Hey all, @scobeard here,
For those that care about non-revenue sports, the Men's swim team kicks off the ACC Championships tonight with the first two relays. I figured I'd create a forum topic in case anyone interested has any questions about how all of this works or just wants me to provide general commentary.
VT has a shot to win the whole thing this year. UVA has won the last 6 straight, and have really only lost once (to FSU, my junior year) since I can remember. It's something like the last 16/17 ACC Championships have been won by UVA.
VT whooped UVA pretty good head-to-head this season, but UVA prepares for big meets better than anyone, so it'll be a fight. UNC, another historically great team, also figures to be a contender.
VT has an undefeated conference record in head-to-head, but dynamics change when every team is fighting for points. As of now, we stand with about a 100 point lead over UVA with diving already being scored from last week. Relays will be HUGE as they score double points, and we've got a really good hold on the stroke events (especially backstroke and butterfly). Butterfly has been a historically great event for VT Swimming (waves hand emphatically).
Live results are here: http://www.theacc.com/#!/page/championship_c-swim_livestats
and you can watch live starting tomorrow here: http://www.theacc.com/#!/page/championship_c-swim
Feel free to talk about it and ask any questions you have here or on twitter @scobeard. I'll try and resond to any as much as possible and might make a trip down to Greensboro this weekend to see it in person.
GO HOKIES!
Comments
I hope the boys get it done. Would be nice to take some LOLUVA pride away in something this winter.
I am sure our new AD will be tuned in. Men bring home the championship means $10K for him. Nice return on his HokieClub investment.
Are we allowed to sic sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads on the UVA swimmers? Or at least ill tempered sea bass?
"Throw me a bone here!... I've been an evil frikkin Doctor for 30 frikkin years!"
"I didn't go to Evil Medical School to be called 'Mister', thankyouverymuch!"
Mutated ill-tempered sea bass
No. 2: Of course.
Jr. Morgan Latimer is shark enough. He'll have a huge meet.
Lost two of our IM basketball players because of this!
In all honesty I snapped this last year at the ACC swimming championships and it never gets old to me.
How is that guy not a security risk? What if they partied with a box of wine before they came in?
In all fairness, the person most likely to start shit is the woman with the huge orange boa.
I've actually gotten to see both UVA and tech swim this year when they made the trip up to Columbus. The VT squad seemed a lot more impressive. Go Hokies!
I was disappointed in the women's team last week. We should be able to do better than 6th considering we're equidistant from two of the biggest swimming hotbeds in the country (DC/Baltimore and Charlotte). I am proud of my former teammate Laura Schwartz she did great.
Don't forget about FSU. Will definitely make a run at the title as well. Lot of firepower.
Yeah, FSU looks scary fast. As far as the women go, it's a down year for them with some of the recruiting that's happened. It happens. When I was there, they were a top2-3 team, but 6th is about where I expected them to be this year after losing so many fast girls over the last 2 seasons or so.
Can you explain how the meet/competition/scoring works? I looked around for a bit and have no freaking clue how these things work. Admitted swimming novice here.
I'm not absolutely sure on the numbers anymore, but individual event wins start at 27 points, and 2nd place gets 24, and then it goes all the way down to 1 point for 21st place. You compete in the prelims, and then get seeded for finals. So top 8 are in the A finals, 9-16 in the B, and 17-24 in the C final.
Now, this is the first time the C final can score points. It used to be that only A and B teams could score.
Also very important, and this gets confusing, but if you're in the B final, the most you can score is 17 points for winning the heat. Even IF you swim a time that beats some people in the A final, you can't score out of your heat. So the last place in the A heat will score more than 1st place in the B final no matter what their times are.
Relays score as double points and each school can only field one relay. Relays are huge point grabbers. There are 5 relays swam over the weekend.
Lastly, diving is scored alongside swimming. VT enters this meet with a pretty good lead over other schools. It's weird diving is counted, but think of it like track and field. Two different sports really, but it is what it is.
Every team competes, so there's no real head to head. So beating other teams head to head is great, but outlier teams like Duke can beat a few of our guys and take points that we'd really like. That's how it works when everyone is scored equally.
Sorry, it's very confusing at times, and MattB can help out too. He's far less removed form college swimming than I am and he was also a VT swimmer.
Was NC State expected to be so dominant in these relays? Seems like they have significantly slower "seeding" times than what they ultimately put up in the finals. Regardless, looks like a 4 team race at this point, with FSU's DQ in tonight's relay pretty much taking them out of the race. Good thing NC St were completely shut out in diving. Hopefully Tech continues to swim well Friday and Saturday! With diving points added in, Tech has a 132 point lead over NC St (and the rest of the ACC) heading into tomorrow's swims. Keep it up H2Okies!
UGH. I KNOW. In my day, WE used to dominate sprints and relays, a lot has changed.
NC State was expected to dominate relays. As far as top end speed and talent goes, only FSU can rival them. They have a huge pipeline to European talents. Their coach is also VT's former assistant (whom I swam under). He used to run our big meet preparation (and it always went terribly. he wrote a thesis on how tapering doesn't exist). It seems, however, that he's mastered it. NC State has been nothing short of stunning come game time these last two years.
I'm trying to be excited, but I still can't figure out the leader board from the links above! Is there a cumulative points board or % of total points I can do some math on?
According to Hokiesports, Tech trails NC State 415-411 after the second day. LOLUVA is in third, trailing Tech by 73 points.
After Day 3 Tech holds an 8 point lead over NC St. It looks like it's down to a 2 horse (pony) race heading into the last day. If you factor in the platform diving points, which are locked in from last week but not added to the team totals until tomorrow, Tech has a nice 78 point cushion. H2Okies will be swimming for some hardware tomorrow night!
According to the article the day 2 score already had the 1 meter platform points included. Are the 70 points you are putting up in addition to the 1 meter? Just curious...
The diving points havent officially been added yet. For all intents and purposes, we lead by 78 points now. Tomorrow night, before the relay, those points will be added. We have better milers and 200 swimmers than NC State, so it's our meet to lose at this point. If I had to bet, we have this one in our hands. Chances are, we'll be bringing home hardware and VT will be champions. Crazier things have happened, however, so it's not a guarantee. But, if we do what we're supposed to, you'll be looking at VT winning the ACC Championships in swimming, and nothing on this Earth can make me more proud.
Get it done, Men. GO HOKIES!
I spoke to the diving coach earlier today, and the men will be adding a bunch of points from platform. Ron Piemonte is easily VT's best coach, so much of this victory goes to him (no joke. He's better than Beamer. We're insanely lucky to have him). So tomorrow it might look bad, but remember that dive points are added late. If we place how we should, this meet it ours.
Holy moly, this stuff needs a scoreboard! Thanks for the clarifications!
Let's change this statement to say "he's a better swimming coach than Beamer"
In it to win it!! Go Hokies!!
Tech Swimmers:
LOLUVA Swimmers:
We are so close I can smell it...7pm tonight all of you better believe the live stream will be playing on the dirybird computer. With this 78 point cushion the ACC Swim & Dive Championship trophy is basically asking to make a trip to Blacksburg for the first time!
With all due respect, did someone on this thread say that a swimming coach is better than Beamer?
What's the problem with that...I'm sure Beamer isn't a very good swimming coach :)
I just had some horrible visions of beamer demonstrating from the high dive hahahah
Those double jackknives, they'll get after ya
That perfect form on bellyflop...they'll really get after ya.
Yes. I did. I love Beamer, but VT's diving coach took what was EASILY the worst team in the nation and made them the best within 4 years. Without diving, we don't win this meet. Ron Piemonte could coach the Olympic team and be over qualified. It can't be understated how amazing of a coach he is. Even better man. Funniest dude I've ever met, too.
Do I like football more than swimming? Yes. I probably like football more than 99% of the people on this site. And I get footballs popularity and embrace it, but there are superstars in the athletic department that get paid 1/20th what he does, and for reasons that are absolutely reasonable. But I'd be a shitty alumni if I didn't at least try to point out these lesser known superstars. Especially superstars that personally helped shape my college experience.
Kudos to you for educating the TKP community on these other Tech coaches that deserve some heavy recognition and respect. I'm sure we are all on board with that.
But, this:
is a bit over the top. I'm sure most of us are on par, sir! Go Hokies, great win today!!
For those who don't know this means that the only way VT can lose is by DQing in the last relay and NC state winning the final relay.
How is Miami, of all places, bad at swimming?
Fair enough
The real reason is because the Miami swim and dive team doesnt actually have mens swimming so they are only divers.
Did Whit post another tweet saying $Ca'Ching$? It could be like his version of "Choppin Wood"
Haha so true man!
WE WON IT!!!
Its official Virginia Tech wins the ACC championship in mens swimming and diving
That was exciting to watch!
They all played to safe as you could probably tell as before each swimmer went off the blocks waited until they knew the swimmer ahead of them touched the wall. Well coached and good job VT Men swim and Dive!!
Oh yeah. I guarantee you the head coach, Ned, was telling his boys to wait on the starts. In fact, he was probably screaming it.
Virginia Tech, 2014 ACC Swim & Dive Champions!!! This is huge boys. Our swimmers worked their balls off all year to accomplish this! Congrats to all the coaches, swimmers, and alumni who laid the foundation to bring the H2okies to where they are now (Scobeard, etc.)! It is a great night to be a Hokie!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's only March and Tech has won an ACC Championship. 2014 is off to a good start.
Congratulations to our Hokie swimmers! Great job, guys.
So I for one was sick of seeing UVa this and UVa that after they beat Cuse tonight. This definitely brightened my day!!! Have a friend who is a UVa fan sending me crap tonight but this shut him up real quick! Go Hokies!!!
lol. Great victory tonight, glad he stopped his rants after that!! Sweet, Sweet !!
I watched that Cuse-LOLUVA game and they played well. But, when I see the student close ups during the game, I just:
Good job. Heck of a thing.
Atta Boy (Ummm, Man) Bud!! Respect!
Bud seems to be getting this twitter thing down pat. I wonder how many computers were smashed in the process...
Now imagine the dumpster imploding.