2008 All-American LC Championships Day 1 Prelims
Sponsored by
Human Performance Labs

All Results can be found here

* Men 100 LC Meter Butterfly
=== Preliminaries ===
7 Peirsol, Aaron 24 Longhorn Aquatic 53.34 54.19#qTRLS
25.55 54.19 (28.64)

***

* Texas Pros bring in friends for a real encore

“... Cromwell, a Harvard alum and National Teamer swimming for UT’s post-grad program, said Walker, Crocker, Hansen, Peirsol and the others started talking about putting together “something special” on the way back from an east coast trip. Some elbow grease and cell phone hours later, the meet is coming to reality in record time - the only time in which that crowd works ...”

BY BOB SCHALLER//Special Correspondent
Want to see a multi-media show, a sitcom, a drama – and, oh yeah, some of the best swimmers in the world? This is going to be big – Texas-sized, if you will. Unique swims, entertainment and some unique formats for swimming events that could be the most talked about swimming promotion for years to come. And they are excited about it.

“They” are known far and wide as the “Texas guys,” a group that has helped push USA Swimming’s dominance to heretofore unseen levels as the American men set record after record, year after year, astounding in their consistency.

But they’ve also been known for something else: Class.

So when Neil Walker and the current “Big three” of Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen and Aaron Peirsol were returning from a recent trip, they thought about where they’ve been, where they are, and what they could do to leave the place they call home in better shape when the time comes to move on.

For an encore, the “Texas guys” literally, are giving an Encore.

The University of Texas and its star-studded post-grad program, consisting of former Olympians, National Teamers, and more record holders than you could splash with a cannonball jump, host the Encore Swim Spectacular this Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Joe Jamail Swim Center in Austin, to raise funds for the SWIM program locally.

“The idea for Encore was conceived in early December when the Texas Pros – as we call ourselves – realized that together we have a rare opportunity to create something that is more digestible for the mainstream audience,” Crocker said. “The concept is to have an event where suspense, drama and laughter are the emotions being shared, and where there are no lulls in that action. We feel that the benefits of an event like this are many.  Primarily, it packages swimming in a user friendly way – audience interaction and window into athletes’ personalities.  Second, it gives the athletes a chance to let their personalities shine and truly have fun in a new way with our sport.  In the end, it’s a fresh perspective on an old setting that helps participants and audience alike.”

“From the beginning stages of planning the event, we asked ourselves, ‘How many people can we get to benefit from what we want to do?’ – I think that genuinely reaching out and helping people without being solicited is a rare thing in professional sport,” Crocker said. “The leaders we have at Texas, like Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik, have always tried to instill in us the importance of community service.  Having the SWIM program right here in Austin seemed to dovetail perfectly with our goals.  It is a non-profit organization started by two former Texas Swimmers (Bryan Jones and Paul Wallace) to benefit the Austin community by giving kids with a low socio-economic background an extracurricular activity and an opportunity to build healthy life patterns through competitive swimming.  The Texas Pros all feel that SWIM is a program we would like to see grow and branch out into other areas.  By donating to SWIM we help the chances of that happening, and also hope to raise awareness about the non-profit.”

Since things are big in Texas, they have enlisted the help of other top stars, including Whitney Myers, Dara Torres, Cullen Jones, Roland Schoeman, Kirsty Coventry, David Cromwell, Eric Shateau, Nick Brunelli, Tanica Jamison, Matt Grevers, Adams Ritter, and a host of others, including everyone from Club Longhorn.

‘It is going to be cool. I’m excited. All the guys who are going are excited,” said sprinter Nick Brunelli. “The first thing is it is all charity based. Everything that is raced goes to the local swim charity in Austin that UT is involved with.”

“First, there are a many events that will be exciting during the Encore meet,” Crocker said. “The entire event is organized to entertain the audience.  There will be races where world records will be in jeopardy.  For these “serious” races, we are doing 100 meter races of each stroke, and 50’s of each stroke.  We will also have a world record attempt in the 100 meter IM.  These events are designed to get the crowd on the edge of their seats.”

But the event will also be entertaining at times. Crocker said that in order to set the scene before each event, whether it be serious or funny, there will be video introductions and explanations of the events presented in a new and quite unique manner.

“Dispersed among these high pressure events are chances for the audience to catch their breath, and be entertained by laughter.  We are featuring a “vintage” 100 IM, where athletes will wear vintage swimming attire, and race using classic techniques – belly flop start, fly with breast kick, breast with head out of the water...etc).  Another featured comedic event will be the continuing saga of the ‘Cromwell swimming breaststroke vs. Hansen swimming backstroke’ battle.

But don’t think these games will be all fun. The intensity in some unique matchups will bring eye-opening performances and memories for those in attendance.

“ I like to step up and race these guys in a one-on-one format – not exactly one-on-one, but still pretty close,” Brunelli said. “Cullen will be in there. It’s just going to be a lot of fun. There should be some great swims there. Grevers is shaving and resting down and he’s been having a great winter season. The Texas guys will all be shaving and coming down, not just to do this, but the all American championships, so there will be a lot of fast swimming.”

Cromwell, a Harvard alum and National Teamer swimming for UT’s post-grad program, said Walker, Crocker, Hansen, Peirsol and the others started talking about putting together “something special” on the way back from an east coast trip. Some elbow grease and cell phone hours later, the meet is coming to reality in record time – the only time in which that crowd works.

“I remember on the way back from the Chesapeake Elite Pro Am, Ian Crocker were sitting talking about how much fun it was – those Texas guys just wanted to do something for the swim community in Austin,” Cromwell said. “It’ll be great for us to have that capacity crowd, but we’re also hoping to expose the sport to a wider group of people. We’re doing it with SWIM Austin, which is one of those vital programs that bridges the gap from learn-to-swim to the USA Swimming program, and we all believe in these efforts. We are absolutely ecstatic about it.”

The Texas swimmers were doing a sound check earlier this week for a local band that is going to perform, so it should be a rockin’ event.

On top of that, Brunelli said the thought is something he is most proud of.

“I love to do stuff like this,” Brunelli said. “I don’t make enough to put my own into it, but any way you can help out your community, especially with the sport you love, is priceless. The sport of swimming is getting more proactive on the athlete side, with groups of athletes coming together, to say, ‘Let’s do some fast swimming, give back to the community and help the sport at a younger age in an inner-city area.’ It’s always good to give back.”