The search function on this mega-thread pointed me to this from May 1st. Maybe there was a subsequent update?
“she’s still going through the process with coaches who have expressed interest for a combination of pre-read & summer visits, and will visit them, though there is no guarantee of being a recruit (Wesleyan, Colby, McGill, Franklin & Marshall, Swarthmore, …). Waiting to hear from Bates, Hamilton, Trinity, Oberlin.”
I was going by this from a week or so ago
“ Current swim list includes couple reach schools, but is being curated as time progresses: McGill, Amherst, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Washington St Louis, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Hamilton, Bates, Colby”
So I assumed that indicated fairly solid level of communication at this point.
I hope things continue to progress positively for the OP and her daughter but I really don’t think it should be this difficult to evaluate interest level in June before senior year. Without OP sharing what coaches are saying to their daughter it is hard to read between the lines but hopefully they have a solid grasp on where daughter stands even if being a bit evasive on this thread regarding actual coach conversations.
Robert Wesleyan University hired a new head coach. would you have a link/announcement from Wesleyan University? D24 obviously anxious about new head coach announcements from Amherst & Wesleyan.
I also have a ‘24 daughter going through swim recruiting at some of the high academic D3s (amongst others). She received an e-mail from the assistant coach at Bates letting her know that she had just accepted a head coaching position at Wesleyan University (NESCAC) and advising my daughter to direct any future Bates recruiting questions to the Bates’ head coach. Sharing here as Wesleyan is on your daughter’s list and it sounds like she wants to move the communication forward. I assume that since this information is being shared with prospective recruits, an official announcement has either been made or will be made shortly.
Why are we discussing a triathlon coach hire announcement from March from a completely different college that just happens to have “Wesleyan” in its name?
@EVE17 Thanks for the timely update.
That is not the NESCAC Wesleyan.
Official announcement has not been released but @Eve17 is correct.
The above is from May 8th. It appears that there were some generous assumptions applied to determine that the OP’s D24 would be ranked #1-4 on the current Midd team in certain events:
which conversion tool was used for the D24’s times to SCY
if the SwimCloud function to determine fastest times in a current season for a team was used, there are some inaccuracies and inherent flaws in ranking someone against those times, including that not every swimmer competes in events they could have good times for when tapered, and relay splits are not accounted for.
For example, in their best relative event, the OP’s D24 has a 2023 best 100 free SCM time of 59.28. Using the Swimulator Real-Time Converter, that’s 54.33 in SCY.
That would be 5th fastest listed in SwimCloud for Midd this past season. But looking at relay splits in the 4x100 free in the NESCAC championships, all 8 Midd swimmers on the A and B relay teams had faster splits than that (even after accounting for faster relay splits of about 0.3 seconds for all except the lead-off). Some of those swimmers have much slower official season-best 100 free times in SwimCloud and some aren’t even in the list because they didn’t swim the event separately.
Additionally, the 4x100 B relay team was composed entirely of frosh/sophs who scored championship points in their primary events (some placed very highly). 100 Free is a tertiary event for them all, but they are still faster. [edit: the A relay team members all scored championship points in other events too].
Conclusion: without looking deeper into the data, mistaken impressions of a potential recruit’s speed relative to a current team could be drawn. The above example easily explains why the coach had no interest, without resorting to such explanations such as an “extraordinary recruiting season” or “legacy candidates”. The team simply has more speed and depth than the OP realized.
I believe the rule of thumb is actually .7 seconds.
Part of the reason for this is that there is a roster size limit at conference championship (24 for NESCACS I believe). Some of the rosters are 40+ so a good few of them have to stay behind. The B relay is often composed of whomever is around for other events, not necessarily #4-8 in a particular distance.
Since each swimmer is restricted to a small number of events, quite a bit of strategy goes into putting together a championship or dual meet roster to maximize points.
For example, Brown clearly stacked the mile this year, noticing an opportunity to pick up some points even if it wasn’t a swimmer’s best event.
@NiVo this might be a new point to learn of you are not familiar with it - it’s a very different way of thinking from club swimming. When I coached our small HS team, one swimmer not showing up for a meet sometimes meant completely changing everyone’s events on deck.
@Tonygrace, thanks for the pointer, at this point she’ll have to realistically focus on what coaches tell her they want, and improving her times in her 3 upcoming meets.
That post was from the start of May. Trinity College finished last (11th) in the NESCAC championships this season. If there isn’t interest from them at this point after the late May meet update, that would probably rule out that conference unless there happens to be a program with an asymmetric weakness in particular events.
On the other hand, looking at their conference meet times, Oberlin should be a realistic target (Kenyon, Denison, and Wooster in their same conference likely are too fast).
IMO, time and energy should be put into swim programs at that level (Oberlin), rather than recently-discussed longshots like Bates and Wesleyan. The coaching change at Wes could actually make it more difficult to get interest now as they are likely some potential recruits from Bates who are now a priority there.
Those are traditionally two of the strongest D3 teams.
It’s fine though…. I don’t think OP wants support at all costs. She can ride the process and see what her options are in the end. Nothing wrong with that (as long you are honest about what scenarios may look like).
Musical chairs @Grinnell with coach retiring, the new coach comes from another school with a completely different academic profile and is unlikely to bring many recruits along.
By en large D24 is continuing to focus on her current coach discussions because of the academic fit/likely pre-reads, 3-4 stretch schools will effectively drop out over the coming weeks. Similarly hopeful to add 1 realistic strong support.
What does that mean?
And also to add to your question-why does it matter?
Where a coach comes from before does not affect the academic reputation of Grinnell in any way, shape or form!
The weaker academic profile means it’s much less likely that the coach will bring athletes he was recruiting at his former school to Grinnell, unlike the coach who (yet to be announced) is going from Bates to Wesleyan which are two schools in the same academic range
Actually I think that assessment is incorrect.
Hope is much higher ranked than Grinnell.
They finished 12th this year, ahead of JHU, WashU and Swarthmore, to Grinnell’s 37th.
The coach is probably talking to several swimmers who would make a significant impact on Grinnell’s team and might happily follow him to a slower but higher ranked school.
Hope is higher ranked for swimming but substantially lower ranked academically. Only the coach would have an idea of how many of his previous recruits would pass the pre-reads at Grinnell
Whereas one could be pretty certain the vast majority if not all the athletes who pass the pre-read at Bates would pass it at Wesleyan
@NiVo, I think you might be surprised by the number of students looking at a school like Hope who would be easily able to pass a pre-read for a school like Grinnell.
Being lower ranked doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of smart kids applying to those schools with the scores/stats to go to ‘better’ schools. Some very strong students happily go to academically lower ranked schools to have a more competitive sports environment. Some of those may very well be happy to follow a coach to a new school.
Despite its high acceptance rate - not uncommon for Christian colleges - the academic profile of the students is reasonably competitive.
I agree with @beebee3 that many would pass a pre-read. And being that they would be high impact players, get in if that is where the coach decides to throw his support. The coach seems great and well liked, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if a few transfers follow him too.