Swimming

Quiet Morning in Knoxville as Empty Lanes Make Eyesores

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By Mark Wild on SwimSwam

2024 PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

After a long three days of racing, the 4th day of racing at the 2023 Pro Swim Series – Knoxville saw a quiet and subdued affair despite the high caliber of racing expected by glancing at the heat sheet.

A rash of high-profile names either declared false starts (DFS) this morning after being unsure what events to swim this morning or missed the entire day due to collegiate meets or travel.

Big Names

Let’s start with the UVA contingent:

UVA has a dual meet scheduled to start right now against ACC rival and in-state competition Virgina-Tech.  From the looks of based on the swims this morning, it appears that some of the pro group/red shirt group and some of the collegiate group are staying. Kate Douglass, Claire Curzan, Jack Aikins, Alex Walsh, Ella Nelson, and Abby Harter all swam this morning.

Based on the lack of swims and confirmed by UVA staff, the rest of the team has left Knoxville for Blacksburg to compete against Virginia Tech. That list includes Gretchen Walsh, who was scheduled to swim the 50 free this morning; Aimee Canny, who was entered in the 200 IM and 50 free; Maxine Parker, who was also in the 50 free; and Tess Howley, who missed the 100 back.

Noah Nichols was not entered in any event this morning but placed 4th (1:00.92) in the 100 breast earlier in the weekend.

Cal Collegiate

Similar to the UVA group, it appears as if a group of the Cal collegiate group planned on not swimming this morning, as evidenced by some big absences:

That is not to say that all of the Cal group left as Jack Alexy swam the 50 free (T-3rd 22.25) as did Isabelle Stadden, who swam the 100 back (2nd 59.56).

While Rose, Lasco, and Jett could be seen perhaps having an illness, a social media post of Dare Rose peacing out Knoxville is telling (screenshot right).

UVA and Cal swimmers were not the only groups to have numerous DFSs, as Arsenio Bustos, Aidan Hayes, and Quintin McCarty all missed the 100 back. Bustos did, however, swim the 200 IM and Hayes the 50 free.

Opinion Time

The effect of multiple DFS is a mixed bag. While keeping to a timeline allows athletes to best prepare for the events, having multiple heats with lanes missing not only makes it less interesting to watch but slows the meet down as well.

Multiple circle-seeded heats were missing several swimmers. Heat 5 of the women’s 200 breast was missing both Alex Walsh and Kotryna Teterevkova. Heat 8 of 8 in the men’s 200 IM had just 4 swimmers. Carson Foster (in lane 4) had open lanes on both sides of him, and Will Licon could have swum a 50 in lanes 5, 6, 7, and 8, and as long as he started and finished in lane 6, he would be perfectly fine as he had his half of the pool to himself.

Luke Amerson swam the 100 back alone in heat 1 as both David Curtiss (he did swim the 50 free) and Gabe Jett dfs’ed.

This is by no means a diatribe on those swimmers or coaches, as events line-ups are fluid and dependent upon a variety of factors, but as an avid watcher of swimming and as a coach, one generally likes to race or watch races with swimmers next to each other.

 

SwimSwam: Quiet Morning in Knoxville as Empty Lanes Make Eyesores

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