While Bob Costas and the like enjoy making countless references to the Wolverine Swimming Club, someone ought to let them know that the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center is home to this years’ NCAA Champion Wildcats.  Unfortunately, they didn’t quite repeat their championship performances in Beijing.

Joel Greenshields (Canada) and Ryk Neethling (South Africa) failed to make it out of their heats for the 100M Free, though Lyndon Ferns (South Africa) will be in the Thursday finals.  Jean Basson (South Africa) fell just short of a medal in the 200M free behind some dude named Phelps, as well as Tae-Hwan and Peter Vanderkaay.  Other somewhat disappointing finishes included Lacey Nymeyer (USA) who didn’t escape her heat in the 100M Free (CORRECTION: Nymeyer made it through her preliminary heat but was not able to advance to the finals), Jake Tapp (Canada) who failed to advance in the 100M backstroke, and the South African team of Neethling, Roland Schuman, and Lyndon Ferns, who finished seventh in the 4×100M Free Relay.  To make matters worse, Amanda Beard shocked the world by failing to advance out of the preliminaries today in the 200M breaststroke.

On the bright side, though Nymeyer’s performance in the 100M Free was disappointing, she has become the first Wildcat to medal at this years games as she was part of the Silver medal winning women’s 4×100-meter relay team! Rau Raur!  Also hope remains for Wildcats as Ferns will be competing in the 100M Free Finals.

Although the performances didn’t go as swimmingly as expected, at least nobody drowned.

Outside the pool, Kim Glass helped the distraught women’s volleyball team to a 2-1 record in Group A.  In the final game against Venezuela, she turned in an impressive 9 spikes, 3 blocks, and 8 contested shots performance.  You’d think after a performance like that, it would “bump” her into the conversation for Robert Golden comparisons.

As always, be sure to check back as Track and Field is racing up on us. And obviously the ‘Cats are more than represented on the softball diamond. So far Caitlin Lowe has hit first inside the park home run in Olympic history, Jennie Finch has pitched four perfect innings, and USA is undefeated.

(Photo: Lacey Nymeyer/AP Photo)

The World Wide Web produced some solid Wildcat interviews today.

• Ted Miller of ESPN.com speaks with the guy behind the — hopefully high octane — Airzona O, Sonny Dykes. Some great quotes about both the offense and defense, plus some thoughts on his potential as a future head coach.
• Over at SI.com, an interview with Chase Budinger reveals the junior-to-be’s thoughts on Coach O, his Halloweeen costume not-so-scandal, the decision to come back to school, and much more
• ASU basketball plays some vicious competition in the upcoming Anaheim Classic. I mean a whole TWO of the teams made the NCAA Tournament last year (neither being ASU, burn!)
• And finally, Amanda Beard does not like wearing clothes
  

(Photo: Sonny Dykes/Tucson Citizen)

Like we said, Arizona is a swimming school. Only a few days after the Women’s team grabbed the University’s first swimming title in history, the Men’s team came right back to win in dominant fashion. Arizona took home the title by 94 points, and let the swimming world know who is the best. While some things may be confusing in McKale, there is no doubt of the status in Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. Go on Wildcats.