GMC Boys Swimming Preview

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Sycamore and Mason will once again battle for the GMC boys swimming title in 2012-2013. Sycamore finished ninth in the state last year and has won the last three GMC titles and looks to be the favorite for their fourth, as coach Dan Carl returns eleven district qualifiers from last season, including individual state qualifier Charlie Fry. If experience makes a difference, the Aviators have nine seniors who collectively had 15 district swims last year. They also return all but one swimmer who helped their three relay teams qualify for state.
In addition to Fry, who could win any of a number of events at the GMC Championships, including any of the freestyle events or backstroke, Sycamore also returns seniors Patrick Aguilar (fly and distance free), Stephen Ioas (back and IM), Xavier Jimenez (back and fly), Venkat Naresh (sprint freestyle), and Jonathan Seger (breast and IM), each of whom qualified in two events last season. Sophomore Mark Hancher will also compete for league honors in numerous events, including freestyle, fly or back. Other key returning swimmers include seniors Aaron Abraham (breast), Mitch Camfield (back) and Brenden Girten (distance free); juniors Grant Girten (free) and Ben Hammer (breast); and sophomores Isaac Goldstein (free and fly), Rick Niu (free and IM) and John Heldman (fly).
Mason finished 11th in the state last year and is the only other GMC squad with the depth to compete with Sycamore for the title, but coach Mark Sullivan was hit harder by graduation and also had the misfortune of losing a couple district qualifiers to relocation. The Comets are led by senior Eric Chen (free and IM) and a very strong sophomore class. Key returning district qualifiers include seniors Drew Siekmann and Drace Penley; junior Cesar Carrillo; and sophomores Nick Gess, Justin Hove, Alex Mechler and Donald Beasdale. Mason is particularly strong in the distance free events.
Coach Dennis Beck’s Lakota teams have some very strong talent, but won’t have the numbers to compete with Sycamore and Mason. Lakota West has only two returning district qualifiers. Senior Brian McNamara, who will contend for league championships in his individual distance free events, and senior John Raker (breast and IM) will lead the Firebirds.
Lakota East is led by sophomore Mathew McDonald, who should contend for league titles in the backstroke, free or IM events, and senior Tyler Phillips (free).
Princeton returns a strong senior class which three district qualifiers, including Erik Spraul, David Spraul and Dylan Dykes. Fairfield returns three district qualifiers, including juniors Ross Westrick and Michael Drake, and sophomore Mitchell Ellis.
Other returning district qualifiers from around the league include Oak Hills senior Curtis Robertson and Hamilton sophomore Mark Andrew.
The GMC has some great individual swimmers who will compete for district and possibly state championships this year. On the team side, it will be difficult for Mason to overcome Sycamore’s senior leadership and depth.
 
 
Nice synopsis SR! My only comment would be that M. Andrew swam for Middletown last year, not Hamilton.

Two months until Conference Championships and you never know for sure who's going to swim what or what the health/rest situation will be... but it's always fun to have a go and see how wrong you are later! I'll go with:

50 Free: Chen, Hancher, Naresh
100 Free: Chen, Fry, Westrick
200 Free: Fry, McNamara, Westrick
500 Free: McNamara, Hove, Aguilar
100 Back: McDonald, Jimenez, Ioas
100 Breast: Raker, Seger, Abraham
100 Fly: Hancher, Aguilar, Raker
200 IM: McDonald, Seger, Hove
200 FR: SYC, MAS, LE
400 FR: SYC, MAS, LW
200 MR: SYC, MAS, LE

Teams: SYC, MAS, LE
 
Predictions
200 mr sycamore
200 free fry McNamara Hancher
200 I'm McDonald Chen Seger
50 free. Naresh Chen
100 fly Hancher jimenez Aguilar
100 fr fry Chen westrick
500 fr mcanamara idk
2 fr relay sycamore
100 back JIMENEZ McDonald Ioas
100 br Seger raker Abraham
4 fr sycamore
 
GMC Update

Many swimmers completed their club competition over the weekend and are ready to head into the HS season. Notable results included:
Eric Chen of Mason posted a 53.00 in the fly, 1:43 in the 200 free, 46.89 in the 100 free and 1:59.16 in the IM -- all times which are capable of winning the GMC.
Matt McDonald of Lakota East posted a 53.38 in the back, 1:46.65 in the 200 free and 2:00.97 in the IM.
Charlie Fry of Sycamore swam a 1:44.73 in the 200 free at the USA junior nationals.
The Mason quartet of super sophomores (Gess, Hove, Mechler and He) all had great swims in the 500, 200 and 100 free at Miami.
John Raker of Lakota West swam a 4:46 in the 500, 52.31 in the fly, 2:03.19 in the IM and 1:03.12 in the breast.
Brian McNamara of Lakota West posted a 1:41.99 in the 200 free and 1:00.96 in the breast.
Xavier Jimenez of Sycamore swam a 53.72 in the back and a 54.46 in the fly.
Mark Andrew of Middletown swam a 1:47.77 in the 200 free and 55.54 in the back.
These early season times demonstate the depth of GMC boys swimming. It's going to be a great season.
 
Yes those are some great times. I'm pretty sure most (if not all) those kids swimming at Miami were tapered and wearing suits for their meet. So they will be hard pressed to go that fast at the GMC meet.
 
MoeSwimsBest said:
i think if moeller was in the GMC they would OBLIVIATE MASON and all the other schools
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Obliviate? Wow... I assume you mean obliterate, but you're such an idiot, who knows what the hell you are talking about. Everyone knows Moeller is scared of the GMC and that's why they make up this story about a "boycott" so go back to your own thread
 
DontWorryAboutIt said:
Obliviate? Wow... I assume you mean obliterate, but you're such an idiot, who knows what the hell you are talking about. Everyone knows Moeller is scared of the GMC and that's why they make up this story about a "boycott" so go back to your own thread
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no i mean obliviate. and the GMC did boycott moeller because theyre scared of moeller. trust me, i know a lot of board members and coaches
 
Fun to watch the Comets and Aves swim tonight at Mason. Everyone is tired from the two-a-days that have now begun but it's clear that come February these teams are going to have some very fast swimmers on both the boys and girls side... should be lots for both teams to cheer about!
 
Agree ZFish. Both boys teams are loaded and the GMC meet is going to be a battle. Neither team swam their best events today, but Mason dominated in the freestyle events. It seems that Mason may have an edge in freestyle, but Sycamore has the edge in fly, back and breast.

On the girls side, these teams have extraordinary talent at the Freshman and Sophomore levels. The A relays are dominated by youngsters.

Its shapping up to be a great year.
 
The reason Sycamore will win the GMC meet is yes Mason has an edge in freestyle events, but swimmers from other teams (McNamara, Westrick) will take points from Mason swimmers in the 200, 500, 100 events.

Even with the team competition being down to 2 schools there should be a lot of great individual races at this meet in February. Hopefully we get a good preview of some of those races at the Classic in a couple weeks.
 
BigSwimFan said:
The reason Sycamore will win the GMC meet is yes Mason has an edge in freestyle events, but swimmers from other teams (McNamara, Westrick) will take points from Mason swimmers in the 200, 500, 100 events.

Even with the team competition being down to 2 schools there should be a lot of great individual races at this meet in February. Hopefully we get a good preview of some of those races at the Classic in a couple weeks.
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Hard to disagree with you BSF. Although I'd argue that with the focus on freestyle, Mason's swimmers will be taking more points from each other than will the handful of swimmers from other teams that could out place them. The Aves are better balanced through all 4 strokes resulting in higher event scoring due to less teammate competition. Plus, there is a huge advantage in senior scoring for the Aves. Comets will be very tough over the next few years but they're going to have a hard time matching Sycamore this year.
 
GMC Stats and Enquirer Voting

Looks like Oak Hills has updated the gmcsports.com website with their fastest times. Welcome to party Highlanders!

Does anyone follow the Enquirer Coaches Poll? I wish they would post the names of the voters. This week, someone voted Anderson #1 and left St. X off of their ballot. Also, someone continues to leave Mason off of their ballot, which is ridiculous. Moeller sneaks in as #1 this week since all 3 voters voted the Crusaders third on average (I figure 3 votes at 8 points each for 24 points) which seems appropriate. Since St X received two first-place votes, they have 20 points but none from the third voter.

Similar to the USA Today Coaches poll in college football, if names were published then the voters would have to take responsibility for their work and be held accountable for their foolishness.

In my opinion, the top 4 are St. X, Sycamore, Mason, and Moeller -- in that order.
 
MoeSwimsBest said:
no i mean obliviate. and the GMC did boycott moeller because theyre scared of moeller.
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just letting you know the boycott had nothing to do with swimming people were just upset that moeller beat sycamore and Middletown in 2011 state playoffs for football.
 
GMC Championships are this weekend at Mason and the psych sheet is out.

Wow... This will be an incredible battle for the boys title between Sycamore and
Mason and may just come down to the 400 Free Relay.

If everyone were to swim their seed times:

Mason 474
Sycamore 465

Should be a great way to spend Saturday afternoon! :thumb:
 
Some of those times appeared to be slower than there best times especially the 500 free the 4 sycamore boys times seem a little slower than what they should be
 
[QUOTEShould be a great way to spend Saturday afternoon! :thumb:[/QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more Z!

As predicted at the start of the year, Mason's strength in the freestyle events puts them as even-money for the title. All four Mason swimmers are seeded ahead of Sycamore in the 500. Sycamore has the edge in the other strokes, but in HS swimming, that's only three events.

Every swim will count on Saturday. A point here and a point there will make the difference.

The IM is loaded and very competitive. You could see moves of 4-5 spots.

Taper schedules are also an unknown. I doubt that the top swimmers for either team will be anywhere close to their best times, so the third and fourth swimmer for each team in each event will be critical.

Buckle up - its gonna be a fun ride.
 
Poloback said:
Some of those times appeared to be slower than there best times especially the 500 free the 4 sycamore boys times seem a little slower than what they should be
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Could be, however, the Sycamore boys are seeded 9, 10, 11 and 12 and there is a big drop from 8 up to 7 (10 seconds) so it seems unlikely that any of those 4 will make more than a one or two spot leap (with the possible exception of Aguilar... he went sub 5 min last year). But like SR said, a point here and a point there will likely make the difference between 1st and 2nd place in team standings so you could be right Polo.

I agree with you SR... that IM event is even more than what it appears... the order of finish in the final heat may be quite different than the seed times!

Don't know what the Aves typically do, but Mason doesn't taper or suit up for this meet and Coach Sullivan usually makes them do a practice before the meet (last year it actually ran into warmups for the meet!) so you can bet anyone that goes fast during the competition is really putting out hard! Also, with young swimmers (like Mason has) you never really know what you're going to get... they may be tired and be far off their PR or they may actually cut time with the adrenaline rush of the competition.

Looking forward to an exciting day of competition.
 
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At gmc's last year both girten's went 509 and Brendan then went faster at sec and districts and could move up a decent amount
 
Anything is possible... that's what makes it fun to watch. Moves up/down like you are describing are likely to be what decides this thing.

As SR said above, what the 3s and 4s do will have a big impact on how it all shakes out.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are in the blocks for the final relay with the winner taking home the league championship.
 
Mason and Sycamore will get first and second in this meet but i believe that when it comes down to Districts and State that Sycamore will beat Mason handily.
 
OhioSwimming said:
Mason and Sycamore will get first and second in this meet but i believe that when it comes down to Districts and State that Sycamore will beat Mason handily.
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I think you are right and it was already proven in the SW Classic where Sycamore had five individual scorers to Mason's three.

Sycamore: Fry (38), Hancher (27), Jiminez (9), Seger (5), Naresh (2)
Mason: Chen (30), Hove (20), Thatcher (4)

Relay points will also go in favor of the Aves at those meets.
 
What a classic meet today at Mason.

As Z predicted, they stepped onto to the blocks for the 400 free relay and the GMC championship was "winner take all." Sycamore held a lead of 5 1/2 points going into the relay. A mason win would have meant a victory by half a point, but the Aviator team of Venkaat Naresh, Mark Hancher, Stephen Ioas and Charlie Fry tied the pool record of 3:13 to hold off the Comets.

Congratulations to both teams for great swimming. Mason entered the meet as favorites based on seed times, with a predicted score of 474-465. Both teams improved their times and places throughout the meet, resulting in a victory for the Aves by the score of 507-495.5.

There were no losers today. Both teams should be proud of their performances.
 
I am still wondering as to why Sycamore and Mason would suit up for this meet. It is a Conference meet that has no effect on where they are seated for Sectionals, Districts, and State. Can someone explain to me as why they would wear fast suits?:Ohno:
 
OhioSwimming said:
I am still wondering as to why Sycamore and Mason would suit up for this meet. It is a Conference meet that has no effect on where they are seated for Sectionals, Districts, and State. Can someone explain to me as why they would wear fast suits?:Ohno:
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Why not?

Doesn't change their taper. Doesn't have a negative impact on their season.

Didn't go to the meet, nor do I know how many were in fast suits, but it's not doing anything detrimental by wearing one.

You're right though. It's not needed for a meet of this magnitude in comparison to the next few. But if you have a fast suit - why not wear it?
 
Uh.... maybe because they take pride in their schools and they want to win a conference title. The GMC all-sports trophy matters to some. Nobody remembers who won the sectional meet in past years, but the conference championship banner hangs in the gym for a long time.

Would a cross country runner not wear their best running shoes for the conference championship? Would a baseball player use an old glove and bat for the regular season game?

I understand saving a "shave and taper" for sectionals or districts (depending on the talent level), but why not use your best "equipment" in a league championship competition.

Live for today.
 
OhioSwimming said:
I am still wondering as to why Sycamore and Mason would suit up for this meet. It is a Conference meet that has no effect on where they are seated for Sectionals, Districts, and State. Can someone explain to me as why they would wear fast suits?:Ohno:
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My guess is they wanted to beat their rivals and claim conference bragging rights. Let's face it, Mason is going to be the dominant team in the GMC for the next few years on both the boys and girls side. Sycamore wanted to go out on top with their big senior class and Mason wanted to stop them. Last year Sycamore suited and Mason didn't... I'm guessing the Comets wanted the playing field to be level so they could give the Aves a run for their money... which they did.

SR is on the money... great meet. Tons of noise in the natatorium for that final relay. Even the fans from the other eight teams were screaming like mad!

Congrats to the Aves on defending their title!
 
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