Despite the talent on the Penn State women's swimming and diving team, expecting a national title or anything more than about a 10th-place finish at NCAAs would have been misguided.
But 29th?
Penn State coach Bill Dorenkott said he was "really pleased" with his team's performance in the national championship meet last weekend, citing several swimmers posting personal-best times and even three new school records.
The 2007-08 season marked the second year in a row that Penn State went undefeated in the regular season.
And, for the second year in a row, the championship meets did not produce the same results.
Last year, the Lions finished third at Big Tens, and Kaitlin O'Brien and Lyndsey Smith each captured individual Big Ten titles. At the 2007 NCAAs, Penn State finished 26th, ranking sixth among Big Ten schools.
This year, a squad led by a talented junior class finished fourth at Big Tens, ending a string of eight straight top-3 finishes in the conference.
At NCAAs, the Lions, ranked 12th by the College Swimming Coaches Association, finished 29th -- the seventh-best finish among Big Ten schools.
It was Penn State's worst finish at NCAAs since Dorenkott's first two seasons, when the Lions finished 33rd in 1999 and did not place in 2000.
A season that was looking like one of the best efforts in the program's history, with triple-digit wins in 10 of 11 dual meets, ended up being a mediocre season when compared with the rest of the Dorenkott era.
There's nothing wrong with being happy about individual swimmers stepping up and recording some of the fastest times of their careers. They deserve to be commended, and for a team sport, swimming is focused heavily on individual athletes.
But there'd also be nothing wrong with expressing some displeasure with the team's overall finish.
The importance of the team results has been downplayed all season, but, at some point, an emphasis has to be placed on winning and losing.
Penn State has a very talented group of swimmers, and next year, it will be a very experienced group. Only three seniors -- Clare Clemens, Molly Crispell and Kristin Smith -- will be gone, and nine of 10 NCAA qualifiers from this season will return.
With seniors-to-be such as Abby Hoisington, 2007 Big Ten champion O'Brien and 2008 All-American Kelly Nelson, this team should be a preseason favorite in the Big Ten next year and has the potential to make a run at the best NCAA finish in program history.
Dorenkott has called the dual meet season a "gauge" for the championship meets.
And, this year, the regular season was not quite an accurate gauge for the team as a whole, judging by the drop from a No. 12 CSCA ranking after the dual meets to 29th at NCAAs.
The team should look at those numbers and use them as motivation for next season's championships.
After all, the Lions certainly have more than enough talent to accomplish big things.
Another successful dual meet season is almost a certainty. But will it be an accurate gauge for the championship meets?
Matt Brown is a sophomore majoring in journalism and is a Collegian women's swimming and diving and men's lacrosse writer. His e-mail address is mdb5082@psu.edu.
