This sounds at least promising…
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Congrats on the pre-read successes.
What does the first bullet mean? Were there two actual offers after the pre-reads were passed? If so, are the offers contingent on an ED1 application? What are the deadlines for a decision to commit?
For the 3rd bullet point, what does an “expected” pre-read mean? The coaches haven’t committed to putting on the pre-read list yet but you expect them to? Or the coaches have committed to pre-reads and you expect to pass?
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Great news on the pre-reads. But as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, coaches obtain pre-reads for many more (maybe multiples of) spots than they can support. Now is the time to press the coaches, especially those with positive pre-reads, on where your daughter stands in relation to other recruits. You probably also need to begin to game out with your daughter what her rankings of these schools are and how she will handle an earlier offer with a deadline from lower ranked schools. The game of musical chairs will likely begin soon, definitely before the end of August.
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I’m not sure it’s in your child’s best interest to publicly post this for coaches to potentially see.
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The 50 yard butterfly is listed in 2023 NESCAC Championship results, and so are the 50 yard breaststroke and 50 yard backstroke. Are these just one-off events for that meet? (they’re not included in the NCAA championships, for example).
D24 remains fully focused on training and competition ahead of coming meets. Her targets are very clear in her mind for the 3 upcoming meets: improve in couple events by at least 0.2 sec to reach the #1 rank in certain schools.
@BKSquared & @UltimaCroix thanks for your thoughtful comments regarding strategy & disclosure of information. I have kept the most recent update without naming schools, and will try my best to refrain from further identification until the cards fall into place.
Thankfully, we haven’t moved into the musical chairs yet, and hope the summer visits will clarify D24’s preferences. Whilst we know our children well, this remains fairly unpredictable.
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Will these be meets with actual SCY times, or conversions? You appear to be using to be using the more optimistic of the two Swim Swam conversion tools, which others on this thread have previously advised against because many swimmers can’t meet these. This is especially true given that the fastest relative event (100 freestyle) for your D24 appears to be an outlier compared to relative 50 free and 200 free times. The difference between the two conversions is on the order of 0.9 sec for 100 SCM to 100 SCY, well beyond the 0.2 improvements hoped for.
Realistic targets require realistic assessments.
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The most recent direct comparables appears to be the potential recruit’s age group short course national championship meet at the end of May vs. NESCAC Championship meet in February.
Using the SwimSwam Swimulator Real-Time Converter as the more conservative (and likely more realistic) method to convert short course meters (SCM) times in the former to directly compare short course yards (SCY) times in the latter, here is the virtual placing compared to overall in the NESCAC meet (where the top 24 places score) along with team ranking for Wesleyan and Colby in particular (as those were mentioned as target programs with relatively weak conference results—finished 10th and 8th out of 11 teams, respectively):
- 50 free: 41st; 9th; 8th
- 100 free: 34th; 7th; 7th
- 200 free: 27th; 5th; 6th
- 50 butterfly: 27th; 4th; 4th
- 100 butterfly: 34th; 5th; 3rd
Notes: NESCAC virtual placing based on direct event times; current virtual team rankings include relay splits in the meet when applicable. 50 yard fly is not a standard NCAA event
Others on this thread are better situated to determine how recruitable these times/rankings area, but my understanding based on previous posts is that without top-2 team rankings in multiple events and conference championship top-16 placement times, they won’t get much if any coach recruiting attention.
My guess therefore is that NESCAC recruitment is highly unlikely (same also applies to similarly strong conferences like UAA and SCIAC). This is unlikely to change even with marginal improvements in meet performance this summer.
Therefore weaker conferences should be targeted, unless there happens to be an outlier program that has a specific need that they were unable to fill in the entering 2023 class or in their current 2024 likely commit list.
On the other hand, Grinnell and Franklin & Marshall appear to be two programs discussed in the thread where the times would be attractive for recruiting.
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And summer swim is LCM not SCY as a general rule. Swimmers I know try and get all the college recruiting times by end of junior year during SCY season. I don’t really know how swimming in the US in the summer would be helpful for getting recruitment times.
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So, the Speedo Sectionals in Roseville CA in mid-July are LCM and would be tough to get equivalent times for college recruiting purposes?
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You certainly can get equivalent times but times will still have to be converted rather than a true SCY time. Some kids have better times in one or the other. For example, kids with great turns and underwaters can have better SCY times than long course.
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Agreed. That was the point I tried to make early on. It’s also unclear which cuts OP has - I think only one sectional cut? Conversions are not accepted, but some bonus events may be allowed depending on number of cuts.
The meet itself doesn’t matter and you make a case for OP to find a SCY meet instead. Although technically out of season, they still happen since that is the most common pool size in the US.
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It’s been confusing. And I think there was some mistaken information earlier in the thread months ago about the swimmer meeting Futures cuts?
As far as I can tell, they have two Sectional cuts from Summer 2022 for the 100 & 50 LCM Free. They could then potentially swim one other event with a B cut, right?
It does seem that focusing on and tapering for a U.S. SCY meet would be the much better strategy: direct times for recruiting purposes and more potential events enter.
It depends on the meet, but I think most commonly as long you have one cut you can swim up to 4 events (for sectionals).
D24’s been talking to coaches who are very familiar with meter times & conversion systems, so she’s trusting their judgement in selection.
She’s also relying on the judgement of US swim coaches for selecting the US summer meets, where she will complete alongside some of the swimmers she’s trying to join in college
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I found this from the guide for the SoCal/NV Sectional meet in July:
“An athlete with 5 or fewer qualifying times may enter one (1) additional bonus event (labeled “B” on entry) if the athlete has achieved the listed bonus time standard.”
It really depends on the meet. It’s pointless to speculate.
I think the trick for someone looking to improve times is to find the meet where you can get the most of your events, not the higher level meet.
IMO, going to sectionals to swim 4 or fewer events and not make finals will not be as productive as a lower meet where she can make finals and get more swims in.
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Just an update on the NESCAC conference. Wesleyan now has a new swim head coach (former assistant coach at Bates).
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Also, what we heard from a coach is pre-reads can be submitted 7/15, with results 8/1.
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That could be good news becaus I believe OP’s daughter has already had extensive communication with the abates staff so she wouldn’t have to start completely over with a new coaching staff at Wesleyan
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