CCIW Championships - NCAA Cuts

It doesn't seem possible - not when you graduate a class that includes four NCAA Consideration qualifiers and three All-Americans - but this weekend the Red Men posted the most NCAA 'B' qualifiers in school history.

Time will tell what shakes out and who makes Minneapolis, but here's a rundown of who got cuts:

1. Blake Bendix - 200 & 400 Free Relays
2. Jon Bond - 100 Back, 200 Med Relay
3. Kyle Drake - 100 & 200 Back, 400 IM, 400 Med Relay, 800 Free Relay
4. Mitchell Jackson - 800 Free Relay
5. Dan Jones - 200 Free Relay
6. Mike Moravek - 200 Medley Relay
7. Ryan Ortmann - 200 & 400 Free Relays
8. Bob Pellican - 100 Back, 400 Free Relay
9. Nathan Ripley - 50, 100, 200 Free - 400 Medley, 200, 400, 800 Free Relays
10. Isaac Rothenbaum - 200 Free Relay
11. Doug Schranck - 100 & 200 Fly, 200 & 400 Medley Relays
12. Alex Van Huis - 400 Medley Relay
13. Chris Varner - 100 Back

Final Tune-Up: Wisconsin Private College Meet

The impressive-sounding, but not all that impressive Wisconsin Private College Championships are in the books, and with it, our final races prior to the CCIW and NCAA Championships.

It's funny to think about it now, but nobody on our team can remember a time when we didn't win this meet or every relay as a part of it. Only Rip and Alex are even able to remember this meet being held anyplace but Carthage and nobody wants to remember just how long the meet used to take. That's a far cry from when I got here and the upperclassmen explained that one of their goals was to win back the "Championship".

Today its a meet where we let the guys choose their own events. and let them take a stab at moving up the all-time lists. As coaches, we use it as an evaluation tool - who should be in what event at CCIW's. Who will (and won't) make the conference team?

Some things that stood out this weekend:

• Our medley relays may have some life after all! We split them up and the top two weren't far off our season best. If we pick the right four, I think we can make a run at Wheaton's top-ten ranked medleys.
• Ryan Ortmann is beginning to show why he should be one of the nation's premiere sprinters. He went a lifetime best and broke Edgar Vargas' meet record with a slow start and bad breakout. He's also probably off the hook for the 200 freestyle at conference following his is 54.7 fly.
  
• 200 IM - We don't have a "true" 200 IM'er, but a lot of pretty good ones. We'll be looking for someone to break through here.
• Nathan Ripley - wins his 4th straight 100 free title with a new meet record. He's emerged from our heaviest training and starting to show flashes of what we know he can do.
• Breaststrokes - We've got a logjam in the 1:02-1:04 range. We need a 58.5 and watching these guys improve every week gives us optimism.
• 200 Free Relay - Carroll breaks a seven-year string of relay wins, BUT check out that 22.32 anchor split out of a miler - Eric Ross?
• 100 Butterfly - Everyone loves swimming the 100 fly at this meet. I'm never really sure why, but we learned that we do have some more potential here.

The final evaluation of this weekend's meet is a solid B+. The guys answered a lot of questions, and in a couple of cases even showed enough versatility that we will have several weapons at our disposal come conference time. In fact, putting together this year's CCIW lineup is going to be more challenging than ever before. Take a guy like Isaac Rothenbaum. He's really a 200 freestyler, but he's ranked in the top eight in the 100 breaststroke. If we put him in breaststroke, it leaves him better rested for the 800 free relay at night, but it potentially knocks some of our breaststrokers out of the top eight.

It's an interesting set of questions, and we'll need to get most of them right to defend last year's conference title.

Ripley Named Division III Swimmer-of-the-Week

Yeah, I own the site, but no bias here - Nathan was selected as National Swimmer-of-the-Week by a panel of coaches.  It's the sixth time a Red Man has earned the honor - out of nine years I wouldn't say there's a lot of bias.  Here's the official word: 

Carthage College’s Nathan Ripley (Sr., Middleton, Wis.) was named CollegeSwimming.com NCAA Division III “Men’s Swimmer of the Week” on Nov. 3. Ripley won three events against Hope College on Oct. 31, taking first place in the 50 freestyle (21.87), the 100 freestyle (46.82) and the 200 freestyle (1:46.01). He also assisted on the winning 400 freestyle relay (3:14.16). 

Additionally, Amanda Croix picked up the women's honor this week!

Carthage Edges Hope 133-129

The cliche says, "It's not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game." We put that cliche to the test yesterday. It was a typical Hope-Carthage match-up with the lead going back and forth event, right up until the 200 Breaststroke. Hope went 1-2 on us and then minimized Doug Schrank's win in the 100 fly by going 2-3-4.

That wasn't enough for the guys and the fans to get up for the final relays. Every voice was at full throttle and helped push the guys to TWO sub-3:16 free relays. Even those weren't enough to withstand Hope's final point total . . . or so we thought.

So after the relay, I'm surrounded by and talking to the guys - still jacked from the race they just saw when our Sports Information Assistant comes by. He whispers, "133-129". Really? It was that close? "We won." What? No. Go recheck the score. He did and he was right - and for the next hour I sat and wondered how on earth we pulled it out. It wasn't until I was reading the results that I discovered Hope had DQ'd a relay way back in the first event.

No matter really, because even when we'd thought we'd lost we could appreciate the meet we saw - and what a meet it was. Nathan Ripley put up three big swims for us. If you'd have seen after practice on Friday, you wouldn't have imagined he could swim another 200 yards, much less race it. He not only raced, he won the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles while adding a 47.35 split on our 'A' free relay.

Rip was one of many highlights on the day. To win, we knew we'd need some breaks in a few events. The 1000 free was one such event so we opted to slip Kyle Drake in. He responded with a 9:54.60 - the fifth fastest 1000 in school history. While he was en route to a win though, Eric Ross and Jeff Shade showed why dual meets can bring out the best in guys. The two were back and forth over the final 400 yards and Eric, who often been a better trainer than racer, finally dashed all Hope by putting his head down the final 12 yards to finish just 0.25 ahead of Jeff.

Doug Schranck also had a big day. He swept both relays and when given a shot to swim on the 'A' free relay gave us a 48.8 split. His fly times were big-time drops from where he was at a year ago and gave us a couple of well-timed victories.

A couple other observations of things we need to work on in the upcoming weeks:

• Underwater Kicking: Our work here is paying off. As good as our backstrokers and flyers have been, I'd never say that underwater kicking was a real asset. That's beginning to change, and it was especially evident in the 100 backstroke where Chris, Bob, Jon, and Pat all pushed far beyond their normal kick zone.
• Breaststrokers: We're going to need our breaststrokers to develop and develop quickly. While Ben, Mike and Adam were all much faster than this time last year, we got 1-2-3'd in the 100 breaststroke for the first time ever. Several breaststroke recruits were on campus, but they won't be here until next year, plus, I'm not that patient. The development of these three guys plus freshman Tyler Smith is vital to our Medley relays this year.
• Freshmen: Our new guys have a lot of raw potential, but were a little overwhelmed by the early speed of racing at the college level. We saw a lot of guys either giving up 1/2 second in the first 25 of a 100 or holding a little too much in reserve in the 200's. The lone exception was Steve Mathe. If you haven't read the blog post about Steven you need to, but he jumped out to a bistering pace in the 500 - he was leading at the 200 mark. At that point he died on his shield, but he also posted a lifetime best (and entered the all-time list at 49th). More importantly, he showed the aggressiveness that we can tame into a great racer.
  
• Depth: We relied on our big dogs in a big way during this meet. On six different events we only scored two guys (out of maximum of three) and finished 6th (i.e. out of points) six times. While a handful of swimmers can score well at NCAA's, we'll have to rely on our next line of guys if we're going to defend our CCIW title.

That next line of guys will get a chance to shine next weekend. We'll be leaving some of our big guns at home as we take on a much improved Lake Forest team on Friday night. If that next line of guys doesn't rise to the occasion, we could find ourselves on the short end of the stick.

Complete Results

Alex & Rip Selected as Team Captains

Seniors Nathan Ripley and Alex Van Huis were named team captains for the 2009-10 season. While it might seem like a natural to have your two seniors named captains, we actually have each upperclassman on the team complete an evaluation of each captain candidate (this year there were five).

The evaluation isn't original, I adapted it from Jeff Janssen's Leadership Manual, but here's what each guy was evaluated on.

Commitment
___________is one of the hardest workers on the team
___________cares passionately about the team’s success
___________is a competitive person who wants to win

Confidence
___________has the confidence in himself as a person and his ability to lead
___________wants to perform in pressure situations
___________bounces back quickly following mistakes and errors

Composure
___________stays calm and composed in pressure situations
___________stays focused when faced with distractions, obstacles & adversity
___________keeps his anger and frustration under control

Character
___________consistently does the right thing in and out of the pool
___________is honest and trustworthy
___________treats teammates, coaches, and others with respect

Encourager – Servant
___________reaches out to teammates when they need help
___________takes the time to listen to teammates

Encourager – Confidence Builder
___________regularly encourages his teammates to do their best
___________regularly compliments his teammates when they succeed

Encourager – Refocuser
___________communicates optimism and hope when the team is struggling
___________knows what to say to teammates when they are struggling

Encourager – Team Builder
___________has developed an effective relationship with each teammate
___________is a team player who seeks to unify the team

Enforcer
___________holds teammates accountable for following team standards
___________constructively confronts teammates when necessary
___________is willing to address and minimize conflicts between teammates
___________is firm, fair, and direct when dealing with conflicts and problems

LCM Records Updated

With championship meets winding down here's a recap of our summer competition - fully a third of the team's top three times went down along with three team records.

50 Free	24.73	Davis, Bryce	8/4/2007	Steve Keller
	24.99	Ripley, Nathan	7/11/2009	Shane Ryan
	25.43	Schranck, Doug	7/24/2009	Dave Stephens
100 Free	54.31	Ripley, Nathan	7/13/2009	Shane Ryan
	54.65	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	54.70	Davis, Bryce	8/4/2007	Steve Keller
200 Free	2:02.24	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:02.66	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	2:03.83	Ripley, Nathan	7/11/2009	Shane Ryan
400 Free	4:18.08	Ross, Eric	7/22/2009	TJ Day
	4:19.18	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	4:19.55	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/23/2004	Jim Sheridan
800 Free	8:53.06	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	9:06.21	Ross, Eric	7/23/2009	TJ Day
	9:06.50	Glover, Adam	7/23/2009	Mary Liston
1500 Free	16:58.65	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	17:11.12	Ross, Eric	7/20/2009	TJ Day
	18:14.47	Glover, Adam	6/25/2009	Mary Liston
100 Back	1:02.79	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2008	Bill Schalz
	1:02.90	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
	1:04.15	Pellican, Bob	6/11/2008	Mary Ruffin
200 Back	2:11.06	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2009	Bill Schalz
	2:15.23	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
	2:17.82	Pellican, Bob	7/11/2008	Mary Ruffin
100 Breast	1:07.15	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	1:08.71	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	1:10.51	Moravek, Mike	7/22/2009	Andy Rose
200 Breast	2:26.29	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:32.26	Moravek, Mike	7/22/2009	Andy Rose
	2:41.85	Somers, Henry	7/10/2003	Bill Schalz
100 Fly	58.07	Schranck, Doug	7/23/2009	Dave Stephens
	59.16	Davis, Bryce	8/6/2006	Steve Keller
	1:00.57	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
200 Fly	2:12.01	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	2:13.19	Schranck, Doug	7/24/2009	Dave Stephens
	2:16.96	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
200 IM	2:16.58	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:18.70	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/23/2004	Jim Sheridan
	2:20.12	Drake, Kyle	5/22/2009
400 IM	4:53.88	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	4:54.97	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg lake
	4:57.07	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2009	Bill Schalz

Ripley Breaks School LCM Record

From Appleton, Wisconsin comes word that we have a new school record in the 100-meter freestyle. On the day Henry Somers was married, Nathan Ripley took away his LCM team record with a 54.31. For those of you scoring at home that converts to a 46.87. Rip also finished second in the 50-meter free. His 24.99 ranks second behind Bryce Davis. It converts to a 21.61.

With Long Course championship meets beginning next week, here's a recap of the Carthage All-Time top three. To make the list, swimmers must have competed a season for the Red Men and be enrolled for the upcoming season. No records yet this summer, but we have had some additions to the top three already.

50 Free	24.73	Davis, Bryce	8/4/2007	Steve Keller
	24.99	Ripley, Nathan	7/11/2009	Shane Ryan
	25.44	Somers, Henry	6/25/2004	Bill Schalz
100 Free	54.31	Ripley, Nathan	7/13/2009	Shane Ryan
	54.65	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	54.70	Davis, Bryce	8/4/2007	Steve Keller
200 Free	2:02.24	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:02.66	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	2:03.83	Ripley, Nathan	7/11/2009	Shane Ryan
400 Free	4:18.08	Ross, Eric	7/22/2009	TJ Day
	4:19.18	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	4:19.55	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/23/2004	Jim Sheridan
800 Free	8:53.06	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	9:06.21	Ross, Eric	7/23/2009	TJ Day
	9:06.50	Glover, Adam	7/23/2009	Mary Liston
1500 Free	16:58.65	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	17:11.12	Ross, Eric	7/20/2009	TJ Day
	18:14.47	Glover, Adam	6/25/2009	Mary Liston
100 Back	1:02.79	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2008	Bill Schalz
	1:02.90	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
	1:05.10	Pellican, Bob	6/11/2009	Mary Ruffin
200 Back	2:15.23	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
	2:11.06	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2009	Bill Schalz
	2:20.98	Pellican, Bob	6/11/2009	Mary Ruffin
100 Breast	1:07.15	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	1:08.71	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
	1:10.51	Moravek, Mike	7/22/2009	Andy Rose
200 Breast	2:26.29	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:32.26	Moravek, Mike	7/22/2009	Andy Rose
	2:41.85	Somers, Henry	7/10/2003	Bill Schalz
100 Fly	58.07	Schranck, Doug	7/23/2009	Dave Stephens
	59.16	Davis, Bryce	8/6/2006	Steve Keller
	1:00.57	Somers, Henry	7/24/2003	Bill Schalz
200 Fly	2:12.01	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg Lake
	2:13.86	Schranck, Doug	7/24/2009	Dave Stephens
	2:16.96	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/24/2003	Jim Sheridan
200 IM	2:16.58	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	2:18.70	Chapman, Nathaniel	7/23/2004	Jim Sheridan
	2:20.12	Drake, Kyle	5/22/2009
400 IM	4:53.88	Schranck, Stephen	7/19/2006	Dave Stephens
	4:54.97	Pelka, Bryan	7/20/2006	Greg lake
	4:57.07	Drake, Kyle	7/17/2009	Bill Schalz

CCIW - Day II (Continued)

OK - got a power cord.

200 Freestyle - Last year Rip went in as the top seed only to get third. No doubt this year though - Rip led coast to coast along with teammate Kyle Winiecki. For Rip it broke the school record set hours earlier by Stephen. For Kyle it was a new lifetime best - leapfrogging him from the 1:46 range to 1:43 - no need for 1:44 or 1:45. Isaac also established a new lifetime best - knocking a 1/4 second off of his previous best to move into 4th. In the consol heat, Eric Ross established himself as the consol king. After a disappointing morning swim - he stormed back to drop nearly three seconds to go 1:47.50. We used prelims as a tryout for the fourth leg of our 800 Freestyle relay. The guys were impressive across the board. Dan Jones and Ryan Ortmann going 1:52.1 and 1:51.3 were probably the most shocking. Still, there were enough lifetime bests to go around - Adam Glover 1:49.6, Alex Boyer 1:49.3, Alex VanHuis 1:47.4, Pelka 1:47.2, Doug Schranck 1:46.9 and the winner for that fourth relay spot - Derek Schneider 1:45.31

100 Breaststroke - A night after the disappointment of the 200 IM, Stephen took back a little piece of history in the breaststroke. This was an event Wheaton had their eyes on and with good reson - Jon Nitz is fast. He's a sprinter though so when he and Stephen turned at the 50, I knew we had it - sure enough, Stephen came home in 29.79 to break Zach Jole's meet record with a 56.61. Andy slipped a spot - going 1:00.31 and bring an end to his breaststroke experiment. In Consols Adam Van Huis reached down into his sprint reserves to go a LTB 1:02.38. Mike Moravek was just back at 1:03.0 - not what we were aiming for, but good enough for 11th. We were excellent in our morning swims - Buck a 1:09, Alex VanHuis a 1:00.78 and a breakthrough swim for Ben Coder who bypassed the 1:02 zone, cruising in in 1:01.97.

100 Backstroke - After watching Varner go a 52.64 on Thursday's relay - expectations were high in the 100 and he came through again - this time going a 52.75 - a little off but still good enough for a 'B' cut and a nice second-place birthday present. Bob went a little faster at night, but never really look comfortable as we went a LTB 54.03. Pat, who snuck into finals, made it worthwhile - clocking his first sub-56 time! We didn't have anyone in consols - but did enjoy some good swims in the morning. Dan Jones won the latest Jones-Ortmann showdown 59.0 to 1:01.2. Clinton Scheirer also clocked a LTB 58.63 as did Tommy who took over a second off of his lifetime best - 56.64.

800 Freestyle Relay - OK - we're going to save the story of our 'C' relay for a little later. Let's just say we did some re-shuffling and had to go with our 5-8th 200 freestylers for the 'A' and even had to dip down to our 16th fastest guy to complete the 'B' team. That 'B' group didn't disappoint though - as they swam away with their heat - Blake 1:45.4, Glover 1:48.3, Eric a little slower 1:48.6 before Tom Stowe - he of a 1:55.5 lifetime best - splits 1:49.50. When it comes to the 'A' team, they too didn't disappoint as they posted a five-second win over Wheaton. Doug led it with a 1:45.55 while Isaac followed with his first-ever sub-1:46 split. Alex VanHuis continued with a 1:45 of his own before Bryan Pelka anchored in 1:45.18.

The win was especially enjoyable because it was essentially with our 'B' guys, but also because it was the first-ever conference title for Isaac Rothenbaum - a guy who didn't make our scoring team last season, and a relay title for Bryan and Alex - a first for both.

Sprint Workout

Most middle distance and distance guys had the night off. Not the sprinters though, they came back for a short workout, including a little time working on starts & turns. The best time - 6.39 seconds for Nathan Ripley.

Today? Well it's the first day of winter. Think of us as we're working hard on the beach.

The Venice Daries: Day Eight Nathan Ripley

The yards (and meters too) are all behind us, the bags are all packed, and here we sit in an airport at four-o-something in the morning. Am I glad it's all over? Of course! Would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat.

Thanks go out to Greg, Tom, and all the people that made this training trip so successful, and thanks go out to the team for pushing me so hard all week long. There were, admittedly, times this week that made me feel like giving up (100 x 50's long course anyone?) but all it took to get going again was a glance across the lane lines and away we went. The moral of the story is this Carthage mens swim team is not the same group that it was coming into this week. Like the six million dollar man we have been rebuilt as better, faster, and stronger swimmers, and I would like to think that goes for us as people too. So train hard Wheaton, because ready or not, here come the new and improved Carthage Red Men!

----------------------------
Nathan Ripley
Carthage College Men's Swimming

Please Excuse My Typos
This was typed by my fat little
thumbs on Greg's fancy little phone at an airport at four in the morning.