Injuries?

I

ImPartial

New member
It sure seems like there have been more injuries than usual this year. Is anyone out for the season? Will all/any of these guys be 100% by state? I have read in various places about the following:

Zach Kelch, UA, broken hand
Michael Murphy, Wyoming, shoulder?
Travis Schieman, Centerville, ankle?
Brian Clark, Centerville, ? (missed Ned Reeb)
Colin Kanzari, Beavercreek, surgery
John Vigar, Anderson, shoulder (from newspaper article last year)
 
 
ImPartial said:
It sure seems like there have been more injuries than usual this year. Is anyone out for the season? Will all/any of these guys be 100% by state? I have read in various places about the following:

Zach Kelch, UA, broken hand
Click to expand...

Since Kelch broke his hand playing polo, in September, I think that he is healed, but he was apparently sick at Ned Reeb, so he should be good to go for states. However there does seem to be some unrest on the UA team.
 
preeder61 said:
However there does seem to be some unrest on the UA team.
Click to expand...

Really? What kind, because they seemed very together at the Ned Reeb. They swam very well posting good times across the board. I would think they have to be consider the favorite at this point for the District title...especially if Kelch was under the weather, meaning the medley and 400 Free Relay may not have been at full strength. At the District meet they will dominate the scoring in the 500 and 200 as Centerville and University won't be there to challenge them. In Long and Jelen they have 2 freshmen who will score significant points and their sophomore class is the best in the District and top 3 in the state. By District their 200 Free Relay will be much quicker. Their 400 Free Relay, with an ailing Kelch, still beat St Charles' stacked relay.
 
thedutchman said:
Really? What kind, because they seemed very together at the Ned Reeb.
Click to expand...

Just heard lots of grumblings from parent's and swimmers about training, inconsistent schedules, frustrations with the pool closing, coaching etc. When discussions start making their way outside of the UA family, it raises questions. I think that there is a lot of pressure on Stewart who took some heat for their taper last season.

I also thought that they swam well at the Ned Reeb and have great potential at districts, particularly if Kelch is healthy. But I would not count SC out, a lot of those guys were not swimming their number one or two events. Whitaker swam the 50/100 free. Did you see his 22.84 MR fly split? I think that he might have won both the fly and back if he would have swam them.
 
Heat for the taper? There was none! They tapered for the sectional meet and then just tried to hold on from there. Even with a true taper they weren't going to beat SC last year. But this year it will matter as they have a legitimate shot at knocking off SC. But you're right that SC was not swimming their top events at the Ned Reeb and in recent years they have tapered far better than anyone in the district and state outside of X. If UA's coaches get the taper right the district should be the best meet since back when Worthington beat UA in '96 and '91 or when UA and Worthington were neck and neck in the early 80s.
 
swimfan said:
If UA's coaches get the taper right the district should be the best meet since back when Worthington beat UA in '96 and '91 or when UA and Worthington were neck and neck in the early 80s.
Click to expand...

You are going back to a good old time when Worthington was competitive on a team level with UA. I might be getting off track in an "injuries" thread, but that time with Kevin Butler, Rory McVey and the Ministers was a fast era for sure. I believe that those guys won states in both the 200/400 free relays. With Butler winning the 100/200 free individually. Worthington should have its best district in recent history, but will not be on par with UA/SC as a team (but I can hope for great Worthington individual swims :))
 
swimfan said:
Heat for the taper? There was none! They tapered for the sectional meet and then just tried to hold on from there. Even with a true taper they weren't going to beat SC last year. But this year it will matter as they have a legitimate shot at knocking off SC. But you're right that SC was not swimming their top events at the Ned Reeb and in recent years they have tapered far better than anyone in the district and state outside of X. If UA's coaches get the taper right the district should be the best meet since back when Worthington beat UA in '96 and '91 or when UA and Worthington were neck and neck in the early 80s.
Click to expand...

Here's an interesting article about UA boys and their expectations for the District Meet.

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/co...0/01/20/sports/0121uaswimming_sp.html?sid=104
 
thedutchman said:
Here's an interesting article about UA boys and their expectations for the District Meet.

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/co...0/01/20/sports/0121uaswimming_sp.html?sid=104
Click to expand...

From the article "Many programs have emphasized the 200 free relay over the 400 free relay," coach Jeff Stewart said. "I am not one of those coaches. Our 400 free relay last year was the runner-up at the state meet. Two of the team's members are back this year to take a shot at perhaps winning the event, and ultimately lowering their own school record."

Winning the event, hmmm, without Huffman's 44 lead out? That is a big time gap too fill.
 
It will be an interesting weekend with SC tonight and UA tomorrow. Should be easier to see who is stronger after those two meets
 
thedutchman said:
Here's an interesting article about UA boys and their expectations for the District Meet.

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/co...0/01/20/sports/0121uaswimming_sp.html?sid=104
Click to expand...

From the article:
"We've always taken a lot of confidence and pride from beating St. Charles just because they're right down the street. They're just our archrivals. Even though it wasn't district or state, it was still a pretty big defeat. It told them that we have a couple swimmers that are right behind them or, rather, in front of them."

GoinDistance said:
It will be an interesting weekend with SC tonight and UA tomorrow. Should be easier to see who is stronger after those two meets
Click to expand...

Originally this was to be a tri-meet. UA said no, so SC agreed to swim on Friday instead of Saturday. Too bad, because it would have been a great meet. UA's reluctance to swim SC seems somewhat surprising given the above quote from the recent article. Perhaps they weren't as confident of winning back when the schedule was made. Wonder if they now wish that all three teams were swimming together.

Anyway, these will be 2 very good meets...and will give an idea of who will be strongest at the end of the season.
 
preeder61 said:
From the article "Many programs have emphasized the 200 free relay over the 400 free relay," coach Jeff Stewart said. "I am not one of those coaches. Our 400 free relay last year was the runner-up at the state meet. Two of the team's members are back this year to take a shot at perhaps winning the event, and ultimately lowering their own school record."

Winning the event, hmmm, without Huffman's 44 lead out? That is a big time gap too fill.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I have to wonder if high school coaches really believe what they are saying...or are they just trying to motivate their kids. Would you prefer him to be realistic and say "well, honestly, these guys don't have a chance at that record, but it should still be fun." At state last year, their splits for 3:05.33 were
45.03 Huffman
46.33 Dickhaut
46.91 Kelch
47.06 Spangler

So they are without their fastest two splits and gone are the LZR and B70 suits. It would be quite an accomplishment to break that record. Look at the math. To reach 3:06, you need splits like this:
46 Kelch
46 Spangler
47 Lowrey
47 ???

It seems possible Kelch/Spangler could hit 46 low. But can Lowrey and ??? reach 47 flat? And then they need to drop another 0.7 sec to get to 3:05.3.
 
A 47.00 may not seem that exceptional. As a point of reference, here is a list of swimmers that were able go 47.00 or faster splits at state last year:

Miller
Columbus
Lawley
Huffman
Dickhaut
Kelch
Krone
Albers
Koenig
Sanders
Kocher
Whitaker
Katich
Willets
Perkins

And here is a list of swimmers (most state qualifiers in individual events) that were >47.00 last year:

Louis
Spangler
Schuttinger
Swanson
Rowan Williams
Supronas
Freds
Rice
Kolwyck
Abeysinghe
Buchanan
Hart
Wong
Cohara
Brandon Williams

Now, into which group would you classify the slower two legs of the UA relay: Lowrey and ???.
 
Based on the line up from Ned Reeb, UA's 400 FR included Ryan Cutler, who split 49.39, Lowery split 47.96, so he could bring a 47.00.
 
Wow! That's a surprise. Any results anywhere? Sounds like last year when people were writing SC off and they beat Centerville and went on to finish runner up in the state meet.
 
ImpartialOutsider said:
Centerville lost to UA too. What has happened to the Elks? No Travis Schieman hurts, but I think there is more to this then just him.
Click to expand...

Here are the Cville, UA meet results: http://www.elkswimanddive.com/pdf/1-23-10 results.pdf

Not sure that anything is wrong with the Elks. It looks like Cville was slightly faster in the meet against StC, but not to the extent that it would have changed the outcome against UA. It does appear that in addition to no Schieman, Osterhage was missing this week end. Their presence surely would have changed the result of the StC meet and may have changed the UA meet...although that is less likely. The reality is that these are 3 very good teams who swam 2 very competitive meets. Too bad UA and StC aren't going to swim head to head. That would have been a very good meet too.
 
ImPartial said:
preeder61 said:
From the article "Many programs have emphasized the 200 free relay over the 400 free relay," coach Jeff Stewart said. "I am not one of those coaches. Our 400 free relay last year was the runner-up at the state meet. Two of the team's members are back this year to take a shot at perhaps winning the event, and ultimately lowering their own school record."
Click to expand...
Sometimes I have to wonder if high school coaches really believe what they are saying...or are they just trying to motivate their kids. Would you prefer him to be realistic and say "well, honestly, these guys don't have a chance at that record, but it should still be fun." At state last year, their splits for 3:05.33 were
45.03 Huffman
46.33 Dickhaut
46.91 Kelch
47.06 Spangler

So they are without their fastest two splits and gone are the LZR and B70 suits. It would be quite an accomplishment to break that record. Look at the math. To reach 3:06, you need splits like this:
46 Kelch
46 Spangler
47 Lowrey
47 ???

It seems possible Kelch/Spangler could hit 46 low. But can Lowrey and ??? reach 47 flat? And then they need to drop another 0.7 sec to get to 3:05.3.
Click to expand...

Here are UA's splits for their 3:08.53 at finals
45.90 Spangler
47.88 Long
47.95 Kelch
46.80 Lowrey

Two guys hit marks that put them in reach, but they were still over 3 seconds from their record. I think that 3:05 will stand for a few years.
 
ImpartialOutsider said:
I was curious what happened to them. Injuries?
Click to expand...

Both were in a car accident in early january and thankfully both have had what seems to be a full recovery. Grey swam the 200 im at the Fred Cooper invite and won with a nice time considering what happened. Gabe on the other hand was seen at state in the 100 fly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top