An article on The Swimmers Circle brought the story from Cincinnati.com to my attention. When Josh Schneider won the 50 yd Freestyle at this year’s NCAA Championships, he brought some well deserved attention to the University of Cincinnati with the team’s first national title since 1946.

Unfortunately, as previously announced by UC Athletics Director, Mike Thomas, all signed and current financial aid promises to swimmers and divers will be honored, but no new scholarships will be given out until the university is closer to balancing its athletics budget. Schneider compared the financial aid phase-out to “cutting off the blood to your heart… you’re going to die slowly” (source).

Schneider seems convinced that the program must reinstate scholarships in order to continue. He is further quoted in the Cincinnati.com article as saying:

“I think they will be able to get it back. I don’t know how long it will take. If not, they’ll have to cut it. They’re just waiting for it to implode.” (source)

Branden over at The Swimmers Circle brings up the argument about whether a team can support itself following a club model, or whether a scholarship cut is just the first step toward cutting the program. It seems the University of Cincinnati is in the unfortunate position of testing the theories. The nation will surely keep an eye on Cincinnati to see whether a program capable of producing national champions will fizzle without its blood supply.

ATLANTA, GA – April 19, 2010 – This weekend, the top teams in the American Swimming Association University League, ASA U., came together again for the 6th Annual ASA U. Collegiate Club Swimming National Championships. At the top of the pack were the University of Florida, which came away with the men’s and combined titles, and James Madison University, which took the women’s title and finished 2nd overall. Penn State and the University of Connecticut followed close behind in team scoring. Northeastern University, one of the four founding clubs, competed at Nationals for the sixth time, a distinction unique to them.

Florida and JMU tag-teamed to sweep the meet’s eight relay events, with JMU setting a new national record in the women’s 200 medley relay at 1:53.40. UConn and Oregon joined with the two dominant clubs to drive down ASA U.’s Collegiate Club Swimming Nationals Records over the two-day competition. Ten records fell over the weekend out of the fifty on the books. Skylar Stroman topped the individual record-performances with three backstroke records (men’s 50 back – 23.49, 100 back – 51.54, and 200 back – 1:51.10). Ben Metcalfe of Oregon set two new breaststroke standards (50 breast – 26.41, 100 breast – 57.25, and Lisa Shelps of UConn broke two freestyle records (25 free – 11.46, 50 free 24.63). Nicole Brunner and Amanda Shirley served up Florida’s offering of two new records, setting respective marks of 1:01.90 in the 100 I.M. and 12.89 in the 25 back.

ASA U. continued its pattern of growth in the 2009-2010 schoolyear, growing its ranks from forty-three up to sixty-eight teams and offering nearly twice as many meets over the course of the season than in the previous year. ASA U. was founded in 2003, in response to the elimination of varsity swimming teams across the United States. Some of its clubs are former varsity teams that have been cut from their Universities

A headline in the Dayton Daily News caught my attention this morning: Dayton 4th worse place for allergy sufferers. It seems the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has prepared its list of 2010 Spring Allergy Capitals, but it was not found posted online. Dr. Dawn Zacharias of the Allergy and Asthma Center of Dayton provided comment for the Dayton Daily News article, saying that people are experiencing worse symptoms because of the rapid warming.

Spring does seem to be in full effect here in Southwest Ohio, but let’s compare this year to past temperatures for Dayton. The Wright-Patt Air Force Base (Dayton) climate records show that March 2009 had higher average temperatures for the month (mean high 56

April Fools’ Day is an international day of pranks and foolishness. According to Wikipedia, it is observed in the USA, UK, Australia, South Africa, France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, and yes even Canada. Because it’s an international phenomenon, and because social media has greatly expedited the distribution of news stories, I can’t help but take an “oh yeah right!” approach to reading online headlines.

I just hope that no ‘real’ news happens today – like the discovery of a comet headed towards Earth – can you imagine trying to report that? “No, we know it’s April Fools’ Day, but we really really mean it!”

With that in mind, here are today’s top stories!

Amy Winehouse to race new Ultra distance UK triathlon this summer (everymantri.com) – “I’ve traded all of my cigarettes for running shoes,” Winehouse said referring to her battle with addiction…”that is after I smoke this last one,” she added.

Superhero suit to change face of swimming (thewaterisopen.blogspot.com) – blueseventy’s director of genetic research, April Hoodwink, commented,

According to a release by the Associated Press, the London 2012 Olympic Aquatics Center now has water in the pool!

David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (the public body responsible for developing and building the new venues and infrastructure for the Games) said “Water is now in the diving pool. It hasn’t leaked. So far so good” (source).

From what I can see in this London2012.com webcam photo, it looks like the water David Higgins is talking about could just be the rain. It seems a little preemptive to fill the diving well before finishing the buildings’ walls and floor!

The JAX50 is aptly named because this unique type of swimming challenge takes place in Jacksonville, FL and includes only one event: the 50 yard freestyle. According to the event website, the event starts out with heats of the 50 broken down by age group. Trophies are awarded to the top 3 swimmers in each age group, but only the top 4 swimmers advance to the evening session.

If I’m reading this correctly, it looks like the top two boys and top two girls will join the 12 pro’s and pair up to form a total of 8 guy-girl teams. Then, in an NCAA college basketball tournament style bracket, guys and girls race each other in head-to-head 50′s and earn points for them and their partner. The guy-girl partners with the most total points will split the prize money.

8-year-olds, although you probably didn’t make it to the evening session, you’re not done yet! All swimmers are invited to a swim clinic the following day.

This fun, unique event is more than just a dash for cash. “It is an opportunity to help an aspiring Olympian, Bolles school alumnus Seun Adebiyi, fight the fight of his life against leukemia in the hopes that he will fulfill his ultimate dream of racing in an Olympic Games” (source).

There was talk earlier this week about a rumored (and later confirmed) case of several NCAA swimmers coming down with some sort of severe illness shortly after arriving in Columbus, OH for the 2010 Men’s D1 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Swimming World picked up the story, and then posted an update – including a press release from The Ohio State University Media Relations.

According to a tweet by Ricky Berens, the swim teams from Stanford, Arizona, and Texas were all on the same flight. On Monday, March 22nd, Ricky described the flight as “productive” and didn’t mention anything about an illness. Later, Berens tweeted that Arizona had stolen their dinner reservations – meaning they were eating at the same place.

36 hours later, 9 Arizona swimmers were hospitalized and several Texas and Stanford swimmers were also reportedly ill.

It’s easy to speculate that something must have been going around either at dinner or on the plane that could cause members of three NCAA swim teams to become so sick.

The latest news out of this story: an emergency coaches meeting was called for Wednesday night. According to CollegeSwimming.com, the meet has officially been postponed until Friday, March 26th at noon. The situation is so serious that the Center for Disease Control is not letting the infected swimmers into the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion until Friday.

Found via SCAQ Blog, Cesar Cielo appears in this campaign for clean water sponsored by SABESP, a Brazilian state owned utility that provides water and sewage services to residential, commercial and industrial use in the S

> The full story behind Sasquatch DiveMeets.com
> Past Decade of Women’s NCAA Results Swimming Science
> Sterling silver swimming charm Kast-A-Way Swimwear
> An Open Letter To My Diving Friends The Screaming Viking!
> 2012 London Olympic Aquatics Center Under Construction Video About.com
> Backstroke in Caramel, GTD Prizes, & More Race Footage

In the first episode of LIFE, a new series from the makers of Planet Earth, the special adaptations of the basilisk lizard are featured to show how animals have evolved some remarkable strategies to stay alive. By running on water, the basilisk “Jesus Christ” lizard has even challenged the established mechanics for legged locomotion; while an inventor in 1988 claims to have solved the mechanics for water-running over two decades ago.

If you’re looking to be impressed by aquatic adaptations, look no further than the animal kingdom: specifically the 11-part nature special called LIFE, co-produced by the BBC and The Discovery Channel. With the same cinematic power as the Planet Earth series, LIFE introduces the elements of adaptation, evolution, and resilience told through time-bending slow motion and epic aerial shots.

If you missed the first episodes, and the encore presentations, you can still see a short clip of the basilisk running on water in this preview on YouTube. Nicknamed the “Jesus Lizard” or “Jesus Christ Lizard” for its seemingly miraculous ability to walk on water, the basilisk’s movement had not been thoroughly analyzed until as recently as 2004. Researchers Shi-Tong Tonia Hsieh and George Lauder challenged the idea that there is a simple continuum in the strategy animals use to move across surfaces – in other words, they wondered if the lizard ran differently in order to stay upright on the surface rather than just running very quickly with large feet.

According to detailed video analysis, the lizard’s stride on the water can be broken into three phases: the slap, the stroke, and the recovery. The lizard generates enough vertical force to stay up during the slap phase, and lateral force to move forward during the stroke (source). However, according to Hsieh and Lauder, “the mechanics of lizard water-running challenge a major established rule of legged locomotion known as the spring-mass model. In the model, energy is stored in an animal’s limb during the start of the contact, or slap, phase and then released to help propel the animal forward” (source). Hsieh and Lauder conclude that this does not occur in the lizard, and liken the movement to that of a piston rather than a spring.

These results show that it’s not just a matter of running fast with big feet, but support that there is a different model of locomotion for running on a liquid surface. This is unfortunate for anyone who has dreamed of running down the pool with swim fins on, and also for inventor Peter B. Tomlinson, the man who holds US Patent No. US4787871 for Water Surface Running Fins for the Feet.

At a glance, Tomlinson’s invention looks similar to the foot design of the basilisk lizard. The fin provides a large, flat, rigid surface for the slap phase, and even a semi-collapsed state for the recovery phase. However, because water-running requires a different model of locomotion than running on land, it is hard to imagine something like a running fin working on humans without extensive training to alter the running mechanics.

Tomlinson’s vision of Water Surface Running Fins being used for exercise, competitive races, and even lifeguard equipment, will remain a fantasy for the time being. But just as we were once inspired by a bird’s winged flight, perhaps water-running fins are the next great invention to be modeled after life’s adaptations.