Women’s swimming

I don’t think they have the depth to do it, operating at a scholarship handicap. But an impressive first couple of relays!
 
Perhaps I spoke too soon? Fantastic morning for the Spiders, qualifying 12 swimmers for A/B finals across three events today, led by Lena Amare taking the top spot in the 200 IM with Gabbie Primiano right behind her in 2nd. Presley Baber is sitting second in the 50 free.

If places from morning prelims all held tonight, individual swim scoring for the day would be as follows:

Richmond: 130
GW: 89
Duquesne: 67
Fordham: 60
La Salle: 57
Davidson: 20
Mason: 19
Rhode Island: 15
Bona: 8
SLU: 0

Women's 3-meter diving is today and we typically lose ground there, so we'll have to see how that affects things.
 
Spiders only put one diver into the B final, so things will definitely be tighter. Updated individual scoring for today based on prelim positions:

Richmond: 136
GW: 123
Duquesne: 94
Fordham: 80
La Salle: 70
Bona: 39
Rhode Island: 37
Davidson: 22
Mason: 19
SLU: 0

There will undoubtedly be shifts in placing in finals tonight and a relay added in, but we're in the mix. Unfortunately, even though our 200 free relay should be solid tonight, we're going to be in heat one with Rhody and SLU because our seed time isn't good enough to make the top heat, so we won't be going head-to-head with other contenders. Just need to put up the best time we can in our heat. It's a disadvantage of us focusing our training on the end of season...we don't seem to do a fully rested championship-style meet in the fall to put up good qualification times for our relays.
 
SLU is pretty much always at the bottom. I assume they don't offer scholarships.

Spiders hold on to the lead after today's action, headlined by a 1st place, school record, and meet record in the 200 free relay. As I mentioned, they had to do it out of heat one and hope nobody in the faster-seeded heat topped their time, and they indeed pulled it off.

Other podium finishers included Amare and Primiano going 2–3 in the 200 IM and Baber taking third in the 50 free.

UR: 242
GW: 214
Duquesne: 189
La Salle: 174
Fordham: 168
Bona: 129
Davidson: 87
Mason: 84
Rhode Island: 83
SLU: 54
 
Spiders hanging tough, and extrapolating prelim scoring for individual events has UR, GW, and Duquesne all scoring just about even today. So depending on the timed final relay tonight and other movement in places for finals, UR has a decent chance of hanging onto the lead by a slim margin heading into the final day.

Top Spider performers coming out of prelims include Amare tied for 3rd in the 100 fly, Hughes sitting 1st in the 200 free as the senior continues having a great meet, Baber (just .07 off the UR record) and Primiano in 2nd and 3rd in the 100 breast, and Wieczorek in 1st in the 100 back.

Prelim-based score estimates for today:

UR: 135.5
GW: 135
Duquesne: 132
La Salle: 104.5
Bona: 71
Rhode Island: 62
Fordham: 56.5
Mason: 45
SLU: 17
Davidson: 16.5
 
Spiders are still in front heading into the final day, though it's not a comfortable margin especially considering there's another diving event tomorrow.

Podium finishers for the Spiders included Hughes taking 3rd in the 200 free, Baber taking 2nd in the 100 breast, and the 400 medley relay taking 2nd.

UR: 399
GW: 376.5
Duquesne: 355.5
La Salle: 324
Bona: 237
Fordham: 229
Rhode Island: 163
Mason: 148
Davidson: 130
SLU: 91
 
Spiders are still in front heading into the final day, though it's not a comfortable margin especially considering there's another diving event tomorrow.

Podium finishers for the Spiders included Hughes taking 3rd in the 200 free, Baber taking 2nd in the 100 breast, and the 400 medley relay taking 2nd.

UR: 399
GW: 376.5
Duquesne: 355.5
La Salle: 324
Bona: 237
Fordham: 229
Rhode Island: 163
Mason: 148
Davidson: 130
SLU: 91
I really don’t understand what happened to the diving part of the team. It was a strategic advantage for a few years and then seems to have totally been abandoned.
 
How do they score a tourney like this?

Top 16 from prelims make it back to finals, but you're locked into whichever group of 8 you finish in in the morning. So if you come in 9th in the morning, you swim with the consolation final and only compete against the other 7 in your heat. Even if you swim faster than some people in the championship final at night, the best you can place is 9th.

Top 8 in the championship final are scored 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11. Next 8 in the consolation final are scored 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Relays count double and are only swum once in the finals. The mile is also only swum once as a timed final because no one wants to swim that twice in one day.
 
Top 16 from prelims make it back to finals, but you're locked into whichever group of 8 you finish in in the morning. So if you come in 9th in the morning, you swim with the consolation final and only compete against the other 7 in your heat. Even if you swim faster than some people in the championship final at night, the best you can place is 9th.

Top 8 in the championship final are scored 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11. Next 8 in the consolation final are scored 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Relays count double and are only swum once in the finals. The mile is also only swum once as a timed final because no one wants to swim that twice in one day.
so no 18 or 19 scores?
 
I really don’t understand what happened to the diving part of the team. It was a strategic advantage for a few years and then seems to have totally been abandoned.
We've actually never been all that great in diving. We've had some decent divers here and there, but as a squad it's pretty much always been a weakness. We don't have a great facility for diving (not that it's very good for swimming either), and we've struggled to retain coaches, though Goe is in his fourth season. I don't think diving coach is considered a full-time position, so they typically coach at other club diving programs as well. (Unless that's changed, not 100% sure.) I also assume we have no scholarship money for divers.
 
Have to hope that Duquense does well enough to take away some of GW’s points but not enough to overtake the total point lead.
 
From a glance at the psych sheet, Duquesne looks well positioned to rack up points tomorrow, but hopefully we've got enough of a cushion over them. Diving, the mile and the 200 fly could give GW an opportunity to make up ground on us. I do hesitate to read too much into psych sheets though, because the Spiders typically have bigger drops than other teams due to the training plan.
 
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