Greg Meehan on Competing for Entire ACC Meet: “This group is very tough and adaptable”

2025 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships

As announced last Friday, Greg Meehan originally planned for his NCAA qualifiers to depart from the ACC Championships after Friday morning’s prelims. Soon after, he found out that wasn’t an option. However, 6 sessions into the meet and the Stanford women seem to be in a good place heading into the final 3 sessions many of them would have missed.

Olympic champ Torri Huske already expressed her excitement to compete in the 100 free. Meehan notes that this group is tough and adaptable, which can be seen from the scoreboard, where they sit in 2nd place, 60 points behind the defending champions, Virginia.

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WaterAce
1 month ago

They shouldn’t have to “adapt” to completing a meet they were supposed to compete in.

Sillinger
1 month ago

I’m not a fan of Stanford or Meehan. He has done less with more than any coach in the country. If I have a good high school swimmer that grew up east of the Mississippi River, I would discourage them from looking at Stanford because it is the place where promising international careers go to die…

WaterAce
Reply to  Sillinger
1 month ago

The hell do you mean “less with more”? He constantly has a top 10 program, obviously he recruits well

Tani
1 month ago

Give me a break!!!

Eddie
1 month ago

i don’t understand the hate against Greg Meehan. I think he’s proven himself enough as a great and successful coach and the Stanford girls are doing a great job at this meet. can’t wait to see how they perform at NCs

SCCOACH
Reply to  Eddie
1 month ago

You are going to get hate when top level swimmers like Curzan and Regan Smith leave, Huske talking about being overwhelmed (year before the Olympics), Manuel’s career impacted due to overtraining syndrome, etc etc etc

ryan
Reply to  SCCOACH
1 month ago

why would he get hate for huske most likely being overwhelmed from academics?

Eddie
Reply to  ryan
1 month ago

literally. then she took school off during the olympic year and came back with 5 medals – thanks to Greg Meehan

Cassandra
Reply to  SCCOACH
1 month ago

i think thats fair! and as a result hes clearly changed things up. feels confusing to hate him for overtraining simone but also hate him for being too soft now lol…

i actually think torris lack of fitness in 2023 encapsulates that shift — it sounds like greg deliberately lowered her training intensity to accommodate her overwhelming academic demands

theres so much chatter about how the us women cant keep up with the aussie women in the 4×100 (which i think is on the verge of changing) — im going to give greg his flowers for being the only coach to have produced us women who can go 52 low

Walsh-Madden-Grimes-Weinstein
Reply to  SCCOACH
1 month ago

Stanford recruits itself. In addition, it’s not as if Greg Meehan built the Avery Aquatic Center by himself.

Avery Aquatic Center

https://gostanford.com/facilities/avery-aquatic-center

That’s a beautiful facility.

Aquatic Ursine
Reply to  Eddie
1 month ago

He’s successful + Stanford, don’t overthink it because it’s not logical

Walsh-Madden-Grimes-Weinstein
Reply to  Aquatic Ursine
1 month ago

He’s been living off his laurels for far too long. Case in point, not one Stanford Cardinal coached by Greg Meehan participated at the 2024 Short Course World Championships. The result was the female contingent of USA Swimming didn’t miss a beat. As a matter of fact, the female contingent of USA Swimming dominated the 2024 Short Course World Championships.

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Gone are the days of a poverty stricken Regan Smith in Palo Alto, CA.

Snowstorm
Reply to  Eddie
1 month ago

It’s Simone’s overtraining that did it for me. Which also makes me wonder if overtraining led in some part to Ella Eastin’s career-ending illness.

Walsh-Madden-Grimes-Weinstein
Reply to  Eddie
1 month ago

C. Curzan to Charlottesville, VA
K. Ledecky to Gainesville, FL
S. Manuel to Tempe, AZ
T. Ruck to ?
R. Smith to Tempe, AZ

Any questions?

Eddie
Reply to  Walsh-Madden-Grimes-Weinstein
1 month ago

Regan didn’t leave because Greg Meehan was a bad coach – she left because she didn’t like college swimming and she felt like she needed more yardage than the confines of the NCAA allowed. She’s talked about this many times. Clearly Bowman’s training was a much better fit

Olivia Smoliga 27.33 AR
Reply to  Eddie
1 month ago

People forget how hard it is to just do school at Stanford + juggle a swimming career on top of it. I think he’s done a pretty good job all round with his teams – including multiple Olympians (Neal, Manuel, Huske), as well as a lot of the “B-tier” recruits – Roghair, Bricker, Bell etc

Walter
Reply to  Olivia Smoliga 27.33 AR
1 month ago

People don’t “forget” how hard it is, they just don’t know or have no experience to compare to. And it’s fine if people go to Stanford and find it doesn’t suit them well so look for better fits.

Joe
1 month ago

GOATed coach to pat his swimmers on the back for finishing a swim meet

VA swim
Reply to  Joe
1 month ago

Student/Athletes not just swimmers. 8 days in the middle of a quarter is certainly not a great thing.

NC Fan
Reply to  VA swim
1 month ago

If they can’t handle that, how are they going to compete at NCs while doing finals….which is still insane to me.

Last edited 1 month ago by NC Fan
RealSlimThomas
Reply to  NC Fan
1 month ago

They’re probably advised to do general education requirements rather than highly difficult coursework related to a major.

Cassandra
Reply to  NC Fan
1 month ago

i feel like the question isnt “can they handle swimming at accs” bc they obviously can but rather “is swimming at/traveling to accs for the full duration in the middle of midterm season the best way to prepare for nccas when theyll have to take finals between sessions”

my guess is greg is making the calculation that dialing down the difficulty at conference (reducing travel / limiting racing) gives them enough of a challenge to prepare for but not bury them ahead of ncaas

i also think most of them are stem majors and being graded on the same curve as math olympiad kids so its not that easy to hide academically lol

Joe
Reply to  VA swim
1 month ago

crazy that they’re the only student athletes competing at this meet

summerbreezin
Reply to  Joe
1 month ago

cmon joe, it’s worth admitting that stanford is harder than your alma mater. the kids they’re competing against in classes are faster learners than at almost any school in the world, and the classes move faster as a result. the content is more challenging. they get more homework assignments.

despite the increased competitiveness, stanford swimmers achieve high team-average GPAs in challenging majors. pat them on the back a little why don’t you…

Old Swimmer
Reply to  summerbreezin
1 month ago

Stanford is not harder than other schools.

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