Men's Swimming and Diving

[78]

Congratulations to the men's swimming and diving team. Which won its 15th A10 conference championship! No details, because I know nothing about swimming and diving other than that there is water involved.

[Kosty]

Congrats to Russ and the boys!! We tend to dominate Eastern swimming and diving so I'm not shocked.

[philosopher]

Wonderful for Russ and the team! The water sports have long been a source of pride for UMass. Well done again, Russ

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Man, those non-revenue sports are really struggling.

[78]

Man, those non-revenue sports are really struggling.

You guys make me laugh. We have one or two non-revenue sports excelling. The rest are in decline along with some of the revenue sports. Let's talk about softball, men's lacrosse and men's soccer for starters.

[Swampy]

Lax and softball have won before and they will win again, imho. I like hiring Steph and Canella didn't all of a sudden forget how to coach and recruit, just saying. All the hand ringing around those programs is wasted energy. And the women's track & field program and field hockey proved they're good. The sky is NOT falling, imho.

[78]

Lax and softball have won before and they will win again, imho. I like hiring Steph and Canella didn't all of a sudden forget how to coach and recruit, just saying. All the hand ringing around those programs is wasted energy. And the women's track & field program and field hockey proved they're good. The sky is NOT falling, imho.

We will see re: softball and men's lacrosse. D1 lacrosse is far different today and we simply don't seem to be getting as many top recruits. As for softball, jury is out. Maybe all they need to do is get a quality pitcher in here again. Sky is not falling, but programs are worse now than when the ex-AD started. Lots of work to do for new AD.

[lane one]

Back to swimming and diving for a bit...

The A10 meet has really gotten very fast over the past few years. For a few years, UMass was the clear cut top of the league, but other schools have stepped up their games. All of the teams have good swimmers now, it's just a matter of who has the best and who has more. Davidson and GMU were excellent additions to the conference. This years meet was close. GMU had the lead on day three, UMass didn't have the lead until day four. It wasn't clear UMass would win until the last round of diving.

The men's team has always taken pride in swimming well on the last day of the meet, and they came through big in the end. Lots of great performances, but I will call out a few standouts. First of all, Alessandro Bomprezzi put up amazing times in the 500 and 1650 times. He will likely be top 35 in the country in the 1650, but just miss an invite to NCAA's. He was given outstanding swimmer of the meet, and there were a number of outstanding swimmers to choose from. It was great to see Michael Glenn finish his career with a B cut and school record in the 100 breaststroke, and get under 2:00 in the 200. There are two very fast freshman this year - Oliver Wyeth and Owen Wright both set school records and finaled in all three of their events. Russ hasn't had many freshman do that in recent years since the conference has gotten so fast. Sophomore Ian Wilson had a great meet this year, getting top 8 in the 200 backstroke. As a freshman, he didn't really make an impact, but sometimes it takes a year to get used to swimming in college. It's always nice to see someone who sticks with it get rewarded.

Both the men's and women's divers were dominant, as usual. Mandy has an amazing program going, and it is deservedly so.

The women's team has started to close the gap on Richmond. Two more good recruiting years and they might get the championship. In my opinion, the highlight of the meet for the women's team was senior Molly Smyth's 500 and 1650 school records.

[Kosty]

You guys make me laugh. We have one or two non-revenue sports excelling. The rest are in decline along with some of the revenue sports. Let's talk about softball, men's lacrosse and men's soccer for starters.

the new men's soccer coach was mccutcheon's last hire. he was a MLS assistant manager (TFC) and former NCAA head coach with lots of experience.

Let's remember too that the soccer team lost their long time coach to cancer before the season started. Don't think that didn't play in to their struggles this season. They were in the national semifinals in recent history (2007)!!

http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m- ... 14aaa.html

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Let's remember too that the soccer team lost their long time coach to cancer before the season started. Don't think that didn't play in to their struggles this season. They were in the national semifinals in recent history (2007)!!

http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m- ... 14aaa.html

Nope. It's McCutcheon's fault.

[78]

Let's remember too that the soccer team lost their long time coach to cancer before the season started. Don't think that didn't play in to their struggles this season. They were in the national semifinals in recent history (2007)!!

http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m- ... 14aaa.html

Nope. It's McCutcheon's fault.

yep, the overall athletic program is stellar. All is well. All is well.

[Swampy]

I don't know who the hell is saying that 'ALL IS WELL" but everyone seems to agree that football is on the upswing and hoops has been winning ALOT during the last four years. Hockey has sucked the big one and lost ALOT of student attendance and that has been tough to watch. However, using Lax, softball and women's hoops as an argument to prove the athletic department is in shambles makes me laugh. My guess is that NONE of those sports has lost more than 5-10% off their attendance figures during the last four years.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

No Swampy, the sky has fallen and ALL IS WELL!

[Refuse2Lose83]

Back to swimming and diving for a bit...

The A10 meet has really gotten very fast over the past few years. For a few years, UMass was the clear cut top of the league, but other schools have stepped up their games. All of the teams have good swimmers now, it's just a matter of who has the best and who has more. Davidson and GMU were excellent additions to the conference. This years meet was close. GMU had the lead on day three, UMass didn't have the lead until day four. It wasn't clear UMass would win until the last round of diving.

The men's team has always taken pride in swimming well on the last day of the meet, and they came through big in the end. Lots of great performances, but I will call out a few standouts. First of all, Alessandro Bomprezzi put up amazing times in the 500 and 1650 times. He will likely be top 35 in the country in the 1650, but just miss an invite to NCAA's. He was given outstanding swimmer of the meet, and there were a number of outstanding swimmers to choose from. It was great to see Michael Glenn finish his career with a B cut and school record in the 100 breaststroke, and get under 2:00 in the 200. There are two very fast freshman this year - Oliver Wyeth and Owen Wright both set school records and finaled in all three of their events. Russ hasn't had many freshman do that in recent years since the conference has gotten so fast. Sophomore Ian Wilson had a great meet this year, getting top 8 in the 200 backstroke. As a freshman, he didn't really make an impact, but sometimes it takes a year to get used to swimming in college. It's always nice to see someone who sticks with it get rewarded.

Both the men's and women's divers were dominant, as usual. Mandy has an amazing program going, and it is deservedly so.

The women's team has started to close the gap on Richmond. Two more good recruiting years and they might get the championship. In my opinion, the highlight of the meet for the women's team was senior Molly Smyth's 500 and 1650 school records.

Thanks for the breakdown from a guy who knows nothing about swimming and diving it was nice to read. A couple questions:

What is a "B cut"?

Is anyone going to NCAA's? Does the team automatically qualify like in basketball by winning the conference?

Why are we so strong in the diving area?

Thanks!

[lane one]

No one from UMass was selected for NCAA's. Each year, they publish A and B qualifying standards for every swimming event. If you make an A cut you go automatically. There are usually only a handful of swimmers who make these - maybe 8 an event. If you get a B cut you are considered. After the last conference meet is done, they round out the field by inviting swimmers with B cuts. It works out that they invite about 30 swimmers per event. The catch is that you can swim up to 2 more events you have B cuts for if you get invited for one event. Divers work a little differently. Divers can qualify for a zone meet, where they compete against other divers in the zone for NCAA spots. UMass had two divers qualify for zones this year (both freshman), but neither placed well enough to get a spot.

For the men, there were 235 spots for swimmers that wound up split between 52 teams. I didn't look at the women's field, but it was probably comparable. Only one swimmer (Billy Brown) and one diver (Michaela Butler - twice) have ever qualified for UMass. There have only been a handful of swimmers from UMass who have made the B cuts, so it's a nice feather in Michael Glenn's cap to get one, even if it didn't lead to an invite. Billy Brown will be inducted into the HOF this spring, btw.

Diving is always strong because Mandy Hixon is a great coach.