Women's swimming ... success?

I don't want to dump on any Cornell athletic program. Our teams are not going to be contenders in every sport, every year and anyone who can compete at the D-I level is a far better athlete than I ever was or will be (a low bar, to be sure, but I know where I stand. Er, sit. Or, when possible, lie down).

Still, as simply an exercise in feel-good journalism, the lead to this article about the Ivy Women's Swimming championships has to be one of the most jarring whiplash sentences I've read in a while.

A PR whiz writng for the CU Athletics site
An improved Cornell women's swimming team got lifetime-best swims from several athletes and closed day one in eighth place at the 2007 Ivy League championships at Princeton

I am certainly impressed that some of our swimmers turned in career-bests in the biggest meet of the year. I also know that it must be tough to write in an upbeat way about a last-place team for that team's own website. Still, it starts so positive (in the lead and the headline) and then all of a sudden I found myself thinking Wait... how many teams are there ...

ugarte
I don't want to dump on any Cornell athletic program. Our teams are not going to be contenders in every sport, every year and anyone who can compete at the D-I level is a far better athlete than I ever was or will be (a low bar, to be sure, but I know where I stand. Er, sit. Or, when possible, lie down).

Still, as simply an exercise in feel-good journalism, the lead to this article about the Ivy Women's Swimming championships has to be one of the most jarring whiplash sentences I've read in a while.

A PR whiz writng for the CU Athletics site
An improved Cornell women's swimming team got lifetime-best swims from several athletes and closed day one in eighth place at the 2007 Ivy League championships at Princeton

I am certainly impressed that some of our swimmers turned in career-bests in the biggest meet of the year. I also know that it must be tough to write in an upbeat way about a last-place team for that team's own website. Still, it starts so positive (in the lead and the headline) and then all of a sudden I found myself thinking Wait... how many teams are there ...

Ya gotta AAAACCCCentuate the positive and EEEEEEE.......

Sometimes it's harder to do than others.

ugarte

I am certainly impressed that some of our swimmers turned in career-bests in the biggest meet of the year. I also know that it must be tough to write in an upbeat way about a last-place team for that team's own website. Still, it starts so positive (in the lead and the headline) and then all of a sudden I found myself thinking Wait... how many teams are there ...

It gets worse. Cornell would have to nearly double its score to crack the top...6:
1. Princeton - 497
2. Harvard - 358
3. Yale - 356.50
4. Penn - 284
5. Brown - 246
6. Dartmouth - 198.50
7. Columbia - 180
8. Cornell - 112

The team has no depth in terms of # of athletes AND more importantly don't have enough talent to swim well in the relay races. Those points, coupled with the fact we don't have the numbers swimming on day two equals #8.

bandit1
The team has no depth in terms of # of athletes AND more importantly don't have enough talent to swim well in the relay races. Those points, coupled with the fact we don't have the numbers swimming on day two equals #8.

Like I said, I don't mean to insult the individual swimmers on and coaches of the team. I assume that they are excellent athletets and I doubt that they expected to finish any higher than 8th and, like I said, kudos to any swimmer that pulled off a PB at the meet. My only point was about the extreme AAAACCCCentuating going on.

ugarte
My only point was about the extreme AAAACCCCentuating going on.

I suspect there may be a typo involved in this tennis lead sentence on the Yale Athletics web site: "Yale (2-4) bounced back from two tough losses to ranked opponents last week to defeat No. 67 Boston University (5-1) 6-1 Saturday in its home opener."

Number 67? And we thought too many hockey teams were ranked?