"I was pleasantly surprised," said Etherington. "Our first two dual meets we weren't swimming fast. We weren't racing. It doesn't mean we were swimming awful, but we didn't have any kind of spark in those meets. (At Greg Fernley), it was kind of surprising to see the whole team kind of come around."

Of course, the meet also showed that the Bengals have a long, long way to go.

"I think the biggest thing that we talked about on the way home was: As well as they thought they may have done, as well as I thought they did, it's only November," said Etherington. "So much changes between November and February. ... A meet like that shows you what holes you have and how much work you honestly have."

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E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com