Now that the ink is drying on the 2025 NCAC results, there is a little explaining to do. First, I know it is very common these days, but the air quality was a factor at Denison for all teams. I had a talk on Friday with the Wabash head coach, and his first comment was, “We are just trying to breathe.”. You heard a lot of coughing on deck and the telltale sign of bad air quality; swimmers hanging out in the halls and other off-deck areas.
The Kenyon women looked very sharp where the Denison women had some very good swims, but made mistakes and had some terrible swims from their top swimmers.
Then there is the women’s diving game that is just a peculiarity of the NCAC. The impact of that is something like 70 points. Add to that Denison DQing the winning 200 FR for a 70 point impact and you have a 140 point swing. With Kenyon women winning by 111 points, those two factors change the meet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all part of the sport and credit Kenyon for coming out swinging. Years past, Denison did the same on the men’s side stacking the boards with their divers just to win the meet. I don’t see this changing any time soon.
One final note: The swimmers and coaches at DePauw did a great job on the women’s side and had some big time drops and excellent swims. In what amounts to two separate meets, DePauw women won the other NCAC meet. Great team enthusiasm and energy there. They richly deserved the NCAC Women’s Coaches award that they were awarded.
* I will confirm that it became common to see swimmers finish and immediately start coughing. It seemed worst for those doing fly and breast.
* I was impressed with many of the performances by the Denison women. Quinn Brown and Emily Harris are bona fide superstars. Denison showcased impressive depth, with several standout younger swimmers.
* For newcomer of the year, we would, of course, restrict ourselves to swimmers, in which case it would have been a choice between Kenyon's Kelsey Van Eldik or Nora Lee Brown, or Denison's Caroline Ramirez (honorable mention for the Ladies' Tuva Siegel).
* It is our impression that DQs have heavily shaped the outcome of the meet in three of the last four years. When this happens (and it keeps happening), NCAC continues to show a troubling indifference to explaining the rules and process to the communities that support these teams.
* Love DePauw. Apparently, so did the athletes on Kenyon, who joined in, adding volume to DePauw's chants. Agreed—they seem like a team heading in an interesting direction.
Watching the D1 Atlantic 10 meet and noticed that UConn stuffed the women’s 3m Diving with 6 and amassed a ton of points. Interesting that some schools can attract lots of divers when the majority struggle to have even one diver. I don’t see a lot of divers in high school meets, even the regional meets leading to state meets so I wonder where that important part of the sport is going. My college team had a great diving program and even sported an NCAA champion and Olympian so I know what a weapon good diving is. I do prefer quality diving over putting “limited divers” up just to score points. With the current situation in diving, it has become a strategy to load the diving up.
Now that the ink is drying on the 2025 NCAC results, there is a little explaining to do. First, I know it is very common these days, but the air quality was a factor at Denison for all teams. I had a talk on Friday with the Wabash head coach, and his first comment was, “We are just trying to breathe.”. You heard a lot of coughing on deck and the telltale sign of bad air quality; swimmers hanging out in the halls and other off-deck areas.
The Kenyon women looked very sharp where the Denison women had some very good swims, but made mistakes and had some terrible swims from their top swimmers.
Then there is the women’s diving game that is just a peculiarity of the NCAC. The impact of that is something like 70 points. Add to that Denison DQing the winning 200 FR for a 70 point impact and you have a 140 point swing. With Kenyon women winning by 111 points, those two factors change the meet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all part of the sport and credit Kenyon for coming out swinging. Years past, Denison did the same on the men’s side stacking the boards with their divers just to win the meet. I don’t see this changing any time soon.
One final note: The swimmers and coaches at DePauw did a great job on the women’s side and had some big time drops and excellent swims. In what amounts to two separate meets, DePauw women won the other NCAC meet. Great team enthusiasm and energy there. They richly deserved the NCAC Women’s Coaches award that they were awarded.
Appreciate the post.
* I will confirm that it became common to see swimmers finish and immediately start coughing. It seemed worst for those doing fly and breast.
* I was impressed with many of the performances by the Denison women. Quinn Brown and Emily Harris are bona fide superstars. Denison showcased impressive depth, with several standout younger swimmers.
* For newcomer of the year, we would, of course, restrict ourselves to swimmers, in which case it would have been a choice between Kenyon's Kelsey Van Eldik or Nora Lee Brown, or Denison's Caroline Ramirez (honorable mention for the Ladies' Tuva Siegel).
* It is our impression that DQs have heavily shaped the outcome of the meet in three of the last four years. When this happens (and it keeps happening), NCAC continues to show a troubling indifference to explaining the rules and process to the communities that support these teams.
* Love DePauw. Apparently, so did the athletes on Kenyon, who joined in, adding volume to DePauw's chants. Agreed—they seem like a team heading in an interesting direction.
Watching the D1 Atlantic 10 meet and noticed that UConn stuffed the women’s 3m Diving with 6 and amassed a ton of points. Interesting that some schools can attract lots of divers when the majority struggle to have even one diver. I don’t see a lot of divers in high school meets, even the regional meets leading to state meets so I wonder where that important part of the sport is going. My college team had a great diving program and even sported an NCAA champion and Olympian so I know what a weapon good diving is. I do prefer quality diving over putting “limited divers” up just to score points. With the current situation in diving, it has become a strategy to load the diving up.