1000 Burpees

Last Friday, Juniors Nic Win and Karl Mering embarked on a mission to complete 1000 burpees.  A burpee consists of a pushup followed immediately by standing and going into a squat jump.  Nic previously completed 500 burpees in a solo effort back in July, which took him just over 47 minutes.  This time, Nic and Karl teamed up to attempt 1000.

Nic started out doing 13 burpees every 45 seconds, taking roughly 15 seconds of rest between sets.  After his first 500, he backed off to 10 every minute for the remainder of the 1000.  Karl started out with Nic, but he couldn't quite match Nic's pace and he got into a groove doing 10 per minute early on.  Karl decided to to tap out after 500 burpees.  Karl, unlike Nic, hadn't been working towards 1000 all summer.  Still, Karl's accomplishment is very impressive number all the same.  His willingness to jump into such an ambitious endeavor without having prepared to the same extent as Nic is a shining example of how dedicated this team is to one another.

Nic carried on, doing 10 every minute on the minute, earning 15-20 seconds of rest after each set.  He was joined by some other teammates (and an assistant coach) for the final 350 of his monumental challenge.  After almost exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes, he reached 1000.

Nic rested up for an hour or so and then led the team's final captain's practice of the season.  Karl and Nic's dedication to self-improvement and their willingness to push themselves in new ways is nothing less than inspiring for the rest of the men and women on our team.  It's going to be an incredible year for Whitman Swimming!

Karl and Nic, mid-set

Nic after all 1000!

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.