Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

Breeze · 02-12-2022, 05:54 PM

SAA Conference Championship Preview – Birmingham Southern Panthers

2022 Predicted Finish – 1st
2021 Finish – 1st
2021 Score – 808

The SAA conference heavyweights, Birmingham Southern, will almost certainly win the championship again this season. Coming into the season, they seemed like they might be vulnerable, they didn’t have a great recruiting class and the Vikings were close to them for most of the championship meet last year, plus Berry did have a good recruiting class. However, while BSC didn’t sign a a lot of great freshman, they did bring in a Turkish transfer swimmer from Arizona State, Jakob Icimsoy, who will compete for top swimmer in conference, and significantly bolster their already strong relay teams.

Defining how good Icimsoy is as a swimmer is probably best explained by simply pointing out that he has an NCAA B cut in the 400 IM. The toughest technical event in swimming and he’s only about 1 second off from getting what is believed to be the invite time (which means he’d actually compete at the national championships). The biggest issue with Icimsoy is trying to figure out, what the other 2 events he’ll swim are. He’s one of the top freestylers regardless of distance, and he actually has the fastest 200 back coming into the championship meet. My guess is 100 free and 200 back, but we’ll have to wait and see. He is one of 3 swimmers in that are elite for this conference.

Over the last 2 seasons the best swimmer at the championship meet has been Charlie Fountain. Last year, he won all 3 of the events he swam, earning a perfect 60 points for the Panthers. As a freshman in 2020, he managed a win and two second place finishes. This year though, things are likely to be much tougher. Fountain usually swims the 500 and 1650 Frees and the 400 IM, which puts him in direct competition with Rhodes’ Snyder, Berry's Ross Valdez and his teammate Icimsoy, these are the top 3 swimmers in conference. He’ll definitely be in the running to medal in all 3 events, but it’ll be the toughest field he’s gone against in his 3 years of college swimming. Fountain is an excellent swimmer, and if he performs well at conference he might even reach an elite score, but for now he'd be considered just short of that standard.

After this 1 elite swimmer and 1 high excellent one. BSC has 6 more that would rate as excellent, Bolding, Henderson, McClain, Prevost, Rubin, and Swing, with Kraft, Maggio, and McDade just a touch below that. The remainder of the team is made up of mostly average to good swimmers, with only 1 probably slightly below average. Interestingly, it looks like the Panthers only have 15 swimmers and 2 divers, meaning they are 1 short of a maximum roster.

02-12-2022, 05:54 PM	#1435
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	SAA Conference Championship Preview – Birmingham Southern Panthers 2022 Predicted Finish – 1st 2021 Finish – 1st 2021 Score – 808 The SAA conference heavyweights, Birmingham Southern, will almost certainly win the championship again this season. Coming into the season, they seemed like they might be vulnerable, they didn’t have a great recruiting class and the Vikings were close to them for most of the championship meet last year, plus Berry did have a good recruiting class. However, while BSC didn’t sign a a lot of great freshman, they did bring in a Turkish transfer swimmer from Arizona State, *Jakob Icimsoy, who will compete for top swimmer in conference, and significantly bolster their already strong relay teams. Defining how good Icimsoy is as a swimmer is probably best explained by simply pointing out that he has an NCAA B cut in the 400 IM. The toughest technical event in swimming and he’s only about 1 second off from getting what is believed to be the invite time (which means he’d actually compete at the national championships). The biggest issue with Icimsoy is trying to figure out, what the other 2 events he’ll swim are. He’s one of the top freestylers regardless of distance, and he actually has the fastest 200 back coming into the championship meet. My guess is 100 free and 200 back, but we’ll have to wait and see. He is one of 3 swimmers in that are elite for this conference. Over the last 2 seasons the best swimmer at the championship meet has been Charlie Fountain. Last year, he won all 3 of the events he swam, earning a perfect 60 points for the Panthers. As a freshman in 2020, he managed a win and two second place finishes. This year though, things are likely to be much tougher. Fountain usually swims the 500 and 1650 Frees and the 400 IM, which puts him in direct competition with Rhodes’ Snyder, Berry's Ross Valdez and his teammate Icimsoy, these are the top 3 swimmers in conference. He’ll definitely be in the running to medal in all 3 events, but it’ll be the toughest field he’s gone against in his 3 years of college swimming. Fountain is an excellent swimmer, and if he performs well at conference he might even reach an elite score, but for now he'd be considered just short of that standard. After this 1 elite swimmer and 1 high excellent one. BSC has 6 more that would rate as excellent, Bolding, Henderson, McClain, Prevost, Rubin, and Swing, with Kraft, Maggio, and McDade* just a touch below that. The remainder of the team is made up of mostly average to good swimmers, with only 1 probably slightly below average. Interestingly, it looks like the Panthers only have 15 swimmers and 2 divers, meaning they are 1 short of a maximum roster. Last edited by Breeze : 02-12-2022 at 05:56 PM.