Art Adamson Invitation
As an Olympic Gold Medalist Maggie McNeil After qualifying for a fifth season with LSU and deciding to reunite with former Michigan state coach Rick Bishop, Hui Poloy around the pool didn’t give the Tigers a chance to capitalize on her presence. .
Much of the conversation was about what McNeil, one of the fastest NCAA swimmers of all time, could do without the burden of an extra swim in the relay. Last season he did the 50-yard freestyle and he did the 100-yard freestyle, which surprised him with the NCAA title last year.
husband.
On day one of the Art Adamson Invitational, the LSU women clocked 1:27.63 in the 200 free relay. It sits just behind the vaunted sprint groups of USC (1:27.38) and Alabama (1:27.56).
The NCAA’s ‘A’ cut for the event was 1:28.43, which the Tigers currently have. simply Qualified for the NCAA championship in that relay, and likely a lot more.
LSU relay:
To be fair, the expectation of no LSU relays in the NCAA championship is not entirely without merit. They graduated from Natalie Kusan in his SEC Championship last year with the fastest leg of his 10th-place relay.
But the LSU women were not devoid of talent. Peyton Curry She is the younger sister of the aforementioned NCAA champion.
“Since my arrival in Baton Rouge, we have had a solid group of female swimmers,” Bishop told SwimSwam. “Maggie brought a spark that ignited greater belief in what women can achieve.”
The ‘A’ cut means that other relays that get at least the ‘B’ standard can now be sent to the NCAA Championship. This includes his relay in the 400 medley, which so far was 3:33.47 late in the session (B cut his 3:33.54).
These will be the first LSU relays in the NCAA Championship since 2016.
we can’t pretend Maggie McNeil, swimming one of the fastest splits in history is not the difference here.In a 200-yard relay, a gap of 1.7 seconds at the exchange is not a small thing, but do the math to anticipate it. could have done it too. She and Bishop work well together, and I know that.
And the scary part is that this LSU 200 free relay probably still has room to drop. Curry was 20 minutes better than he was in the SEC, but Mircinovic was slightly slower in the leadoff leg than he was in the SEC.
“Both the A and B 4 x 50 relays were great,” continued Bishop. “I think we will see continued improvement in these relays in the second half of the season.”
This is a big step forward for Bishop in the LSU rebuilding process. This means he can have seven or eight swimmers on the team in the NCAA Championship. They are on a “list” published by his SwimSwam about many qualifiers and teams with many qualifiers. Their relay heats up quickly at the SEC Championship. All of that leads to visibility to recruits and evidence that what is happening is working.
A bishop can coach speed. Speed is a great way to restructure programs.
Like everyone else, I was excited to see the three events. Maggie McNeil At the NCAA Championships, especially given the high-load field she would face in those events (Kate Douglas, Gretchen Walsh, Katherine Berkoff, etc.). .
McNeil already has a strong NCAA legacy in his pool. This relay’s contribution to LSU makes his legacy legendary.
