No. 2, having a top-notch competitor in the pool can help pull the other racers along to faster times, again having implications for automatic qualifying times.
No. 3 is the obvious one: We don't bench starters in other sports because their teams are too good and we shouldn't do it in swimming. Yanking a swimmer from one of what might be his or her two scheduled events on short notice unfairly penalizes the student-athlete.
Weekly rankings: The new ratings in football, soccer and cross country will be delayed by a day this week. Look for them on this site by early Thursday evening.
We're holding them back a day out of courtesy to our dues-paying members, who will get the rankings in the mail a day late this week due to the Columbus Day holiday.
Orange running behind the pack: The Daily Orange says Syracuse is one of only two schools in a Bowl Championship Series conference without at least one Scout.com three-star football player having committed to sign a Letter of Intent in February. Many schools have multiple four- and five-star prospects in the fold already, though verbal commitments aren't worth the paper they're written on.
Averin Collier of Churchville-Chili is regarded as New York's top prospect and has the Orange in his top five (albeit well behind Clemson and Pittsburgh), but Syracuse's coaching staff faces an odd handicap in its pursuit.
"It might be controversial, but right now, the biggest drawback is the crowd support," Churchville-Chili coach Paul Dick told the newspaper. "When you sit there as a recruit, right away they're on the coaches. When you're a kid, it's not like that in high school."
Extra points: Former Rochester Americans (AHL) standout Craig Charron is the new hockey coach at Spencerport. Charron played five seasons in Rochester and led the team in goals in its 1995-96 Calder Cup season. . . .
Williamsville North (11-0-2) and Williamsville East (12-1-2) played to a scoreless boys soccer tie yesterday.
