2024 PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE
- January 10-13, 2024
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- LCM (50 meters)
- Start Times
- All Prelims: 9am (EST)
- Thurs-Sat Finals: 6pm (EST)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap
After a long three days of racing, the 4th day of racing at the 2023 Pro Swim Series – Knoxville saw a quiet and subdued affair despite the high caliber of racing expected by glancing at the heat sheet.
A rash of high-profile names either declared false starts (DFS) this morning after being unsure what events to swim this morning or missed the entire day due to collegiate meets or travel.
Big Names
Let’s start with the UVA contingent:
UVA has a dual meet scheduled to start right now against ACC rival and in-state competition Virgina-Tech. From the looks of based on the swims this morning, it appears that some of the pro group/red shirt group and some of the collegiate group are staying. Kate Douglass, Claire Curzan, Jack Aikins, Alex Walsh, Ella Nelson, and Abby Harter all swam this morning.
Based on the lack of swims and confirmed by UVA staff, the rest of the team has left Knoxville for Blacksburg to compete against Virginia Tech. That list includes Gretchen Walsh, who was scheduled to swim the 50 free this morning; Aimee Canny, who was entered in the 200 IM and 50 free; Maxine Parker, who was also in the 50 free; and Tess Howley, who missed the 100 back.
Noah Nichols was not entered in any event this morning but placed 4th (1:00.92) in the 100 breast earlier in the weekend.
Cal Collegiate
Similar to the UVA group, it appears as if a group of the Cal collegiate group planned on not swimming this morning, as evidenced by some big absences:
- Dare Rose– 50 Free No Show
- Destin Lasco – 200 IM No Show
- Gabe Jett – 100 Back No Show
That is not to say that all of the Cal group left as Jack Alexy swam the 50 free (T-3rd 22.25) as did Isabelle Stadden, who swam the 100 back (2nd 59.56).
While Rose, Lasco, and Jett could be seen perhaps having an illness, a social media post of Dare Rose peacing out Knoxville is telling (screenshot right).
UVA and Cal swimmers were not the only groups to have numerous DFSs, as Arsenio Bustos, Aidan Hayes, and Quintin McCarty all missed the 100 back. Bustos did, however, swim the 200 IM and Hayes the 50 free.
Opinion Time
The effect of multiple DFS is a mixed bag. While keeping to a timeline allows athletes to best prepare for the events, having multiple heats with lanes missing not only makes it less interesting to watch but slows the meet down as well.
Multiple circle-seeded heats were missing several swimmers. Heat 5 of the women’s 200 breast was missing both Alex Walsh and Kotryna Teterevkova. Heat 8 of 8 in the men’s 200 IM had just 4 swimmers. Carson Foster (in lane 4) had open lanes on both sides of him, and Will Licon could have swum a 50 in lanes 5, 6, 7, and 8, and as long as he started and finished in lane 6, he would be perfectly fine as he had his half of the pool to himself.
Luke Amerson swam the 100 back alone in heat 1 as both David Curtiss (he did swim the 50 free) and Gabe Jett dfs’ed.
This is by no means a diatribe on those swimmers or coaches, as events line-ups are fluid and dependent upon a variety of factors, but as an avid watcher of swimming and as a coach, one generally likes to race or watch races with swimmers next to each other.
It does beg the question of – what are these meets for?
Fans? Athletes? Because right now, they’re all sorta going halfsies.
I agree
Also a major winter storm headed thru Tennessee – a lot of folks probably left to get out ahead of the weather.
They should implement financial penalty for teams that exceed a certain percentage of no-shows or DFSs based upon their total entry count. Unattached swimmers would need to provide a medical justification to avoid the penalty. This meet is entered to capacity and has financial awards for the top places. By flooding the entries then disappearing for the last day, they effectively blocked opportunities for other athletes to earn cash. Make the penalty severe enough that teams and unattached swimmers won’t do it, I’m thinking that double the total entry fee for the team or individual would be a good starting point.
remind me how we are supposed to be building a fan base for swimming again?
Increase the prize money. Decrease executive pay.
How do 25 year olds swim for Tennesse or any college for that matter. ? Curious. Seems old for college swimming.
Reply to
Willswim
right now
…starting school at an older age (common for non US), early birthday, held back in school, red shirt year, extra Covid year….
where have been last few years? There are sixth years in football and all the comments are there “get the bag and enjoy your sporting life before it is over…”
I get why they scratch events, I really do. I’m not mad that swimmers and coaches are making decisions they feel will best prepare them for NCAAs and trials, but I gotta think a lot of these scratches and withdrawals were know a while ago. I just wish they could have made their intentions known before I paid for a ticket to attend tonight’s session. The ticket price ($15) doesn’t bother me as much as the dishonesty does. Whatever, I guess I’m a sucker for believing in the first place. The sun rises, the sun sets, and swimmers pretend they’re swimming events they’re not gonna swim. ‘Twas ever thus.
Not to mention, the entry cap for this meet was reached about 10 minutes after entries opened back in November. Wonder how many swimmers who wanted to go but didn’t sign up in time cause the meet was full could’ve filled all the empty lanes throughout the weekend.
The protocols for scratching a preliminary or final are tougher at age group meets than they are for TYR. Not sure why that has to be. Leaving four empty lanes is inexcusable.
I think this is one of the greatest hurdles in making swimming a more widespread sport. Being mostly an individual sport, people, especially casual fans, tend to attend or tune in to watch a specific athlete or race. When swimmers don’t show up by scratching out or leaving empty lanes with little or no regard for those waiting to see them, they show a lack of respect for the audience and makes the sport look amateurish.
Sure, injuries and other unexpected circumstances may make a swimmer not attend or finish a meet. However, the impact is different than, say, team sports like football or basketball, where the team itself is still likely to play. Also, aside from swimswam and maybe… Read more »
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Seems like the pro group at Cal is staying for finals, with Armstrong, Curry, and Weitzeil still on the heat sheets for the night, while the collegiates have all scratched finals (Alexy, Seeliger, Stadden, etc).