Random Stuff....

Brendan will join other swim stars such as Michael Phelps, Tara Kirk and Jason Lezak at the Ohio Grand Prix next week so you guys be sure to check back here and at the meet website for full results. If you are in the neighborhood you can even go on down and watch it unfold in person!

Where: Ohio State University Aquatic Pavilion, Columbus Ohio
When: April 4 - 6, 2008
How Much: All-Session Pass $45 (see website for day pass info)

For those of you who were unable to go to Austin for the Encore Swim Spectacular, all is not lost. Swimnetwork.com has put the videos up on their website. It's not just race footage. You know swimmers can't resist a good skit. Don't miss Brendan and David Cromwell in "The Rivalry".

Men's Div 1 NCAA action is going on this week, in addition to more incredible results from Aussie Trials. You can get full results from Swimming World Magazine. Jason Marsteller is on location covering NCAA's and missing sleep trying to cover Aussie Trials at the same time. Reward his lack of sleep with some hits!

And one last thing - today is Earth Hour day. "Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions."(wiki) Those of you who would like to participate need only turn your lights off for an hour tonight from 8 - 9 pm. You can read more about Earth Hour day on their Wiki page.

NCAA Wrap-up, Splash Mag and News Links

Auburn won. Texas 5th. Whatever. Y'all should go listen to the audio interview with Alexandrov's coach over the 200 Breast DQ that they've posted at Swimming World. It is heart-wrenching. I don't really agree with the coach that refs shouldn't call a DQ if the swimmer doesn't appear to be breaking a rule to get an advantage on his competitors but I do agree that refs should be able to use video review if it's available. It's inevitable. Just do it.



Brendan is in a Splash Magazine feature called "The Way it Was, the Way it Is" this month. I just can't picture Brendan in a jean jacket and roller blades. Click on the image for a bigger version. Thanks to Tim for the scan.

News Links:

Swimmer has it all, except Olympic gold

Perfect Swim Is A Myth, Says Hansen
Craig Lord

"At Pan Pacs I went 59.9 or so. It's one of those things where you have to have a perfect race to get the time you know you can get to. I know the training is there but its a question of getting things right. Once you get one thing right, something else goes wrong ... I don't think I've ever swum the perfect race, so there are lots of things to strive for. Maybe you'll never catch it but at least you'll break world records along the way."

snip

Hansen's fan website is running a competition to predict the 1-2-3 finishes in each event in Melbourne. Asked if readers were voting for him, Hansen laughed and told a little white lie: "I'm not actually associated with that website at all. I don't even know what you're talking about but I guess if it is my website I'd hope people would vote for me. It's good for the sport to get that kind of attention, especially in the United States ... it's a positive outlook."

snip

"We (Americans) always have genuine respect for any team, that's ... our outlook on swimming. We go into every meet looking to improve ourselves and get better and do it with the best sportsmanship possible. That's our motto, 'come in, be good people, swim fast and make a name for ourselves'. It seems to have worked in the past."

And in case you missed Brendan's comment in the thread below:

hey
Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Australia has been pretty nice so far and everyone here seems to be gearing up pretty well. We had media day yesterday which was pretty interesting since I havent seen this kind of attention since the olympics. One reporter actually asked me about the Predictions contest on the BHO website and did I think you guys would be voting for me. The first thing I thought of was DAMN you guys are famous, everyone on the national team pretty much is jealous of the website and I knew of a few people that the visit it often. I answered with a " I hope so" u guys have my back right.
I guess there has been a lot of crap talking going on leading up the meet but other than Larsen I dont think anyone has really responded to anything.
I am looking forward to getting the show on the road and swimming in this type of atmosphere....this could be one hell of a crowd to feed off of.

NCAA and More from Melbourne...

Ok, I'm going to talk about NCAA's really briefly but then I'm DONE with them (at least until tomorrow).

• Ok, first, Texas, Arizona and Northwestern decide they don't need no freakin' 200 Medley Relay points and all DQ in the first race of the night. Auburn won it with a new NCAA record that also eclipsed the American record held by Aaron, Brendan, Ian and Neil.
• Alex Vanderkaay won the 400 IM for Michigan.
• Albert Subirats of Arizona took the 100 Fly taking down Ian's NCAA, American and US Open records.
• Darian Townsend took the 200 Free. Matt McGinnis of Texas could have had the 2nd place finish if he'd just gone a bit faster in prelims. As it was he had a nice win in the B final.
• Ok, so not a great night for me as a Texas fan so far and then Mike Alexandrov has to go and add insult to injury by blistering the field in the 100 Breaststroke and taking down Brendan's NCAA Meet record and Jeremy Linn's NCAA, American and US Open record.
• Albert Subirats then tops Neil's Pool record and wins the 100 back.
• Steven Segerlin from Auburn wins 3m Diving.
• Arizona sets a new NCAA, American and US Open record by over 2 seconds in the 800 Free Relay. The American record was previously held by....Texas of course.

So, in summary..sucks to be a Texas fan tonight. They fell to 5th after the initial relay and then managed to claw their way back up into 4th by the end of the night. Fingers crossed they can have a top 3 finish when it's all said and done but it won't be easy. Standings are currently: Auburn 380, Arizona 278, Stanford 261, Texas 225 and Florida 199. I think Auburn can feel pretty comfortable with that lead. Looks like 5 in a row for Marsh.

Get full results at Swimming World, who by the way were getting their reports up nearly as fast as Hy-Tek was posting them. I was impressed. They've also got some great audio and video interviews from the meet, including one with Rowdy that I especially enjoyed.

I spent a lot more time on that than I intended. Let's just say my enthusiasm for the men's NCAA meet has seriously diminished at this point so I was very happy when Sarah showed me some great new photos of Brendan from our friends at Getty - even if their watermark is all up in his grill.


Photo: Antony Dickson, AFP


Photo: Antony Dickson, AFP


Photo: Antony Dickson, AFP

Of course Worlds started today even if the swimming is still over a week away. You can see more images of your favorite swimmers and the syncronized swimming at Getty.

And finally, a couple of lovely articles out with quotes from Brendan tonight...

U.S. swimmers mix training and relaxing Down Under
Reese is why Texas rules in pool

NCAA Results for Thursday

First, congrats to Megan. She swam a 24.43 split and her team finished 7th in the 200 Free Relay at Div. II's tonight. She worked so hard to earn that spot this year - spending the summer in Austin training at Texas and then pushing through a shoulder injury to make it through a long season.

Second, BOOOOOOO Northwestern for taking our boys NCAA Medley Relay record. From Jason at Swimming World...

The Wildcats closed out the race with an NCAA-record time of 3:04.40, which lowered the previous standard of 3:04.47 set by Texas in 2003.

That record was previously held by Aaron, Brendan and Ian along with Chris Kemp. :shakes fist at Northwestern!:

Auburn ends the first day with a pretty solid point lead of 187, followed by Arizona with 121 and Texas with 107. Pick it up Texas boys! You can do it!

Read the full results at Swimming World and Jason says if any of you have specific questions, he's there in Minnesota and will try to track down the answers for you. Email him with your question or just to thank him for the great coverage.

And in Worlds News...
They've ARRIVED!


Photo credit AP (as LINKED above)

You can also read blogs by Kara Lynn Joyce and Tara Kirk at WCSN.

Y'all don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to send your questions for Rowdy.

More NCAA action begins today...

We've got the Div. I Men starting up in Minnesota this week with 2nd ranked Longhorns fighting Stanford and Auburn for it's first Championship since 2002. Texas Swimming has some details as does the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships site. Swimming World has put together an impressive Resource Package that they are making available to Premium members. It details the history of each race, the top 15 performers of the last 80 years, biggest and smallest margins of victory etc. You can get the resource guide here. If you aren't a premium member you can still check with them for results throughout the week and weekend as well as follow the action "live" with Hy-Tek.

And Megan Hansen swims the 200 Free Relay this morning at the Div II Championships in Buffalo, NY. Follow the results "live" (come on, we know how Hy-Tek can be). Good Luck Megan!

In non-NCAA news, I want to thank our newest member Jason Marsteller for the shout-out on Swimming World's website yesterday, pimping the traditional BHO Prediction Contest and also welcome any new visitors to BHO as a result. I hope you'll all join in and participate. The more the merrier. I hear Swimming World has some big changes in the works following Worlds. I can't wait to see how it all shakes out and hope the best for the web-home of so many of our favorite writers and photographers.