The highlight of this week had to be the Division II NCAA’s, which continued the collegiate championship season and was the first taste of National level competition as all 3 divisions begin to wrap up their regular competition seasons. Read below to see highlights from that meet as well as the other top stories from this edition of the week that was!
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The Week That Was #5 – Korean Swimming President Steps Down
Photo Courtesy: Anja Johnson
According to Inside The Games, it was announced this week that Korea Swimming Federation President Lee Ki-heung will resign amid corruption charges that continue to plague the organization. A successor for Lee, who has held the position for six years, will try to be found before the South Korean Olympic Trials at the end of March.
The Korean government, which recently raided the national swimming organization, has multiple claims of corruption, including embezzlement, falsifying documents for funding, mishandling athletes’ prize money, and bribes related to national team selection. Those allegations includes star swimmer Tae Hwan Park’s former coach, Noh Min-sang. Noh allegedly provided $75,000 in bribes between January of 2009 and December of 2010. All told, the estimated total for stolen funds clears $2.9 million. See the original Swimming World article for the link to the Inside The Games report.
The Week That Was #4 – USA Water Polo Announces Olympic Qualification Roster
Photo Courtesy: Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE
USA Water Polo has it’s eyes on defending their 2012 Olympic Gold this summer in Brazil, and will soon take part in the first step in that journey towards the Olympic Games. This week, Team USA Head Coach Adam Krikorian released the roster of 13 women that will take part in the 2016 Olympic Qualification Tournament. Starting March 21 in Gouda, Netherlands, this event requires a top-four finish for Team USA to qualify for the Olympic Games. The 13 women that were selected for the Qualification Tournament are the same that recently captured gold for Team USA last month at the FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Lewisville, TX.
Two-time Olympian Kami Craig will lead a roster of four returners from the 2012 Olympic roster, including captain Maggie Steffens, Courtney Mathewson, and Melissa Seidemann. Other notable names on the roster include 2016 AAU Sullivan award nominee Ashleigh Johnson, 2015 FINA World Championships MVP Rachel Fattal, and two-time Cutino Award winner Kiley Neushul. Live streaming for the event will be announced closer to the tournament start date.
The Week That Was #3 – Garrett Weber-Gale Named Interim Head Coach of Nitro
Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale has joined Nitro Swimming as an interim National Team coach following the recent departure of Tim O’Brien. As reported by Swimming World earlier in the week, O’Brien was banned for life by USA Swimming and removed from his coaching role of Nitro Swimming. He had been with the program since 2007 when the club was founded.
The only information related to O’Brien’s removal has come from USA Swimming, which has stated that O’Brien was removed due to violations of two separation versions of Section 304.3.5. That section of USA Swimming’s Code of Conduct is related to “Any inappropriate sexually oriented behavior or action directed towards a member by any other adult participating in any capacity whatsoever in the affairs or activities of USA Swimming or its LSC…”
Speaking to Swimming World on Weber-Gale’s appointment, Nitro Head Coach Mike Koleber commented “We chose not to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves…Garrett brings us an expert set of eyes, he’s a high quality individual who can make a positive impact immediately. We’re fortunate to have him help guide our top level athletes through Trials and their respective national meets.”
The Week That Was #2 – Adam Peaty, Ruta Meilutyte Throw Down Fast 100 Breaststrokes
Photo Courtesy: gianmattiadalberto/lapresse
There was some high quality breaststroke racing at the Edinburgh Invitational this week, with Adam Peaty and Ruta Meilutyte shaking up the world rankings in the men and women’s 100 breaststroke.
In her much anticipated return to racing following an elbow injury in September, Meilutyte returned to racing in a big way by posting the #2 ranked time in the world in the 100 breaststroke. Taking her race out in a blazing 30.40, she won the event in 1:05.82, just a tenth back from Yuliya Efimova’s top-ranked 1:05.70 from the Arena Pro Swim Series in Orlando.
Next up was British star Adam Peaty, who won the event going away in 59.55. That swim places him first in the world for 2016, ahead of Yasuhiro Koseki (59.67) and Andrew Wilson (59.91). Going out in 27.85, that swim sets Peaty up well for the British Trials in April as he will be looking to defend his world championship title from Kazan in Rio this summer.
Other notable swims included Mie Nielsen’s 100 backstroke (59.16), Aimee Willmott’s 400 IM (4:35.84), and Ranomi Kromowidjojo’s win in the 100 freestyle (53.31).
The Week That Was #1 – NCAA Division II Nationals
Photo Courtesy: Queens Athletics
The NCAA Division II Nationals took place this week, with both the men and women from Queens University taking home the second consecutive national title for both teams. Throughout the four day meet, a staggering seventeen Division II record were broken, with a majority of those coming from the Queens contingent.
The Queens women won with 567 points, over 200 points ahead of runner-up Wingate, while the Queens men won a relatively closer contest, with 449 points over runner-up Lindenwood (382.5). Queens swimmers Patricia Castro Ortega and Dion Dressens captured female and male swimmer of the meet,
Castro Ortega was surely the star of the meet on the women’s side, not only winning four individual events throughout the course of the meet, but setting new DII national records in all of them. She started by setting a new mark in the 200 IM in prelims before lowering it to by another 1.5 seconds for a 1:55.63 in finals. Castro Ortega also set new records in the 400 IM (4:08.56), 500 freestyle (4:39.28), and 100 freestyle (48.54).
Dreesens himself had an impressive performance on the men’s side. The junior crushed his own DII record in the men’s 200 free from the Bluegrass Mountain Conference last month, bypassing it by nearly 2 seconds to touch in 1:32.46. He then went on to clip the 500 free record in prelims before taking the final in 4:17.09. In his third record-setting performance of the meet, he was the leadoff on Queens’ national record-setting 800 free relay.
Other notable swims included Drury junior Wen Xu’s national record in the women’s 50 free (22.36), Wingate junior Sofia Petrenko’s national record in the women’s 200 fly (1:57.94), and Lindenwood sophomore Serghei Golban’s national record as the leadoff on the 200 free relay.
In relay action, Wingate set a new mark in the women’s 400 medley relay, while the Tampa men broke the national record in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
For all of the information related to the Division II National Championships, head over to our Event Landing Page.