A match of rock, paper, scissors was used to break a tie for the 16th spot in the finals of the men’s 100 yard freestyle at the Art Adamson Invitational on the campus of Texas A&M today.
TCU’s Sebastian Arispe and LSU’s Tyler Crosson put up matching 45.85’s on Saturday morning, and rather than swim-off, the two teams decided that there was only one solution, a battle of wits rather than strokes, to decide the outcome.
“I have been doing this a long time, and that was the most unusual swim off I have seen,” said TCU’s 35-year head coach Richard Sybesma, who came out on the right side of the match-up.
The format was a best-of-five, 1-2-3 shoot that saw at least four ties before a winner could be decided. Arispe took an early 1-0 lead, and Crosson the Tiger took round 2. Crosson then went up 2-1 in round 3, before a clutch Arispe came back to win two straight and earn a tie-breaking decision on scissors-over-paper. Just goes to show you that paper and water doesn’t mix: the last 9 rounds (including ties) of the battle didn’t have a single paper until Crosson’s fatal flaw.
“I don’t believe there is a more civilized and noble way to declare victor than a 5 game set of Rock, Paper, Scissors,” LSU head coach Dave Geyer said after the outcome was finalized. “”Only battles in ancient Rome can match the intensity exuding from those two men.”
That could prove a significant outcome in the team scoring, as Arispe will now swim in the scored B-Final, while Crosson slides to the unscored C Final.
Though the most exciting match-up of the morning, it wasn’t the only stellar performance on Saturday morning in College Station. A&M’s Lili Ibanez and Stanford’s Lia Neal are set for another battle after their epic match-up in the 200 free on Friday night. This time, Neal will have the top seed after a 48.71 prelims swim, and Ibanez will be beside her with a 48.74 second seed.
Stanford’s Felicia Lee is relatively comfortable in the top position of the women’s 200 back with a 1:54.70. She’s a second-and-a-half ahead of A&M’s Melanie McClure, who was a 1:56.23, and Aggie freshman Maddie Edwards, who was a 1:56.68.
In the women’s 200 breaststroke, though Texas A&M’s Breeja Larson didn’t come into prelims as the top seed in the women’s 200 breaststroke, but she certainly emerged from it as such. She put up another NCAA Automatic Qualifying Time with a 2:06.74 to run away from the prelims field. Her sophomore teammate Ashley McGregor is already knocking on the door of a national berth as well with a 2:09.03 (the auto cut is 2:08.29) for the 2nd seed, and Stanford’s Katie Olsen sits 3rd in 2:12.63.
The last individual event on the girls’ schedule at this meet will be the 200 fly, and that race will feature a match-up between the two 200 butterfliers who swam on the American World Championships team this summer: A&M’s Cammile Adams and Stanford’s Maya DiRado. Adams was the top seed in prelims with a 1:54.91, and DiRado was a 1:55.87 for the 2nd seed. Adams should have the edge in finals, but with a relative lack of depth in the women’s 200 fly in the United States right now, this will likely serve as the best opportunity to really ‘race’ this event for both swimmers until NCAA’s.
In the men’s races, that 100 free that we just discussed was topped by Air Force’s Ryan Dunne in a 44.13, which will surely be a more meaningful result from the event for someone. Texas A&M’s Henrik Lindau took the 2nd seed in 44.18, followed by Kyle Troskot (44.32) and Cory Bolleter (44.61).
In the men’s 200 back, TCU’s Cooper Robinson, already with the 100 yard victory under his belt, took the top seed in 1:44.20. That put him ahead of his teammate Adam Szilagyi for the top seed, as Szilagyi was a 1:45.91 for the 2nd seed. The Horned Frogs will hope to get both of those swimmers to this year’s NCAA Championship meet, which probably takes better than a 1:43.0 to accomplish this season in the 200.
And swimming in the men’s 200 fly, LSU’s Frank Greeff put up his best time of the year with a 1:48.26 for the top seed. Air Force’s Paul Leonhardt took 2nd in 1:48.90, and in a tough double for the session, Szilagyi was 3rd in 1:49.11.
This is AWESOME!
Such an underutilized means of solving problems.