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ATLANTA, Georgia, April 20. THIS weekend, the top teams in the American Swimming Association University League, ASA U., came together again for the 6th Annual ASA U. Collegiate Club Swimming National Championships.
At the top of the pack throughout the weekend were the University of Florida, which came away with the men's and combined titles, and James Madison University, which took the women's title and finished 2nd overall. Penn State and the University of Connecticut followed close behind in team scoring. Northeastern University, one of the four founding clubs, competed at Nationals for the sixth time, a distinction unique to them.
Florida and JMU tag-teamed to sweep the meet's eight relay events, with JMU setting a new national record in the women's 200 medley relay at 1:53.40. UConn and Oregon joined with the two dominant clubs to drive down ASA U.'s Collegiate Club Swimming Nationals Records over the two-day competition.
Ten records fell over the weekend out of the fifty on the books. Skylar Stroman topped the individual record-performances with three backstroke records (men's 50 back – 23.49, 100 back – 51.54, and 200 back – 1:51.10). Ben Metcalfe of Oregon set two new breaststroke standards (50 breast – 26.41, 100 breast – 57.25, and Lisa Shelps of UConn broke two freestyle records (25 free – 11.46, 50 free 24.63). Nicole Brunner and Amanda Shirley served up Florida's offering of two new records, setting respective marks of 1:01.90 in the 100 I.M. and 12.89 in the 25 back.
ASA U. continued its pattern of growth in the 2009-2010 school year, growing its ranks from forty-three up to sixty-eight teams and offering nearly twice as many meets over the course of the season than in the previous year. While ASA U.'s innovative rulebook has been operative at its regular season meets throughout its few years, the Saturday session of this meet saw some history-making with the rollout of its adventurous stroke-rules to the national championship meet for the first time. Dive-in backstroke, flip-turns on all strokes and events, and flexible medley relay stroke-order made for some dramatic spectacles in Saturday's finals. Penn State was committed to taking full advantage of the new opportunities by sending its backstrokers up on the blocks and swimming a medley relay in an order that had the breaststroker last. A few butterfly flip turns were also spotted in Saturday evening's competition. The arena didn't quite know what to make of Penn State's Darcy Norton, who alone atop the blocks became the first swimmer in history of the sport to start backstroke from the blocks in the finals of a national championship meet. Later in the evening, the crowd had caught on, and 9 out of 10 women stepped up on the blocks to uproarious cheers from the crowd as they dove in to contest the 25 yard backstroke. To no-one's surprise, that race wrote a new ASA U. National Record into the books.
ASA U. was founded in 2003, in response to the elimination of varsity swimming teams across the United States. Some of its clubs are former varsity teams that have been cut from their Universities' athletic departments; others were started from the ground up by interested students from four clubs at opposite corners of the country from one another. ASA U. has grown rapidly since its inception, with those four founding teams swelling to sixty-seven teams in 2009-2010.
ASA U. is proud to have been an integral part of the American Swimming Association leading the way in the swimming world, never having allowed tech suits in competition, never having disqualified swimmers for backward and sideways movement on the blocks, leading with records and races in 25's at the master's and collegiate levels and other innovations such as dive-in backstroke, flip turns in all strokes, and medley relays swum in any stroke-order. ASA's innovative and progressive rule book facilitates unique, fun meets conducted with ease and the utmost integrity, including a rule allowing for self-disqualification by a swimmer after an event in case of a knowing rule-violation. For more information, please visit http://www.americanswimmingassociation.com/asau.
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