energy switched. By the time the last two heats were run you could tell those guys were the real deal. The intensity was palpable. It was a beautiful weekend and I had a great time. My favorite thing was this little teeny girl sitting next to me on the deck yelling "GO RYAN" , over and ove
r. I asked her who Ryan was and she told me it was her sister. But we were watching Men's heats and her sister Ryan is a little age group swimmer who wasn't swimming that day. I guess we learn to cheer for those we love early. I did the same thing when I went to the PAC-10 Men's Finals. Gary Marshall was breaking meet records in the Breast events and I was crossing my fingers that Brendan Hansen's NCAA records would hold. They did. Nothing against Gary but I want them to last as long as Janet Evans World Records or at least until he graduates. Anyway, I am currently attending the SPEEDO CUP in my home town of Long Beach. College meets are are such a blast. The big difference is the cheering. You can't help but get behind the team with the loudest cheering section. At the TYR meet any time a team member was in a final, the Japanese team was on their feet. USC and UT are good at supporting their teams too. You've got to cheer people. Give em wings!

ConocoPhillips Summer Nationals

Men's 400m Freestyle Relay

I have finished editing the pics from Summer Nationals. This meet happened three days after the Duel in the Pool and 5 days after the close of the Fina World Championships. I found as I went throught the pics that I took less and less each day. Sorry about that. I started getting into wathcing more than taking pics. The meet went late in the evening so it got dark and really hard to shoot with my little Olympus.
It was a really fun meet. I got to see alot of the USA swimmers from worlds who were only in relays there, really get to race. People like Klete Keller, Davis Tarwater, Ben Wildman-Tobriner. They had excellent swims in individual events! Wolverines: Peter Vanderkaay, Michael Phelps, Klete Keller and Chris DeJong, broke a US Open record in the 800m relay that has stood for 9 years. It is great to see the old records fall. Somebody better go after Janet Evans now! She is the reigning queen who has been on top almost as long as Elizabeth II. (j/k) Kate Ziegler, Kalyn Keller, Hayley Peirsol, Kelsey Ditto.....Come on girls! Enough about Janet. I can't tell you all enough how much fun there is to be had at a swim meet. You meet the best people. I am always saying how lucky I am to live in California, but there is amazing swimming happening in the Universities all over the States and the World too. Alot of swimmers who compete for foreign countries train here, so you get to see great from all over the world at the small meets too. Thats where alot of your 2008 Olympians are going to come from, so go see 'em now! Stanford is comming to my neck of the woods in a couple of weeks and I haven't even finished editing my pics from this past summer. I am thinking about not taking my camera. Just to going to see the swimming.

Anyway, Summer Nationals put a perfect end to a Summer of great meets. I saw alot of records fall this season. It seems impossible for people to go faster then they do. But it will be done, and I hope I get to see more old records fall. Although just to see people swim a personal best is really cool. I'll probably edit this all away so if you read this while it is babbling, sorry about that.
Oh, and Porn Mustache month is over. So SHAVE 'EM OFF!!