The No. 6 Arizona men’s swimming team will begin competition in the 2011 Pacific 10 Conference Championships today in Long Beach, Calif., at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.
Similar to the women’s championships last week, the four-day meet will have preliminary competitions in the morning and finals at night.
Many of the Arizona swimmers have already made their NCAA cut times. Therefore, most of the swimmers will be “”swimming through”” this meet, and using it as a measure to see where they stand for the national championships later this month.
But just because they’re “”swimming through”” doesn’t mean not giving their best.
“”They swim as fast as they can, they’re just not fully rested and ready to go,”” said head coach Frank Busch. “”Our goal is to race the teams that are fully rested and compete well against them.””
Junior captain Cory Chitwood is a potential Arizona Individual Titleist this season, meaning he’s predicted to win his events at both the Pac-10 meet and national championships.
“”We will all be going all out, but a lot of us won’t be really rested or shaved,”” Chitwood said. “”Some of our guys are shaved and tapered for it, they’re going to be going all out and lighting up the pool.””
“”Our main goal is NCAA’s and that’s where we want to be our fastest. We like to go in and swim (the) conference a little tired, but at the same time, it gets us ready and gets us tuned up for the NCAA’s.””
Busch’s training regime is part of what makes the Arizona swim team unique in the Pacific 10 conference. He has an intensive training schedule up until the national championships, which is the meet Busch stresses on his swimmers the most.
His philosophies differ from many of the Pac-10 schools that have higher rankings going into the championships. Unlike Arizona, a few of the schools train to peak now. opposed to later in the month.
For example, No. 2 Stanford’s men’s swimming team has won the Pac-10 title for 29 consecutive years — some argue that isn’t accomplished without a training emphasis on this meet.
Going into the meet, California is ranked No. 1, then Stanford, Auburn, Texas, Florida and then there’s Arizona sitting in the sixth spot.
Regarding points, the men’s diving teams competed last week in the women’s swimming and diving Pac-10 meet. Arizona’s points will be added to the swim team’s points for its final scores.
