Why are times dropping so much?

So, do the clothes make the swimming man, or is it the man in the swimsuit who makes the wardrobe stand or fall?

Throughout the fastest state meet in Illinois boys swimming history, attention inevitably went to the swimsuits on the athletes' bodies.

This year marked the first boys state meet after the Beijing Olympics, in which Michael Phelps won a record 8 gold medals. The entire year was record-filled - 108 records fell throughout the calendar year.

The state meet saw its own version of record-breaking madness. Six of 11 swimming events had existing records replaced while Glenbrook South's 200-yard freestyle broke the national record on Friday, then lowered the mark on Saturday.

For many people, the reason behind this surge has to do with one thing: suit technology. Speedo unveiled the LZR (pronounced "Laser") Racer last year. The LZR combines some practical improvements such as stitch-free construction with space-age fabric and plastic panels designed by NASA - which when out together in a full-body swimsuit - reduce drag in the water. Of last year's 108 world records, 79 fell to swimmers wearing LZR suits.

"We've been hearing about these suits for a year, and they are 'the deal,'" Marmion coach Bill Schalz said. "Swimming's going to make a major paradigm shift now because of these suits. The days of going into your sectional meet with just your Speedo briefs are over."

Some old chestnuts about the state meet were erased over the weekend. One is that swimmers get slower on the second day of the meet. Forty-five percent of swimmers in the meet got faster on Saturday than on Friday. In 2008, the number of lowered times from Friday to Saturday was 30 percent.

The thing is, a decade ago, the 1999 state meet saw 48 percent of finalists swim faster on Saturday than on Friday. And in 1999, swimmers were still mostly wearing swimsuits that resembled briefs in the water and the restrictions on the suit were that it had to sufficiently cover certain parts of the body.

Now modesty isn't an issue. Swimmers are more covered than at any point since the 1930s or 1940s and it is the nature of that covering that is being brought into question.

"I think a lot it's the suits," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "For us to go 1:35 (in the 200 medley relay) last week, it's a lot of hard work, but the suits are involved too. Times have changed."

Times have always changed in swimming. The first Olympics held swimming contests in open water, and there has been much improvement since then, in terms of what swimmers wear, how they approach their sport and the venue in which they perform.

Finding the best material for a suit is nothing new either. Australian Mark Hendricks wore a silk suit in 1952 to reduce drag. Speedo unveiled the Fastskin suits in the early 90s. These had a "skin" that resembled sharkskin and were designed to reduce drag in the water in the same way the LZR now intends to do.

Goggles came into prominent use in the 60s. But photos of Mark Spitz winning his then-record 7 gold medals in 1972 show an athlete not wearing goggles or a cap and with a full head of hair. Caps slowly worked their way into prominence for male swimmers, though women had worn them for years. The nature of how swimmers perform has changed. As one example, the now-standard flip turn didn't become standard until the 1950s.

Pool technology has always been in motion as well. The lane lines currently used in pools help prevent waves from washing from lane to lane. Those came into existence in the late 1960s. New pools are deeper, have more room for water to run off and have other little tweaks to help swimmers achieve maximum performance.

At every step of the way, these innovations have resulted in swimmers moving more quickly through the water. So how much of the faster timing can be attributed to the latest new suit?

"Part of it may be the suits, but a lot of it also the hard work," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "There's a lot of determination shown by a lot of these kids."

There is no denying that this year's IHSA boys meet was fast. Seven of the all-time top 10 times in the 200-yard freestyle were recorded last weekend at New Trier. The winner in the 500 freestyle, Burke Sims, dropped an unheard-of 6 seconds to win his event and break a 10-year old state record.

Even the fastest event in the meet moved faster than ever. The finals field of 12 swimmers in the 50 freestyle averaged 20.796 seconds - the first time the finals average has been below 21 seconds.

Some athletes struggled with the decision to use a full-body suit. The suits are new and expensive and do not last long before they lose their elasticity. Still, the suits were everywhere on deck at New Trier.

"You never saw this many guys in bodysuits before," Schalz said. "They were all wearing legsuits and jammers. Now the breaststrokers are wearing bodysuits. So are the IM'ers, and you never saw that."

Some actually took over their bodysuits after Friday's finals and shifted to older suit technology, such as jammers, which go from the waist to knees or legsuits, in which the suit starts at the waist and extends to the ankles. St. Charles East's Ken Tiltges hinted that he might switch after Friday's 100 breaststroke prelims. Tiltges, wearing a legsuit, held that seventh place in the finals and dropped his time from 58.42 to 57.88.

"I think what happened (in prelims) is that I picked the wrong suit to wear," Tiltges said. "Today, I decided to go with what I felt comfortable with. It was a bad decision on my part."

Tiltges said he wasn't sure if the new technology would have worked for him. But the fact remains that he swam faster in the suit in which he felt he was going to swim faster.

"A lot of people say it's psychological, and I guess I'd have to agree," Tiltges said. "The big thing is that I felt different in the water. It wasn't my normal stroke and I didn't practice enough in it. I needed to get back to where I felt comfortable, and that's what I did."

Batavia's Albert Roth also shifted suits because he didn't like the feel of the full-body suit. He swam in a legsuit in the finals.

"I really didn't like the feel of the bodysuit," Roth said. "It felt like there was air or water going down my chest. It felt like I was dragging a parachute and I wasn't really into it. I switched to the legsuit, and I felt better."

The conversations about technology will continue. FINA has put a moratorium on new suits until it can determine the guidelines under which new suits will be allowed. The LZR, however, is official and is going to be seen more and more in coming years.

"If you're wearing a Jammer, you're racing in a Buick and everyone else is racing in Lamborghini's and Ferrari's," Schalz said. "You can't put yourself in that position any more. We talked a lot of guys into the full-body suits. They didn't like them at first. But once they got into them and warmed up, they really liked them."