Opening Week

It's opening week at Whitman and campus has sprung back to life.  After a quiet summer, it's great to see all of our returners and it's awesome to welcome in the class of 2017!

The weather has been ideal and the atmosphere around campus is full of life again.  Classes begin for the 2013-2014 academic year on Tuesday.  Although the swimming season does not officially begin until September 23rd, the captains (Ellen Banks and Melanie Notari for the Women, and Nic Win and Sam Starr for the Men) have been gearing up to hold optional, unofficial workouts to get to know the new swimmers and make sure everyone has a chance to hop in the pool as a team before things get underway.

As the season gets started, be sure to like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (@WhitmanSwimming) for all all sorts of Whitman Swimming news and other info.  As new blog posts are added, links will be posted to the Facebook page and Twitter.

The class of 2017 getting dinner outside Reid Campus Center

2013-2014 NCAA Time Standards Announced

Last week, the 2014 NCAA DIII Swimming Qualifying Times were announced.  This latest revision of the time standards brought significant changes to the Automatic ("A") time standards, elimination of "A" time standards for relays, and slight changes to "B" time standards.

The 2014 automatic time standards were calculated by taking the average time of the previous three year's 1st place finishers.  The result: dramatically faster automatic time standards in every individual event. 

After the 2012-2013 season, where over 20 men met or exceeded the "A" qualifying standard in the 100 butterfly, it was clear that a change would be coming for next season.  The drastic lowering of the automatic time qualifications in individual events essentially ensures that a repeat of last year's abundance of "A" qualifiers will never happen again.  In fact, given how fast the 2014 time standards are, it wouldn't be surprising to see no one meet the "A" cut during mid-season or even Conference Championship meets.  For example, the Women's 50 freestyle automatic cut was 23.35 in 2013.  In 2014, the automatic time standard is 22.91.  You can compare this year and last year by clicking here for 2013 standards, and here for 2014 standards.

The other major change is that in 2014, there will be no automatic qualifying standards for relays.  Because the NCAA selection process takes the top 16 times in each relay, the NCAA committee has decided that simply having a "B" standard and then taking the fastest 16 teams under that standard is sufficient. 

"B" time standards usually change slightly from year to year and 2014 is no different.  The "B" cuts for 2014 align themselves quite well with what one might have predicted after 2013.  

What do these changes mean?  Surprisingly, very little.  The selection process for the meet remains the same.  The only major difference is that there is  almost no chance of any particular event having more than a small handful of automatic qualifiers--and, obviously, there will be no automatic qualifiers in relays.  However, eliminating the possibility that any particular event is drastically over-qualified enables the number of swimmers selected into other events to rise.

What's Happening on Campus this Summer

This summer, Whitman is undergoing two major construction projects.  

Our tennis courts are being torn out and two more courts are being added, bringing the total number of outdoor courts to six.  Having six courts at one location is the minimum requirement for hosting a National level tournament.  Although there has been some controversy over the fact that three trees had to be removed for the project, the end result will be an awesome facility for two of Whitman's most decorated and competitive teams.  You can read more about the new courts and see a rendering of what the new facility will look like at Jeff Northam's (Whitman Men's Tennis Coach) blog.

The courts, looking towards the library

The courts, looking towards Maxey Hall

The other major summer project is the remodel of the Memorial Building.  Though Memorial ("Mem") is not home to many academic courses, Mem is home to Whitman's offices of Development, Business, Residence Life, Off-campus Study, and many more.  Mem is where our esteemed volunteer assistant coach, Jamie Kennedy, has his office.

Mem was originally built in 1899 with a $50,000 gift.  The Memorial Building was named to honor Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman.  The building underwent a significant seismic upgrade to its foundation and the clock tower in the summer of 2010, but this is the first time--at least as far as Jamie knows--that the entire inside of the building has been remodeled.  The main entryways are first on the docket and then the remodel process will continue to move office to office until the whole building has been completely overhauled.  The project is scheduled to conclude in early September. 

The second floor foyer in Mem