How do you think the 2010-2011 swim season will lead out

[swim2fly]

Say your predictions for whose going to win gmc. And impact freshman and any good seniors

[watrboy15]

I am sure Mason will win the conference. West, East, Fairfield and Syacamore have some solid individual performers but not the depth to compete. Bryan McNamara will be the best swimmer in the conference and the highest finisher at states. Fairfield has 4 returning swimmers that competed at the state meet last year so I would assume there relays will be very good again. Does anyone have predictions who will be best swimmer in each event?

[swim2fly]

I disagree I think sycamore will win the conference just like they won't last year also yes McNamara is a good swimmer and will place highly but sycamore still has guiterrez cerda and also the famous Thomas Norris so I think most likely sycamore will have the gmc title for a couple of years

[watrboy15]

I stand corrected. Sycamore does appear to be pretty loaded. The best backstrokers in the GMC are at Fairfield. They have two that have made it to finals at state.(Console heat but still) It will be interesting to see what Norris swims at GMC and Districts. And to the post regarding the top seniors, it should begin and end with Zimmerman. Looking at his times from this past year he could qualify in almost anything.

[Swimmerman5428]

Fairfield's four seniors ought to keep them contention in every event. Lee- backstroke and 1 free. Carter- backstroke and 2 free. Adams- fly and im. Zielger- breaststroke. And they have a freshman Ross westrick that looks to contribute in the free events. They don't have the depth to win gmc but they have the talent to win a lot of the events and possibly two relays.

[BigSwimFan]

It sure looks like Sycamore is the pre-season favorite to win the GMC. It should be interesting to see how the youth of the Lakota East team develops to see if they move up. Them moving up could take away points from Sycamore and other teams and even things out a bit. Still a long way to go till February and a lot can happen.

My Pre-Season Prediction:
1. Sycamore
2. Fairfield
3. Mason
4. Lakota East
5. Lakota West

[watrboy15]

I am not too sure about your fairfield in second. Though they have a couple okay swimmers they have no top tier swimmers and no real depth. Their guys are not locks by any means to win any events.

[BigSwimFan]

Like I said those are my pre season predictions based off of last years results. I think you need to look at last years meet again and see how the juniors now seniors of fairfield did. I agree that their lack of dept will hurt them and makes it hard for them to beat Sycamore but I just think the other teams won't score enough to overcome their strong relays and individual performances.

I will make another prediction after the classic in January so we can see what teams have and what their times are at that point in the season.

[Swimmerman5428]

two guys at a 53 low in back aren't locks? And a 52 in flyer isn't a lock? Who in the gmc could beat them right now?

[Aquanator4593]

It comes down to depth; Fairfield has quite a few top swimmers who will be taking first/second Team GMC's in all their races. However, Mason and Sycamore (plus East and West) all have returning swimmers with the capability of scoring. Little points add up, I think it'll depend on how the points fall.

But overall, I agree: The top 3 teams will be Fairfield, Mason, and Sycamore (in some order). Then East will edge out West for 4th

West took a hit this last year with losing swimmers. But Pattn and Mcnamara will be their top scorers

[ImPartial]

Aquanator has it right regarding depth. This is similar to two years ago when Lakota West and Oak Hills both had about four top guys apiece and the teams scored well at the SW Classic. This led some to project that both of those teams had a good chance to win GMC. The final result was Oak Hills 4th, Lakota West 5th. Oak Hills won two relays and three individual events, plus went 1-2-3 in the 50 free. Lakota West won four individual events and about 100 points from relays. But beyond their top 4, they scored very few points.

If Fairfield guys swim the same events as last year, and we remove the seniors from the league meet last year, you get the following scoring:
IM: 1-Gutierrez, 2-Adams(17), 9-Ziegler(9)
Fly: 1-Adams(20), 2-Aquilar, 3-Carter(16)
100 free: 1-Gutierrez, 2-Lee(17)
Back: 1-Lee(20), 2-Carter(17)
Breast: 5-Ziegler(14)
130 individual points
Let's give them two first place relays plus a generous 4th place in the third for 110 relay points. That's a total of 240. I think you need at least 300 points for second place.

This is a good example of why depth is important at the league meet. Here are the top 8 returning swimmers in the backstroke by school:
Fairfield
Fairfield
Sycamore
Sycamore
Sycamore
Sycamore
Princeton
Mason
Fairfield takes the top two spots for 37 points, Sycamore goes 3-4-5-6 for 58 points. Those four Sycamore swimmers may score zero points at classic, but they score a ton of points at the league meet.

[BigSwimFan]

ImPartial you have brought some very good points up and based on your points I don't see anybody beating Sycamore this year. But a lot can happen from now till February to determine who is getting second. You also hope that nobody gets hurt and is unable to compete, but that does happen and that could make a change in the outcome.

I'm excited for the season to start.

[swim2fly]

I agree with big swim fan that sycamore will be untouchable this year at gmcs they have a lot of depth to their team and im not sure that any other team can handle it because of how stacked they are i do think however that fairfield or mason will be second because of how they did last year

[watrboy15]

Anyone willing to make predictions, top 3, in each event?

[BigSwimFan]

I will make predictions for each event but not quite yet. I need to see some meet results as to who is swimming what and how fast at this point in the season. Top 3 will be tough to predict. Give me a couple weeks and I will make those predictions.