It is perhaps an underrated part of USA Swimming National Championship meets, but at these events, team scores are kept, and the results have a significant impact on a club’s marketing.
At this year’s meet, the women of SwimMAC Carolina and the men of the Dynamo Swim Club emerged as the top 2 finishers in their respective genders.
In the overall competition, the Dynamo Swim Club were the victors. Dynamo’s overall dominance as a club at Junior National Championship meets continues, as this title joins ones from the 2013 summer season, the 2013 NCSA title, the 2011 Summer Junior National title, and the 2010 Winter Junior National title.
What’s maybe most impressive about Dynamo’s win is that it was done without many of their stars really being at peak performance. The Georgia High School State Championship meet is in early February, and with so many of their swimmers having had different commitments, a lot of the big names looked like they were swimming through the meet (though the Litherlands, overall, were great).
Still, Dynamo was able to put enough swimmers into the big finals to still take that top title. That’s partially, probably, due to the fact that the team excels so much in the 200, 400, 500, and 1650 yard races, where the margins aren’t as fine as they are for sprinters.
| Men | Women | Overall |
| Dynamo 331 | SwimMAC 443 | Dynamo 480 |
| Bolles 312 | Carmel 258 | Bolles 457 |
| PASA 279.5 | Ozaukee 177 | PASA 453.5 |
| Scottsdale Aquatic Club 165 | PASA 174 | SwimMAC 452 |
| Davis Aquadarts 123 | Dynamo 149 | Canyons 217 |
| Baylor Swim Club 115 | Bolles 145 | Scottsdale Aquatic Club 206 |
| Upper Dublin AC 99 | Canyons 140 | King Aquatic Club 193.5 |
| Nitro 98 | Y-Spartaquatics 126 | Davis Aquadarts 151 |
| King Aquatic Club 92 | King Aquatic Club 101.5 | Y-Spartaquatics 128 |
| Tide 86 | Patriot Aquatic Club 87 | Santa Clara Swim Club 104 |
An observation we’ve made before, but that’s worth pointing out again: There are a lot of heavily gender-imbalanced teams. Of the top 10 women’s teams, three didn’t score a single men’s point (Ozaukee, Carmel, and Patriot Aquatic Club), and another one (Y-Spartaquatics) had only two points. On the flip-side, the Baylor Swim Club, Nitro, Tide, and the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club scored in the top 10 on the men’s side without scoring a point on the women’s side. The best-balanced teams were Dynamo, Bolles, and PASA, though with SwimMAC’s girls being absolutely dominant (even going 1-2 in a relay), they still had enough to take 4th overall, but the balance of the three teams above (just barely) was enough to overcome them for the top three spots.
Note that standard practice at these meets is that you must score at least one point in either gender to score in the overall standings.
Braden said at NCAA’s or Trials some swimmers still say they are untested. Eddie Reese always says that after ncaa’s …always!
I am of the school of thought that if the correct work was done all season, then you won’t “miss” the taper.
Congrats Dynamo! Outstanding!
After engaging in a rigorous dryland program before finals each evening, dynamo swimmers were ordered to adhere extra body hair to their bodies. They are saving their taper for summer league I’ve been told
Dressel out of the 100 fly made the difference. Bolles would’ve won with the +20 if he swam
Injuries and illness are a part of swimming just like every other sport.
not so much saying that its unfair… just commenting that it had a real effect
That was my understanding too, but y Spartanaquatics is listed in overall with only girls points. No biggie.
My mistake on Spartaquatics – they DID score 2 boys points, I just forgot to add them in the “overall” rankings. Should be corrected now – didn’t affect standings, thankfully.
So true a much over used term and crutch verbiage.
agree! amazing how many people swim ‘unrested’!
If you walked on to deck at the Olympic Trials or NCAA’s…I’d be curious to hear how many swimmers think they’re still unrested. I bet it’d be more than you think.
Dynamo showed guts and a will to win the team title! No taper, in the middle of training, and a mid-season practice meet for them. Had they been set up to win with a taper, Bentz and Stewart would have been dominant, but worn out and battling with the ridiculous air quality at GAC, they sucked it up (literally!), and did what they needed to win. No need to say what UGA has coming in next year! Florida missed the boat big time!
Haha yeah right they weren’t rested at all. One of the truths of swimming is no one is ever as unrested as they say they are.
Everyone was breathing the same air, Gator…and don’t fool yourself, they were tapered.
Carmel should be listed in overall as 5th
Typically at USA swimming meets if you don’t score individual points on both sides, you don’t get counted in the overall score. I’m guessing that’s why Carmel isn’t listed.
Both the mens and women’s teams have to score at least 1 point for the score to count in the overall category. So maybe the Carmel boys didn’t score at the meet?
What PK and MIZ have explained is our understanding of the rules. Though, no official scores list was released online that we saw for “overall” standings, so we were doing the math a bit on our own there – pretty sure that Santa Clara is the 10th-place team, but because of the rules it was a bit dicey. If anyone knows of a higher-scoring combined team that we left out…please let us know. We had three sets of eyes on it though, and it looks good to us.