Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal) [Archive] - Page 5

Breeze

10-02-2018, 08:30 AM

Emory & Henry - 2018-19 Roster Preview

Women

2018 Results - 4th in ODACs
2018 Seniors - Bri Chesscock, Kelsy Jones, Mackinzie Lingle, Holly Roth
Returning Swimmers - Olivia Anson, Savannah Scarbrough, Brittany Archer, Taylor Simmons
Other Losses - Sarah Helfert, Lauren Trotter
Incoming Freshmen - Ann-Louise Tunstall, Cathryn Sweigart, Leah Mumpower

Overview
The E&H girls have had a strong run finishing 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, and 4th at ODACs during the last 5 years, but unfortunately, this year is going to be a tough one for the Wasps. The are losing 4 high point earners to graduation. In fact, the 4 graduating girls scored in all 12 events they swam last year with 7 swims finishing in the A finals and 5 in the B finals, and Helfert is also a key loss, as she managed 3 B final swims last year. For point of reference the remaining 5 girls combined to have 4 A final and 3 B final swims. That's well over half of the team points from 2018 exiting the roster. In addition, the losses were also heavily involved on the 5 relays, which will struggle to replace them this year.

Roster

Oliva (Liv) Anson - JR - Liv is the strongest swimmer on the womens team, as all 3 of her ODAC swims last year finished in the A finals. She is a freestyle specialist scoring in the 50, 100, and 200. Last year, the only swim I show she had outside of the 3 freestyle events previously mentioned, was a 100 fly, and her time there while good, wasn't outstanding so it is likely she stays with her speciality.

Savannah Scarbrough - JR - Breaststroke/IM swimmer, who did manage to make B finals in both the 100 Breast and 200 IM, and she made A finals in the 400 IM. Given that Breast is the only stroke she has that is really strong with the remaining 3 all being good but not great it seems likely she will continue to do those same events this year.

Brittany Archer - SO - Last year Brittany just missed scoring in both the 200 and 500 Frees, finishing 18th and 17th respectively (16th makes the B final). She did place 13th in the 1650. With a little improvement this year she seems poised to challenge for points in all her swims this time around.

Taylor Simmons - JR - Taylor didn't score last year, but she is a very solid Freestyler/backstroker, and she will at the very least be heavily counted on for relay purposes for both the medley and freestyles. She was also just outside the top 16 on all of her swims last year, so she might be able to slip in the back half of the standings and make a B final this year.

Ann-Louise (Al) Tunstall - FR - Al is going to be a big addition to the team. She comes in a well rounded swimmer with all of her swims capable of scoring points in the ODAC. The only swims I don't have a time for her in are the 1650, 200 Back and 200 Fly. It will be interesting to see what events Cody puts her in. In fact, what she swims from meet to meet may ultimately end up being different from what she swims at ODACs as Cody looks to maximize her point potential. All in all, she looks like she'll be the primary flyer on the team, and possibly the mid distance freestyler. She will also be involved in all the free relays as well.

Cathryn (Cat) Sweigart - FR - Cat is a very tall swimmer who appears to mostly be a breaststroker. From what I can gather, she was not a year round swimmer, she just did high school and summer league teams. I have very little documented information of her times, but what I do have indicates her breast is currently solid. I also have a few old freesytle times that aren't good enough to put her on the relays, and I have a 200 IM time that is also not good enough to score at ODACs. However, if additional training allows her to take advanage of her length, she could improve significantly.

Leah Mumpower - FR - Leah, like Cat also appears to be a breaststroker. Her best time in the 100 would have put her in the B finals last year at ODACs, but just barely. In addition, her 200 breast is also on the cusp of scoring at ODACs based on 2018 results. She doesn't really have another stroke that is strong enough to score, so I look for Cody to try and develope her as an IMer or distance/mid-distance freestyler.

Men

2018 Results - 10th in ODACs
2018 Seniors - None
Returning Swimmers - Nick Barr
Other Losses - Wilson Naff, Evan Thompson-Prillhart
Incoming Freshman - Brett Breeze, Ethan Wine, Braxton Justice, Blake Madaris, Nick Moore, Tariq Gardner, Mack Henningsen
Other Additions - Jerrod (?)

Overview
Last years men's team was at a major disadvantage all season. With only 3 swimmers the team basically forfeited all relay points every meet, and at the ODACs where relays are double points it greatly impacted their standing. Coming into this season, E&H looked to be in a decent spot, with Wilson (2nd Team All-ODAC) and his 40 individual points earned at ODACs returning and a solid recruting class it looked like the Wasps might move up to the middle of the conference. Unfortunately, Wilson failed out and is no longer on the team. His absence changes everything because now the team has to fill his strokes in meets and relays, and a swimmer originally earmarked to do a different stroke will now have to fill Wilson's shoes. Evan, who was a willing participant last year declined to return, noting that the team had progressed beyond what he could provide so he was no longer needed.

Roster

Nick Barr - SO - Nick is the only returning swimmer from last year, and he is only partly invested in swimming as he is also a member of the E&H rugby team. Nick was never a competitive swimmer prior to joining this team but he's a hard worker who improved significantly last year. He is strictly a freestyler and I'm sure that's because it is the only stroke he can swim legally. Freestyle is a tough stroke at this level of competition, as you better be really fast if you are looking to score, and last year Barr's times weren't good enough, and I don't expect he'll improve nearly enough to score this year either. However, his times could provide some solid depth for relays. There is 1 significant concern with Nick's swimming potential. Because he is playing Rugby, he is power lifting and adding a significant amount of mass. There is a distinct posibility that he will limit his range of motion with these lifts as well as increase is BMI to a point that he creates significant drag and ultimately swims slower.

Jerrod ? - ? - Jerrod is an unknown in this review (as if the lack of a last name didn't give that away enough) because he was already a student at E&H but didn't swim on the team last year. He elected to join the team this time around, but judging from reports out of practice he was never a year round swimmer, and probably won't be a factor initially.

Nick Moore - FR - Nick is another swimmer that is practically an unknown. No official times for him could be found on USA Swimming, Virgina's State High School Meet, or Summer League swimming from his area. Reports out of practice indicate that he will need some time to get up to speed and probably won't have a big impact this season.

Tariq Gardner - FR - Tariq is a pretty lazy swimmer. In practice it isn't unusual for him to stop during a set wait for it to finish, then start with the team in the next step only to once again stop way early and wait. From that description you can probably tell that he is a sprint freestyler and going a 100 free is practically a distance swim for him, but his 50 free is pretty good. It's not currently good enough to score at ODACs, and given he probably won't work hard enough for it to improve significantly, I expect he won't score at ODACs, but his 50 time is good enough to put him on the 4x50 Free Relay, and he might swim Free on the medley relays occasionally too. Typically a good 50 swimmer is also a good 100 swimmer, but not in this case, unless he gets in better shape so he can maintain his speed. Currently, his 100 free is no better than 6th on the team, where is 50 free is no worse than 3rd.

Ethan Wine - FR - Ethan was not a year round swimmer proir to joining the Wasps; he was just a high school swimmer who enjoyed the sport and improved significantly his senior year. In fact, he improved enough that his personal best is good enough to make the B final in the 100 breast. However, he has been out of the water basically since the end of the high school season in February, and he is really struggling with practice right now. He's going to need some time to round into shape. Given that he's probably never even raced a 200 breast (it isn't an event on the high school docket), it is debatable if he'll be able to get into good enough shape, and do enough of that event to competitively swim the 200 Breast by ODACs this season. It's also unknown how competitive he is in any other stroke.

Braxton Justice - FR - Braxton is a big powerful kid from West Virginia, who also was never a year round swimmer. However, he has some pretty strong times. Though not good enough to score at ODACs yet, he's close. Braxton has the team's fastest 50 Free and 100 Free. He's also got a decent 100 back and 100 Breast. His 100 fly is terrible, which is almost certainly a technique issue, but it is bad enough that his IMs are pretty mediocre. The upside for Braxton is huge, as he gets into swim shape and adapts to the workouts, he should improve dramatically. He will probably struggle most of the regular season as his body deals with the constant wear and tear, but during taper at the ODACs he might just explode.

Mack Henningsen - FR - Mack is the first of the year round swimmers on the team we will cover. It's currently unknown how often his year round team practiced as well as how much yardage they would typically swim, but even if it was just a minimum 3 days at around 5,000 yards, it is significantly more than the swimmers listed above, and quite honestly it shows early. He is in much better shape than most of the other swimmers. The only times on record for Mack are Free and Fly, and he's pretty good in both. His 200 and 500 Free best times would have made B finals last year at ODACs, and his 200 fly would have as well. The indications right now are that Mack will be the team Flyer and Distance Freestyler (1000/1650). It is possible once ODACs roll around that he drops the 100 Fly because he needs to drop several seconds to get into scoring position, and replaces that swim with another event where he's more likely to earn points.

Blake Madaris - FR - Blake is a year rounder from the Atlanta area, and like many swimmers from the area, he routinely swam every event on the schedule, and that has made Blake an extremely versitle piece for Coach Cody. Blake is a solid swimmer in all 4 strokes, without being outstanding in any 1 stroke. This is where Wilson's absence really hurts, initially, it looked like the IMs were a perfect fit for Blake, but without Wilson to swim the Backstroke, Blake will need to fill that role. I expect he will still do some IMs, especially since his personal bests are good enough to make finals at ODACs, and he may ultimately end up back in the IM role if the team can sign a good backstroker in the next class.

Brett Breeze - FR - Brett comes from a year round swimming backgroud, but in truth he's been out of the pool for all intents and purposes for 2 years. There were a few short periods of effort, most notibly this past summer in preparation for joining E&H, but even that was cut off by his work schedule. However, surprisingly, he has rounded back into shape pretty quickly and appears to be doing well at practice keeping up with Mack and Blake. The coach has indicated that Brett will be the 200 Breaststroker and mid-distance freestyler (500), his 3rd event is still unknown. There are basically 3 options, the 100 Breast or the 2 IM swims. Which event he actually swims will be partially determined by how Ethan does this season. If Ethan's 100 breast is strong Brett will probably find himself in one of the IMs. If Ethan struggles or Brett drops a bunch of time, he'll probably stick with the 100 Breast. It's difficult to have an idea of what Brett will do during this season. First, he's never lifted weights and he's currently embracing that effort so estimating that impact is next to impossible. Second, despite the fact that he did absolutely zero practice last year leading up to and during the high school season he still managed to swim a personal best in the 50 free and 100 breast, begging the question, if he were in shape how much faster might he have gone.

JonInMiddleGA

10-02-2018, 10:28 AM

5 breaststrokers lined up opposite Cody, and they raced. Brett was the only one to beat the coach, and he did so by about a body length. He was roundly cheered and was the hero for the weekend. He was extremely pumped up about this. I'm so happy things are going well for him.

Great stuff.

And pretty darned spiffy coaching too.

Breeze

10-02-2018, 10:53 AM

Great stuff.

And pretty darned spiffy coaching too.

Yeah, the kids on the team really love the coach. He's a lot of fun, but he makes them work hard too...

Breeze

10-03-2018, 07:04 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear was elected a Gold Team Captain for this season.

Breeze

10-03-2018, 01:04 PM

Ferrum vs Emory & Henry - 10/5

The first college meet of Brett's career is Friday, and they will be swimming against a conference team. Ferrum's team is very similar in size to E&H. They have 7 returning men and 8 returning women. I have no idea how many recruits they were able to sign, as they only show 1 guy on the primary recruiting database, but my assumption is they also signed a few high schoolers from the general area. As far as how the teams match up in the pool, based on the returning swimmers for Ferrum:

- Freestyle - the two teams are very even in freestyle both from a speed and depth perspective so those races should be very interesting and tight, and the relays will probably come down to who the coaches tag to participate. Best against best E&H is slightly faster in the 4x50 and 4x100 and much faster in the 4x200, but Coach Cody wants to get everyone involved in relays early so this probably won't end up being a best vs best alignment.

- Backstroke - Ferrum is very weak in the backstroke, and assuming Blake will be swimming for E&H it isn't even close.

- Fly - the top Ferrum flyer is much better than the E&H swimmer

- Breast - the top breaststroker for Ferrum has a personal best time that is much faster than E&H swimmers, the problem for Ferrum is - he's also their best Freestyler - so they have a decision to make as to which event he will swim. If they put him in the free, their second breaststroker is very similar in time to Ethan and Brett.

- IMs - E&H's best is several seconds faster than Ferrum's, but no idea who will swim these event.

Apparently there is quite a bit still up in the air regarding this meet, for instance Brett has been told that he will be swimming breast and mid-distance freestyle (400/500). But the coach admitted that he doesn't know if Ferrum will have anyone to swim mid-distance free or the 200 breast, and if they don't Brett will do the 100 breast and then another event (no idea which one at this point). Also Brett is in the 4x50 free relay, and Ethan is taking breast in the 4x50 medley relay, apparently no other relays are on the schedule.

JAG

10-03-2018, 07:40 PM

Great to hear about things going well for Brett and Bear being named captain.

Subby

10-04-2018, 12:21 PM

Really enjoyed catching up on this dynasty. Congrats, dad!

Breeze

10-08-2018, 07:04 AM

Ferrum vs Emory & Henry - RESULTS

Men

Emory & Henry 115
Ferrum 36

From the school's website:

The Emory & Henry College Men's Swimming Team (1-0, 1-0 ODAC) picked up its first-ever dual meet victory Friday evening, defeating Ferrum College (0-1, 0-1 ODAC) by a 115-36 score. The Wasps won nine of the 10 events and broke six school records in the process.

How It Happened
- E&H got the meet off to a start with a record-swim of 2:10.27 in the 200-meter medley relay. The relay consisted of freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.), freshman Ethan Wine (Watauga, Tenn.), freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) and junior Nick Barr (Chilhowie, Va.).
- Henningsen, Barr and freshman Nick Moore (Lebanon, Va.) went 1-2-3 in the 200-meter freestyle with Henningsen clocking a 2:17.57.
- In the 50-meter freestyle, freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) set a new program record with a time of :26.09. Freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) finished just .39 seconds behind.
- Madaris won the 200-meter individual medley (2:36.22) while Henningsen added a second victory in the 100-meter butterfly (1:08.06).
- In the 100-meter freestyle, Justice and Gardner swapped places from their 50-free finish with Justice breaking the school record at :59.25.
- Madaris got another win, clocking a 1:11.00 in the 100-meter backstroke.
- Freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.) set two school records, going 5:29.28 in the 400-meter freestyle to take second and winning the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:20.03.
- The Wasps completed the night with a record swim in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Justice, Breeze, Moore and Gardner went a 1:54.82 in the event.

Women

Emory & Henry 102
Ferrum 39

From the school's website:

The Emory & Henry College Women's Swimming Team (1-0, 1-0 ODAC) won all 10 events Friday evening against Ferrum College (0-1, 0-1 ODAC) as it cruised to a 102-39 victory in Old Dominion Athletic Conference action.

How It Happened
- Emory & Henry kicked off the evening with a win in the 200-meter medley relay, as junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.), junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.), freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) and junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) went a 2:20.25.
- Anson got her first individual victory of the night in the 200-meter freestyle (2:17.43) while freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) went :30.62 in the 50-meter freestyle for the win.
- Scarbrough won in the 200-meter individual medley, clocking a 2:44.41, while Tunstall stopped the watches in 1:12.69 in the 100-meter butterfly.
- Scarbrough got her second individual win in the 100-meter freestyle (1:07.42) while freshman Leah Mumpower (Bristol, Va.) turned in a time of 1:23.11 to win the 100-meter backstroke.
- Tunstall went 5:12.90 in the 400-meter freestyle to win while Sweigart clocked a 1:22.65 in the 100-meter breaststroke.
- The Wasps finished the meet as Anson, Mumpower, Simmons and Sweigart swam a 2:06.06 in the 200-meter freestyle relay.

Note: I'll provide some thoughts/analysis on the meet soon...

Breeze

10-08-2018, 10:06 AM

Ferrum vs Emory & Henry - RESULTS

To begin, I can report that Brett had a blast at this meet. The team had a bunch of fun, so much so they threw Coach Cody in the water after the meet, and there is a really great picture of the guys team in the pool with the coach (https://www.gowasps.com/sports/mswimdive/2018-19/releases/20181005vdh83h. I would embed it, but the wife says I shouldn't...

It's pretty cool that Brett was involved in the first ever win by the men's team. It's also cool that he set 2 team records, but honestly, the Breast was going to be broken by Ethan or Brett because lasts years swimmer was pretty poor, and no one did a 400 free last year at all...now his Breast time converted comes to around 1:12.5, which is only a second off of his personal best, and with practice and lifting that's not too bad. His time in the 400 free was really poor, but he said he cramped up about halfway through and his splits would indicate that's very likely.

I'm sure Cody was quite pleased with the results, but Ferrum isn't a good team, and E&H will be beaten badly several times this season. Hopefully, they can hold their own and keep the positive vibes and momentum going through the season.

JonInMiddleGA

10-08-2018, 05:56 PM

I can't really do much but grin at how that went.

JAG

10-08-2018, 07:19 PM

Glad they had a fun event to start things off even if tough times will be coming later.

Breeze

10-09-2018, 09:29 AM

Gold Invite @ Cumming Aquatic Center – 10/12 – 10/14

The twins get started this weekend and it is a very big year for them. As colleges are starting to show interest, the more improvements they can make the more options they will have…

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Bailey

Given that Bailey really hasn’t had time drops without a taper in a while, I don’t expect any this time around. However, I believe it is important to note that her back is better than it’s been in years – so maybe. Also, while I haven’t seen her practice, so I have no inside information regarding form coming it, as I look at her times, I believe there are 4 swims where she could cut time: 50 Free, 500 Free, 200 Back, and 100 Medley. These are prime spots mostly because she doesn’t swim them frequently, so I believe there is more room to work with. If she can get close to her seed times, it will position her for a good season.

# 1 (d1/s1): G Open 200 Medley (2:16.63Y)
# 3 (d1/s1): G Open 50 Free (27.25Y)
# 7 (d1/s1): G Open 500 Free (5:26.82Y)
# 41 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Free (2:03.01Y)
# 45 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:03.88Y)
# 53 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:01.09Y)
# 83 (d3/s5): G Open 200 Fly (2:13.79Y)
# 87 (d3/s5): G Open 200 Back (2:15.42Y)
# 100 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Medley (1:06.03Y)

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Bear

Not sure what to expect from Bear because he’s given very little indication as to how he’s doing at practice. Last I heard he still wasn’t terribly happy with the back and breaststroke, which is a little problematic. The most important swims for Bear this weekend are the two IMs and the 200 Fly, they are the ones that can improve his recruiting score. A time drop in the 100 back, might indicate the potential for strong IMs this season, so fingers crossed on that. However, without a taper, any drop in any stroke will be a huge win.

# 2 (d1/s1): B Open 200 Medley (2:03.39Y)
# 4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (23.83Y)
# 6 (d1/s1): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59Y)
# 42 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91Y)
# 46 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Back (58.01Y)
# 54 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Fly (56.40Y)
# 84 (d3/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01Y)
# 96 (d3/s5): B Open 100 Free (51.04Y)
# 101 (d3/s5): B Open 100 Medley (1:00.37Y)

Breeze

10-10-2018, 06:57 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Relays @ Washington & Lee

The next meet for E&H is more fun that function. It's designed to ease into the season and provide teams an opportunity to work on relay exchanges. In this meet there will only be 4 or so events that are legitimate ones, where times will be official. The remainder of the races will be 3x50 Breast Relay, 3x50 Fly Relay, etc. With only 9 guys and 7 girls, the team might be hard pressed to fill all the relays, and there is no way they can field them with all of their best swimmers, which ultimately means the team will be forced to rely on some of their non-contributors outlined above and they will finish at the bottom of the field. Making matters worse, apparently E&H has been dealing with a virus that is making its way through the team. Brett was sick early this week.

I'm not sure what Brett will be swimming but I assume he'll be in the breast relay, will swim breast in one of the medley relays and will swim free in at least 1 of the free relays.

rjolley

10-10-2018, 05:16 PM

How many events can a swimmer compete in at a meet?

Breeze

10-10-2018, 05:47 PM

How many events can a swimmer compete in at a meet?

Brett's situation is going to be a bit different from big colleges. At the big schools you can swim 3 events pretty much each and every meet, and for Brett in the championship meet at the end of the season it'll also be 3 individual events. I'm not sure about relays. I think you can do as many of those as the team allows.

During dual meets, it probably depends on the size of the teams competing. Like last week against Ferrum, it was two small teams facing off so no one swam more than 2 individual events. There are also numerous types of meets, 13 events, 16 events, 2 day, 3 day competitions. Obviously, when there are more events to compete in, the swimmers can swim more events.

Breeze

10-12-2018, 07:24 AM

Emory & Henry

Brittany Archer has apparently quit the team. She didn't swim in the first meet and her name doesn't appear on the roster for 2018-19. I have no information on what precipitated this move, as last I heard she was practicing with the team as recently as the first part of October.

Lauren Trotter rejoined the team. Lauren was on the team in 17-18 and was noted in my preview as not returning mostly because she wasn't part of team at the start of workouts. However, she now appears on the team roster, again no word on why the change of heart (maybe I'll get some information from Brett at Thanksgiving). Last year she failed to point at ODACs finishing 19th, 19th, and 20th in her 3 events. A slight improvement and she might be able to slip in the the back end of a B final.

Overall, this swap hurts the team from a swimming perspective. Archer would most likely have earned ODAC points in an event or two, where Trotter will need to make some improvements to get into striking distance. However, Brittany wasn't well liked on the team, so from a morale standpoint it might be an improvement.

JonInMiddleGA

10-12-2018, 02:24 PM

Breeze

10-15-2018, 12:44 PM

It was rather cool to see this (I follow W&L Athletics cause we have three former classmates of my son playing football up there) pop up on my social media & have it be "hey, wait a minute ... this is suddenly relevant to me" :D

Washington and Lee Headlines First ODAC Men's Swimming Coaches' Poll - ODAC (http://www.odaconline.com/sports/swim/2018-19/releases/101218-msw-preseasonpoll)

2018-19 ODAC MEN'S SWIMMING
COACHES' POLL
(#) Denotes First Place Votes
1. Washington and Lee University (9) 81 pts.
2. Randolph-Macon College (1) 71 pts.
3. Roanoke College 64 pts.
4. Hampden-Sydney College 60 pts.
5. Randolph College 48 pts.
6. Bridgewater College 30 pts.
7. Ferrum College 27 pts.
8. Emory & Henry College 26 pts.
9. Greensboro College 23 pts.
10. Virginia Wesleyan University 20 pts

Ha, pretty cool, you beat me to posting this...

One interesting note, Ferrum, who E&H beat badly to start the season is ranked in front of them in the preseason poll.

In case you were wondering the women are preseason picked to finish 5th,

1. Washington and Lee (11) 121 pts.
2. Randolph-Macon 109 pts.
3. Roanoke (1) 95 pts.
4. Bridgewater 93 pts.
5. Emory & Henry 87 pts.
6. Hollins 66 pts.
7. Virginia Wesleyan 51 pts.
8. Sweet Briar 48 pts.
9. Randolph 40 pts.
10. Ferrum 37 pts.
11. Greensboro 32 pts.
12. Guilford 13 pts.

Breeze

10-15-2018, 01:13 PM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Relays - RESULTS

On the way to the ODAC Relays, Brett was caught napping :) ...https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo38NV0BCN9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Because the ODAC Relays are a bunch of events that don't exist in a typical meet, the time tracking/recording software doesn't always understand what the event being contested is. Which makes it hard to decipher how well kids actually swam. However, from what I can determine, Brett did pretty well.

3x50 Back - his 50 split in this relay was a 31.51, which, when I compare it to his opening 50 in his personal best 100 back is 2 seconds faster.

3x50 Breast - he split a 33.71, which was also about a half a second faster than his opening split on his personal best 100 breast

4x50 Free - 26.85, which isn't that great, considering his best is a 26 low.

3x100 IM - swam a 1:08.01, which is actually a personal best swim...

8x25 Free - he also swam in this relay, but couldn't determine his split.

Interestingly, This is the final score for the meet:

1. Washington and Lee University 395
2. Roanoke College 295
3. Randolph-Macon College 266
4. Hampden-Sydney College 180
5. Randolph College 136
6. Bridgewater College 78
7. Emory & Henry College 52
8. Virginia Wesleyan University 45
9. Greensboro College 33
10. Ferrum College 18

If you compare this result to the preseason poll, you'll find that it matches up pretty well. In fact, the girls results also match up well with the preseason poll:

1. Washington and Lee University 472
2. Randolph-Macon College 324
3. Roanoke College 284
4. Bridgewater College 148
5. Emory & Henry College 82
6. Ferrum College 49
7. Hollins University 46
8. Virginia Wesleyan University 31
9. Sweet Briar College 28
10. Randolph College 24
11. Greensboro College 13
12. Guilford College 9

Breeze

10-17-2018, 09:18 AM

Gold Invite - RESULTS

This was a pretty ugly meet, but it wasn't terribly surprising. The team is really ramping up workouts so both the twins are fatigued and Bailey is still trying to roll into shape after taking the summer off.
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Bailey

# 1 (d1/s1): G Open 200 Medley (2:16.63Y) - back looked better, breast still needs to improve, ran out of gas in free - 2:24.95
# 3 (d1/s1): G Open 50 Free (27.25Y) - not a bad early swim here 28.60
# 7 (d1/s1): G Open 500 Free (5:26.82Y) - really struggled back half 5:49.38
# 41 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Free (2:03.01Y) - 1:01 to open wasn't going to lead to a personal best, but it wasn't bad, added a bunch back half - 2:09.79
# 45 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:03.88Y) - back looks better but times not there yet - 1:07.33
# 53 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:01.09Y) - 1:05.36 - about a second off of what she swims during high school meets, but form is much better, and hopefully improved to where it won't hurt her back moving forward.
# 83 (d3/s5): G Open 200 Fly (2:13.79Y) - 2:21.54 - opened 1:06, which is close to what she swam in the 100, so not surprising she died back half. Coach admitted he was concerned about this one and told her she exceeded his expectations...
# 87 (d3/s5): G Open 200 Back (2:15.42Y) - this one came directly after the 200 fly, and Bailey hadn't fully recovered yet, the coach told her to forget about it because she had no shot to do well in it under thos circumstances - 2:25.94
# 100 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Medley (1:06.03Y) - finished up with a disappointing 1:09.57, but her tank was empty at this point.

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Bear

# 2 (d1/s1): B Open 200 Medley (2:03.39Y) - fly spit was about a second off, but the back was over 2 seconds slower than what he was swimming last year at this meet and that was the where the big add occurred - 2:09.34
# 4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (23.83Y) - added a fraction - 24.05
# 6 (d1/s1): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59Y) - this one was ugly...I'm sure fatigue was involved, but comparing this swim to a good but not his personal best effort his fly was 2 seconds off, his back was 5.5 seconds slower, and his breast was 4 seconds slower. Interestingly, his free was faster...not sure what that might mean long term but it is something to keep an eye on - 4:32.34
# 42 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91Y) - added 5 seconds - 1:51.03
# 46 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Back (58.01Y) - posted a 1:01.86, which is actually better than I expected given how poor his back had looked in the IMs
# 54 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Fly (56.40Y) - kept this one around a 1 second add and he beat his buddy Alex, which is good because Alex was sort of trash talking...57.69
# 84 (d3/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01Y) - here you can see how the training is sapping Bear of his stamina...as he added just 1 second in the 100 fly and he adds almost 10 here - 2:06.92
# 96 (d3/s5): B Open 100 Free (51.04Y) - good swim as he only adds half a second - 51.68
# 101 (d3/s5): B Open 100 Medley (1:00.37Y) -- was able in the 100 IM to keep it close to his PB - 1:01.07

Breeze

10-18-2018, 07:09 AM

Emory & Henry - Brett Update

Brett's had a rough couple of weeks because his girlfriend back home has been giving him hell. We've all been there at some point so you can imagine what he's dealing with. Thankfully, the team has been very supportive, but even with all that it's really taken a toll on him. Yesterday, his roommate tried to get him up for morning practice, but he fell back asleep. He said the next thing he knew - the entire men's team was in his room waking him up for practice.

Breeze

11-01-2018, 08:13 AM

Breeze

11-01-2018, 10:06 AM

Levi's Legacy Meet @ Emory & Henry - 11/3

Emory & Henry returns to the pool with a meet against West Virginia Tech and Milligan College. The meet is call Levi's Legacy to honor the Hughes family who lost their son when he drowned during the summer. There is a nice article from the school outlining what happened and how the school is partnering with the family to raise awareness and to urge people to become water guardians...

https://www.gowasps.com/sports/mswimdive/2018-19/releases/20181025nghnfy

I'm not sure what Brett is swimming yet, I'm not even sure what events are being contested...but I will provide details once I have them. Also the wife and I are planning to attend this meet, so I can hopefully provide some insight on how he's doing.

Breeze

11-02-2018, 06:40 AM

High School Swimming - Kickoff Invitational @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 11/3

The high school season opens this weekend. This will be a pretty big meet consisting of several county teams. I'm not sure which ones will be present this year and I'm also not sure which events the kids will be swimming. If I hear before the meet, I'll update this, if not, I'll post their results after the fact.

So looks like we screwed up...the twins won't be swimming in this one because we didn't declare them as available. Last year, a reminder email would go out prior to setting the lineup that would state who was scheduled to swim to allow anyone who needed to declare one last chance to do so, which we would have taken advantage of this time around. However, the new coach didn't do that, still our fault, just a shame that the process changed. The twins aren't that concerned about it, but it is a bit surprising - for one the coach is my daughter's anatomy and physiology teacher, and she sees her everyday and she never mentioned anything, and the twins are 2 of her dwindling year round swimmers, and I would have expected her to push to have the available. Anyway, there is an outside shot she might work them into a couple relays...we'll see.

Breeze

11-02-2018, 08:37 AM

Breeze

11-05-2018, 10:04 AM

Levi's Legacy Meet @ Emory & Henry - RESULTS

The Emory & Henry College Men's & Women's Swimming Teams stepped out of Old Dominion Athletic Conference action Saturday afternoon as they hosted Milligan College and the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in a double dual meet. Both MC and WVUT are scholarship programs and members of NAIA.

Women

E&H - 68
WV Tech - 64

E&H - 54
Milligan - 129

How it Happened
- Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) gave the Wasps their first win of the day in the 200-meter freestyle with a 2:28.49. She also swam a 1:14.14 in the 100-meter butterfly to take second.
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) went :28.19 in the 50-meter freestyle. Anson picked up her second win of the day in the 100-free at 1:02.15, winning by more than eight seconds.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) was the runner-up in the 100-meter breaststroke, clocking a 1:23.51.
- The Wasps took the top time in the 200-meter freestyle relay (2:03.77) on the efforts of Sweigart, Tunstall, Anson and junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.).

Men

E&H - 43
WV Tech - 147

E&H - 46
Milligan - 143

How it Happened
- E&H broke three school records on the day beginning with the 800-meter freestyle. Freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.) clocked an 11:42.01 to set the new program-best mark.
- Freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.) posted a 5:01.61 in the 400-meter freestyle for a new Emory & Henry record.
- The Wasps finished the day with a new best in the 200-meter freestyle relay. An all-freshman relay of Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.), Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.), Ethan Wine (Watauga, Tenn.) and Braxton Justice (Spanisburg, W.Va.) went 1:54.14 to trim .68 seconds off the previous record.

Overview

Brett's 800 Freestyle swim was very conservative. so much so that his opening 50 in this race wasn't as fast as his 50 breast split in the 200 medley relay. So his 11:42.01 is a record but he'll have to do much better if he's hoping to hold that record at the end of the season. After the meet he admitted he was concerned about this race, especially after cramping in the 400 free against Ferrum. He said he had a lot left and probably should have swum a minute or so faster, which would have been a nice swim.

His 200 IM was sort of a personal best...he's never done this event short course meters, but his 2:44.96 is better than his 200 IM long course meters, which is a nice result given he had just finished the 800 free half an hour earlier and he wasn't really given a chance to warm down. He swam the opening fly leg in 34.97 in meters, so that's a huge improvement, in fact, he was only 1.5 or so seconds off of teammate Blake's fly. His back was the weak point in the race and he'll need to go harder and improve that stroke to really see some time drops. But as he rounds into shape that should improve.

His breast leg in the 200 medley relay was a 36.65...again a solid swim for Brett at this stage. And compared to Ethan, the other breaststroker, he was about .15 of a second off Ethan's split from the Ferrum meet. Ethan is more of a sprinter and Brett's stroke is really more of one you'd typically see in the 200, but this will be worth keeping an eye on through the season to see how things might shake out at ODAC championships.

Breeze

11-06-2018, 08:04 AM

High School Swimming - Kickoff Invitational - RESULTS

So amazingly the kids did end up swimming this event. They both stayed for the meet following their Saturday morning practice and as it turns out the coach did work them into the meet.

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Bailey

200 Medley Relay - B team - Bailey swam the back leg and posted a respectable 31.2. The team finished 7th and were the second B team to finish.

200 Freestyle - 2:08.99 - which is in the same general area where she typically swims this in a high school meet, only this time she won the event. She was about 2 seconds off the high school state cut for this race.

100 Freestyle - unfortunately, the system didn't register Bailey's time in this event under her name. Part of the mix up from the coach working them in I'm sure. However, from studying the results it appears that Bailey swam a 1:00.24, Good enough for 5th in the event.

200 Free Relay - B team - Bailey led off the relay with a 28.85 split. Again the relay as a team finished 7th, but this time they were the 3rd B team in the standings.

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Bear

200 Medley Relay - A team - Bear handled the freestyle leg and swam a 23.22. The team finished second.

200 Freestyle - Bear, like Bailey, swam a time pretty typical of what he posts in high school meets. This time clocking a 1:53.80. He finished second overall, only losing to Gold teammate and buddy Tommy.

100 Freestyle - Bear posted a 51.77 - a very good swim after practice, a relay, and a 200 free. His real personal best is a 51.04, to provide some perspective. While Bear isn't a sprint free guy, this swim was good enough for 3rd. The good news is that he got to swim a 100 free, so now the coach knows what his time is and he should solidly be on the A relays moving forward.

400 Free Relay - A team - Bear swam the anchor, only he did it under another swimmer's name. He posted a 52.72 split. Hopefully, the coach realizes this and doesn't put the swimmer credited with this time in the A Relay moving forward, because that would be a huge mistake.

Breeze

11-07-2018, 10:36 AM

Emory & Henry at Bridgewater - 11/9

Emory & Henry at Greensboro - 11/10

E&H has back to back travel meets this weekend. They will head 3 hours up the road to Bridgewater, then travel 7 hours down to Greensboro for a meet the next day. I don't know what events Brett will be swimming yet, but I'll update this once I know.

Breeze

11-08-2018, 07:54 AM

Tupelo Invite @ Tupelo Aquatic Center - 11/10-11

This season's travel meet is upon us. The kids are heading out to Mississippi. This will be the first time we've competed at the Tupelo Aquatic Center. As always, when it comes to travel meets I never know what to expect...

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Bailey - fingers crossed that we get some improvements this weekend, and if we don't get improvements hoping to at least be close to these personal best numbers so on a full taper odds of improvement are good.

# 10 (d1/s1): G 15 & Over 100 Back (1:03.88)
# 22 (d1/s1): G 15 & Over 100 Fly (1:01.09)
# 24 (d1/s1): G 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:50.18)
# 63 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 200 Fly (2:13.79)
# 87 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 200 Back (2:15.42)
# 103 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 500 Free (5:26.82)

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Bear - times from the high school meet last week indicate he's in a decent spot right now, but he feels he still has a ways to go before he's truly in shape.

# 7 (d1/s1): B 15 & Over 200 Medley (2:03.39)
# 23 (d1/s1): B 15 & Over 100 Fly (56.40)
# 25 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:11.59)
# 64 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Fly (1:57.01)
# 72 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Free (1:45.91)
# 96 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 50 Free (23.83)
# 104 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 500 Free (4:41.77)

Breeze

11-09-2018, 07:46 AM

It believe Brett will be swimming the following:

Emory & Henry at Bridgewater - 11/9

800 Free - Coach still looking for him to step it up in the distance frees
100 Breast - no idea how well Bridgewater swims this event because they don't have any times listed so far this season. Last year they had 1 swimmer that was a 1:05 and 3 that were close to Brett's best of 1:11.54. However, the swimmer who was a 1:05 had a horrible 200 breast earlier in the season. This could be an interesting race
200 Breast - the swimmer mentioned above went a 2:51 converted time (SCM to SCY). Brett's best 200 yard time is 2:32...he's excited to get to race this for the first time in about 4 years.

Emory & Henry at Greensboro - 11/10

500 Free - again getting Brett to embrace the distance/mid-distance frees
100 Breast - - Greensboro only has 3 men on the team, but they all appear to be breaststrokers. The top guy is a solid 1:04. The second is a 1:11 - could be a good race for second (assuming the top guy swims breast in the meet)
50 Free - I think this is the coach getting a time on Brett in the 50 free so he has an idea what to expect for relay purposes later down the line. This could be a big swim in the grand scheme of things if Brett really wants to be on the relays at ODACs

Breeze

11-09-2018, 01:17 PM

Division 3 Swim & Dive Preview - ODAC Conference

The D3 swim and dive blog just posted their preview of the ODAC conference, and it's well done. Someone really took their time to look into the recruits and returning swimmers. Figured I'd post it for posterity:

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PREVIEW: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

D3SwimDive Conference Preview November 9, 2018 9 Minutes
It should be an interesting season once again in the ODAC, though the great interest won’t be at the top of the ranks where we expect Washington & Lee to roll to both titles once again. The race for second, however, between Randolph-Macon and up-and-coming Roanoke, should be very interesting on both sides, and the order of the teams in the bottom half of both races could come down to who has the better relay finishes.

Here are our projected standings with previews:

ODAC WOMEN:

1. Washington & Lee – The Generals dominated the ODAC in 2017-18, and that’s not going to change in the slightest in 2018-19. Eleven of the top 12 individual scorers at the ODAC Championships were from WLU, and all 18 Generals scored 37 points or more at the league meet. Only two of those 18 scorers graduated in Cassidy Fuller (47 pts., 2 relays, 3 HMAA relays) and Mara Tynan (40). Returning among the Generals’ abundance of riches is 2018 ODAC Swimmer of the Meet Emily Hageboeck (60, 2r, 2IM/1BR/2BR champ), a First Team All-American in the 200 Breast (7th) and Honorable Mention in the 100 Breast and 200 Medley Relay. Ali MacQueen (54, 4r, 1FL champ) was the lone other WLU swimmer to garner individual All-America honors with an HM honor in the 100 Fly (also earned HMAA on three relays), while Elle Chancey (60, 4r, 50/100/200 champ, 4 HMAA), Kelly Amar (54, 1r, 2FL champ, 2 HMAA), Ashley Johnston (49, 2r, 1 HMAA), Caroline Florence (41, 1r, 1HMAA), and Tori Hester (37, 1r, 1 HMAA) all also earned HM All-America honors on General relays. Along with All those All-Americans, WLU also returns Taylor Ecleberry (52, 1r, 4IM champ) and ODAC Rookie of the Meet Mattie Grant (51, 500/1650 champ) and gets 2017 ODAC 2FL champ Laura Bruce back after missing 17-18. All seven newcomers could score 40+ points right away but will be fighting each other and teammates for scoring roster spots. Caroline Baber (23.94/52.59/1:53.47, 1:00.87/2:12.8 BA, 1:04.3/2:21.4 BR, 57.69 FL, 2:04.6/4:25.8 IM) is the best of the crop on paper and could win multiple conference titles, while Claudia Barnett (24.24/52.19/1:58/5:38, 1:08/2:27.9 BR, 1:00.4 FL, 2:12.6/4:53 IM), Turner Bobbitt (24.8/53.1/1:56.7/5:18.2, 57.67/2:07.1 BA, 57.99/2:14.9 FL, 2:10.9/4:41.5 IM), Elle Boyd (25.17/52.67/1:57.2, 58.29 BA, 59.67 FL), Erika Ehret (25.84/54.42/1:59.1/5:24.9, 1:09.9/2:31.4 BR, 1:00.2/2:10.5 FL, 2:12.5/4:39 IM), and Anna Jamieson (24.62/53.68/1:59.57, 58.1/2:05.8 BA, 1:00 FL, 2:11.7 IM) all add unmatched depth.

2. Randolph-Macon – The distance behind Washington & Lee is vast. We’re keeping Randolph-Macon in the #2-slot once again this year but expect the Yellow Jackets to be challenged by the team immediately below them on this list. RMC does return 10 of its top 11 scorers from the 2018 ODACs. Natalia Perdomo (45, 2r) leads the way after a great freshman season while senior Kata Kyllainen (42, 4r), Kacey Pool (42, 3r), Haylie Moore (35, 1r), and Laney Sanchez (35) are also among the team’s top returners. The Yellow Jackets’ recruiting class is deep but doesn’t have any top-end talent on paper. Look for Becca Lazerson (26.19/57.27/2:04.38, 1:08.8/2:33.6 BR, 1:07.19 FL, 2:17.1 IM), Emma Kate Russell (26.16/57.8, 1:08.34 BA, 1:01.5/2:26 FL), and Jordan Shearer (26.49/57.19/2:04.4, 1:05.2/2:26.6 BA, 1:00.9 FL, 2:17 IM) to make the most immediate impacts.

3. Roanoke – Coach Scott Thacker has this second-year program continuing in the right direction, as the Maroons have the league’s deepest crop of freshman coming alongside a strong group of returners – something that the Maroons couldn’t say a year ago during their inaugural season. ODAC 100 Back champ Reilly Bird (50, 4r) leads the way after an outstanding freshman season while Francisca Cifuentes (26, 4r), Hannah Sells (25, 3r), Sarah Virginia Scott (24, 3r), and Margaret Riggan (9, 1r) all return after gaining invaluable experience a year ago. Maria Vinson (55.9/1:57/5:09.2/17:45, 1;04/2:11.8 BA, 1:02/2:13.8 FL, 2:10.5/4:34.5 IM) is the cream of a 13-woman crop of freshmen, while Izzy Mack (58.48/2:02.2/5:16/18:11, 1:03.5/2:14.8 BA, 2:17.8/4:49 IM) and Hannah Petty (25.08/53.9/1:56.3/5:11.6, 1:01.4/2:14 BA, 1:12/2:36 BR, 59.66 FL, 2:13.5/4:44 IM) give RC a top-tier trio of newcomers. Hadley Baker (27.4/58.5/2:06.1, 1:02.8/2:13.8 BA), Grace Fountain (26.35/56.25/2:00.4/5:23, 1:05.9/2:17.4 BA), and Caylyn McNaul (26.17/57.04/2:08.3, 1:09.9/2:31.8 BR) are a great second-tier among the freshman class, while several others are already capable of scoring, as well. The difference between RMC and RC could be close enough to come down to which team scores more points in relays.

4. Bridgewater – The dropoff from the top three to Bridgewater in fourth might be close to as big as the margin from first to second, but the Eagles should find themselves as the team solidly in fourth place. They return their top four scorers in Kelley Hilliker (43, 4r), Emma Daw (39, 4r), Rachael King (31, 2r), and Genevieve Young. Among their seven newcomers, Zoe Moore (25.85/56.80/2:02.3/5:15.5/18:19, 1:07.98/2:25 BR, 2:16.8/4:49 IM) is top flight, and Jessica Touve (57.65/2:06.1, 1:10.3 BA, 2:45.8 BR, 1:04.3/2:24.7 FL, 5:04.5 IM) should be able to score significant points, too.

5. Emory & Henry – Emory & Henry lost more than any team in the ODAC but still should have just enough to hold onto fifth. Four of the Wasps top five scorers graduated in Bri Chessock (43, 4r), Holly Roth (35, 2r), Mackenzie Lingle (30, 4r), and Kelsey Jones (22, 2r). Olivia Anson (42, 4r) and Savannah Scarbrough (20, 1r) are the team’s only returning scorers as their other two returners didn’t compete at ODACs a year ago. All three recruits should be able to contribute, with Anne-Louise Tunstall (26.91/56.7/2:04/5:29, 1:12.1/2:34 BR, 1:03.4 FL, 2:17.8 IM) the best of the three.

6. Hollins – Hollins remains in sixth in our rankings primarily based on the returns of Hanna DeVarona (22, 4r), who is coming off a strong freshman season, and senior Maya Schattgen (17, 4r). Having Emily Miehlke (3, 4r) and Molly Sullivan (2) back also give the Green and Gold bigger relay potential than many of the teams below them, in spite of the fact that their three newcomers are unproven thus far.

7. Sweet Briar – The Vixens return three of their top four scorers, including Sarah Ahson (18, 4r) – the top of just three double-digit returners in the bottom half of our rankings. Theresa Carriveau, Lauren Graham, and Dharma Kear also return for Sweet Briar, and all four of those ladies will look to build off experience gained as freshmen. None of the team’s six recruits are proven, but Bailey Jones (27.55 50) should make the biggest impact on relays.

8. Virginia Wesleyan – VWU didn’t score a single individual point a year ago, but they do return 16 of their 20 relay swims. Four of their five relays finished ninth a year ago, so the Marlins will be the biggest benefactor of Greensboro’s inability to compose relays (see more below). Sarah Conley (25.92/58.66) is a big addition for VWU, as she has individual scoring ability and will also improve the team’s relays.

9. Randolph – Randolph also didn’t score a single individual point at the 2018 ODAC meet and returns only two swimmers in Golden Dennison (4r) and Leah Dorman. Brice Creel (25.51/56.25/2:03.3, 1:05.2 FL, 2:20.5/5:34 IM) will be a huge boost for the Wildcats, but they will need some of their other freshmen to develop to have a chance of rising higher and to assure that they hold off the teams below.

10. Ferrum – Ferrum has just two returners in Katie Shoaf (11, 4r) and Courtney Moyer (1, 4r), so the Panthers will be heavily reliant upon freshmen this season. Hunter Tharpe (1:09.5 FL) is the best of the five newcomers on paper, but the ability of the rest of those newcomers to develop will tell the story for Ferrum.

11. Guilford – Carolyn O’Halloran (13, 2r) is back, and Courtney Packer (0, 1r) also returns, but the real reason that we have the Quakers above Greensboro is roster size. With six newcomers, they have the ability to compose relays, and any relays score more points than no relays. The team’s six newcomers are raw at this point.

12. Greensboro – As we write this, Greensboro has just three swimmers on their roster, which, as you know, means no relays. Lauren Spencer (18 pts., 4r) is back after a solid freshman season, but neither other returner scored and Spencer can’t possibly outscore even four relays. If the Pride could perhaps pickup a mid-season addition from among their student body, they could move up one or even two spots.

ODAC MEN:

1. Washington & Lee – Unlike in the women’s race, the Washington & Lee men should face a little more pressure than they did in their nearly 400-point victory at last year’s ODAC Championships, but their margin should still be fairly comfortable – somewhere in the 150-200 point range. At the top, they lose two-time ODAC Swimmer of the Meet and 15-time All-American Tommy Thetford (57, 3r), who as a First Team AA in the 50 and HMAA in the 100 and three relays in 2018. Relay HM All-Americans Corey Connelly (48, 4r) and Evan Kramer (41, 2r) are also gone, as are Ethan Fischer (49, 2r, 1BR/2BR champ), Thomas Caldwell (48, 1r), Noah Schammel (45, 2r, 1FL champ), and Wade Patterson (43). That said, the Generals do return a pair of individual conference champs in Jared Nickodem (55, 200/400 IM champ) and 2018 ODAC Rookie of the Meet Patrick Sullivan (54, 3r, 200 champ), an individual HMAA in the 200 free and 3x HMAA on General relays. Danny Lynch (50, 1r) and Fritz Rawls (48) will also look to build off tremendous freshman seasons, and Ben Brown (48), Brian Legarth (45, 1r), Patrick Lawrence (44), Sam Childress (42), and Jonathan Tucker (34) all earned top-three finishes at the league meet a year ago. The Generals have several swimmers among their returners who didn’t make last year’s conference roster who are capable of filling some of their losses, which is key with a smaller freshman class this year. Jack Donahue (49.27/1:45.68, 1:00.6/2:11.3 BR, 52.86/1:55.76 FL, 1:56.8/4:08.2 IM), Jackson Mathis (21.52/48.07, 53.77 FL), and Steve Warren (50.59 100, 56.73/2:03.77 BR, 2:05.61 IM) are the most ready of the five newcomers to make major impacts.

2. Randolph-Macon – Also much like in the women’s race, we currently have Randolph-Macon second but wouldn’t be surprised to see Roanoke behind them give them a serious challenge for second. While they lost three key scorers in Ivan Fadeyev (51), Ealon Mann (41, 4r), and Alex Daube (30, 3r), the Yellow Jackets do return a pair of ODAC champs in Victor Kontopanos (54, 4r, 2FL champ) and Jordan Witherow (54, 2r, 500/1650 champ). RMC also has a very strong recruiting class, highlighted by potential conference champs Wyatt Boyer (22.43/47.52/1:42.1/4:38/16:27, 59.79/2:08 BR, 1:55.2/4:05.9 IM) and Joe Stephens (22.39/49.5/1:50.7/5:08.9, 52.36/1:55.3 BA, 1:04 BR, 2:01.8/4:30.9 IM). Justin Gregory (1:51.4/5:00.6/17:26, 57.5/2:05 BA, 2:07 FL, 2:08.6/4:31 IM), Shane Morison (22.48/48.74/1:46.3/4:58.8/17:47, 1:01.4/2:14 BR, 53.69 FL, 2:00.5/4:24 IM), and Matthew Parisi (1:51.3/5:04/17:15, 2:01.6 BA, 1:06.4 BR, 2:04.7/4:18.8 IM) all should be able to score major points, too.

3. Roanoke – The Roanoke men also continue their rapid ascension up the ODAC ranks in their second year as a program, and the Maroons strength is more in their depth than their top-end talent. Top-three scorers Nick McGrath (33, 4r), Jacob David (31, 2r), and Ethan Gordon (31, 4r) all return, and all 12 freshmen are capable of scoring, with as many as nine having the potential to score 30+ points. Connor Kinkema (49.55/1:49.6/5:00.6, 58.6/2:15.5 BA, 59.7/2:06.3 BR, 2:00.3/4:23 IM), Sutton Schonfelder (1:01/2:13 BR, 53.8/1:57.6 FL, 2:00.4/4:23.4 IM), Ben Tate (48.6/1:46.2/4:48, 56.7/2:09.4 BA, 53.1/1:56.4 FL, 2:00.2/4:16.6 IM), and Jack Vaughn (1:51.2/4:56.5, 1:00.8/2:14.3 BR, 55.7/2:02.7 FL, 2:02.3/4:22.9 IM) have the slight edge on paper of such an incredibly deep crew while Parker Devillier (21.83/47.77) may have the biggest relay-impact potential.

4. Hampden-Sydney – Hampden-Sydney’s slip to fourth says more about Roanoke than it does about HSC, as the Tigers might actually be a stronger program than they were a year ago. They return their top five of their top six scorers in Hudson Elmore (36, 2r), Zach Stephan (34, 4r), Jack Dickerson (29, 2r), AJ Howard (27, 4r), and Anthony Vinson (23, 2r). Woody Parsons (22.56/48.79/1:43.85/4:42.9/16:58, 52.11/1:55.5 FL, 2:01.3/4:30 IM) is a huge pickup, and Jason Covaney (49.57/1:52.3, 59.45 BA, 55.43 FL, 2:08.4 IM) should help immediately, too.

5. Randolph – Randolph should improve enough this year to create a significant gap between the two halves of the ODAC this year, and they are trending in the right direction, as all four returning scorers were just freshmen a year ago. Oscar Onoszko (27, 4r), Jeffrey Oliveri (22, 4r), Daniel Bennett-Blake (16, 2r), an Andrew Scales (16, 4r) are all back, and their two best swimmers might be a pair of freshmen in Chris Verastek (21.74/46.93/1:47, 53.8/2:01.3 BA, 56.24/2:06 BR, 52.62 FL, 1:53.46/4:15 IM) and Mike Christou (21.65/48.79, 53.16/2:15.7 BA, 1:00.8 BR, 53.44 FL). The addition of those two should also allow the Wildcats to compose a strong fifth relay, something they couldn’t do last year, which will only increase that gap between them and the teams below.

6. Emory & Henry – E&H loses its lone point scorer from last year’s ODACs in Wilson Naff (40), but they do bring in seven freshmen, all of whom are at least on the fringe of being able to score points, which should give the Wasps a leg up on the teams below them in terms of relays – and relays are really where the difference exists between these bottom five teams. Blake Madaris (1:55.3/5:09, 58.7/2:03.68 BA, 2:12.6 FL, 2:13 IM) is the clear best of the crop, while Braxton Justice (22.53/53.68) and Mack Henningsen (52.68/1:53.45/5:16.27) should impact relays.

7. Bridgewater – Bridgewater returns a pair of scorers in Tito Alcazar (15, 4r) and Jarratt Davis (4, 4r), and the addition of Austin Bacon (1:53/5:05 FR, 1:00.5/2:10.7 BA, 2:30 BR, 56.1/2:04.5 FL, 2:05/4:35.8 IM) and Kevin Whalen (22.33/50.12, 1:02.44 BA, 57.55 FL) give the Eagles a strong core.

8. Ferrum – Taylor Darnell (32, 4r) is the big difference that keeps Ferrum above VWU on this list, while the return of Jacob Blaukovitch (9, 4r) also helps. The addition of one freshman means that Ferrum can compose five relays if it chooses.

9. Virginia Wesleyan – VWU returns just four individual points from a year ago from Patrick McKneely (2, 2r), Matthew Bavuso (1, 2r), and Kyle Woolf (1, 4r). Tyler Strong (57.05 BA, 2:11.4 IM) is the biggest addition among the five freshmen, but, if others can drop some time, they could challenge the teams ahead of them.

10. Greensboro – The Greensboro men are in the same unfortunate place that their women are in that they only have three swimmers on their roster, meaning they can’t copose relays at this point. Anis Yahi (37, 4r) and Matt Rogers (16, 4r) are two of the top returners on the bottom half of these rankings, and freshman Ethan Wilson (1:02.30 BA) is a fringe scorer, but without a fourth swimmer, they have no hope of climbing out of this spot. That said, if they could find a fourth, these other three are decent enough to jump them several spots on this list.

Projected Award Winners:

Women’s Swimmer of the Year: Emily Hageboeck, Washington & Lee
Women’s Newcomer of the Year: Caroline Baber, Washington & Lee
Men’s Swimmer of the Year: Patrick Sullivan, Washington & Lee
Men’s Newcomer of the Year: Wyatt Boyer, Randolph-Macon

JonInMiddleGA

11-10-2018, 01:08 AM

... went a 2:51 converted time (SCM to SCY).

In English for us noobs if ya get a chance :)

Breeze

11-10-2018, 05:18 AM

In English for us noobs if ya get a chance :)

Right, sorry - Short Course Meters to Short Course Yards.

There are 3 types of pools for swimming - Long Course (LCM) which is the Olympic Pool measuring 50 meters for 1 lap. There is the typical Short Course Yards (SCY) which is 25 yards per lap, and there are a few Short Course Meters (SCM) pools around that are 25 meters per lap (this is the pool that Frogman's kids swim in up in Canada). Interestingly, there a few SCM pools in the ODAC, probably because they were built during the period of time when the US was going to convert to the metric system in the 70s.

Breeze

11-10-2018, 05:34 AM

Emory & Henry at Bridgewater - RESULTS

Women

Bridgewater 151
Emory & Henry 92

Notes
- Emory & Henry won five events paced by Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) with three individual wins. The junior got her first victory with a 2:16.50 in the 200-freestyle.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) won the 100-meter breaststroke by 3.7 seconds as she clocked a 1:20.46.
- Anson went back-to-back to win the 50-freestyle (:28.25) and the 100-freestyle (1:01.92), inching ever closer to breaking E&H records in both distances.
- Junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) posted a trio of second place finishes in the 200-meter butterfly, the 200-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter individual medley.
- E&H got its final win of the evening in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.), Sweigart, junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) and Anson swam a 2:00.51 for the win.

Men

Bridewater - 121
Emory & Henry = 114

Notes
- E&H broke three school records and established three more. It was the first time in program history that the Wasps have swam the 200-meter lengths of the "strokes."
- Emory & Henry won seven of the 14 events in the closest meet margin in program history beginning with a record-breaking swim in the 200-meter medley relay. Freshmen Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.), Ethan Wine (Watauga, Tenn.), Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) and Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) went 2:02.22 to win the race.
- Freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.) won the 800-meter freestyle in 11:49.00 while Henningsen picked up a victory in the 200-free (2:16.68).
- Wine posted a 1:20.08 in the 100-meter breaststroke for a victory while Henningsen set the record in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:36.05.
- Madaris went 2:32.75 in the 200-back while Breeze stopped the watches in 2:55.48 in the 200-breast for new records and wins. Madaris made it three wins on the day as he touched the wall first in the 400-meter freestyle (5:03.13).
- The Wasps set two records while swimming the 200-meter freestyle relay. Gardner broke the school record in the 50-meter freestyle with a :26.07 on the leadoff leg as he joined up with Wine, and freshmen Nick Moore (Lebanon, Va.) and Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) to go 1:50.41.

Overview

Brett ended up swimming:

800 Free - he was slower this time than last week, which is disappointing, but in his defense he won the event by a minute, so he really didn't need to go any faster.

100 Back - with only about 10 minutes rest from the distance free Brett swam this event. Not sure why he was in the back, maybe the coach wants him to improve this stroke, because if he does his IMs will become pretty good...but this wasn't a good swim. He finished 4th and posted a time of 1:23.13

100 Breast - immediately followed the 100 back - so again no rest...this might have also been why he seemed to cruise in the back, he was saving his energy for this race. He was leading this one at the halfway point, but the top 3 swimmers were all within 1 second of each other. On the back half he posted a solid time but it was obvious that he was fading a bit. He dropped back and finished 3rd, posting a respectable time of 1:21.43

200 Breast - this was a no doubter...Brett won every split in the race and walked away with an easy 7 second win. 2:55.48

Overall this was a very tight meet for both sides. In fact, the difference was basically the depth of Bridgewater. They took a lot of 3rd, 4th and 5th place points because they could throw more swimmers into each event.

Breeze

11-13-2018, 01:11 PM

Emory & Henry at Greensboro - RESULTS

Men

Emory & Henry - 84
Greensboro - 43

Notes
- E&H broke a pair of school records on the day beginning with the 200-yard freestyle. Freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) went 1:58.43 for a new E&H-best mark.
- The Wasps went 1-2-3 in the 50-yard freestyle with freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) winning in :23.95 while freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.) clocked a 1:05.17 in the 100-yard butterfly for another 1-2-3 finish.
- Emory & Henry got to the top two spots in the 500-yard freestyle with freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) winning in 5:46.06. Justice also set a new school record in the 100-yard breaststroke, going 1:11.18, finishing second in the race.

Women

Emory & Henry - 91
Greensboro - 27

Notes
- Emory & Henry took first in five of the seven events as junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) posted a trio of victories. She got thing started with a 2:12.01 in the 200-yard freestyle and also added wins in the 50-free (:26.02) and the 100-butterfly (1:02.53).
- The Wasps went 1-2-3 in the 200-free and 50-free.
- Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) led another 1-2-3 finish for the Wasps with her win in the 100-yard freestyle. Tunstall went :58.94 to win by 5.1 seconds.
- In the 100-yardd breaststroke, E&H got another 1-2-3 sweep with junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) taking first in 1:15.45, just .05 ahead of freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.).

Overview

Brett swam rather poorly in this one. He is working on a new more efficient stroke with a long reach and an extended glide. Which is great in theory, especially if he's going to be doing distance. However, in practice it isn't working for him. His stroke is sloppy, the streamline really requires a much stronger pull and powerful kick, which he doesn't have. The coach said he's going to work with Brett on his stroke as it is too wide and it collapses on the pull which removes the leverage needed for power. It's too bad he isn't swimming as well as he was when he was year round. Those times would put him right in the middle of things for his team and it would give him an outside shot to score at conference championships. Hopefully, he can get his issues ironed out before the end of the season.

200 IM - 2:31.93 - again the fly looked good. Here he might have been able to push himself to a better time, but the only other guy in the heat was a really strong swimmer in conference posting a 2:06 time. So he was behind early and swam without much of a challenge

50 Free - 28.66 - immediately following the 200 IM he swam this one. Not a great swim when he was posting 26 lows in high school last year, but only 2 minutes after the 200 IM, I'm not sure how much fatigue factored into the result

500 Free - 6:30.44 - this is where the new stroke really takes a toll. This is a terrible swim, and way off his personal best time...I really want to see him get this fixed.

Breeze

11-14-2018, 08:36 AM

Tupelo Invite - RESULTS

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Bailey

# 10 (d1/s1): G 15 & Over 100 Back (1:03.88) - Almost opened the meet with a personal best...missed by an eye blink 1:03.97
# 22 (d1/s1): G 15 & Over 100 Fly (1:01.09) - After the 100 back was hoping this would be close. She posted a 1:02.40, which wasn't as close as I was hoping, but given she's usually around a 1:04 high or 1:05, this was a nice improvement.
# 24 (d1/s1): G 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:50.18) - Again, really close to her best time - 4:52.85
# 63 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 200 Fly (2:13.79) - 2:15.82 is a nice time..only 2 seconds off her personal best. As a point of reference, in October in this event she swam a 2:21...
# 87 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 200 Back (2:15.42) - Not as good as the previous swims with a time of 2:18.33, but still very respectable.
# 103 (d1/s3): G 13 & Over 500 Free (5:26.82) - This was the one swim that really was pretty mediocre. She only managed a 5:37.80, which is a pretty big add. However, at the end of the travel meet, after sitting around at the facility for almost 7 hours waiting to race this event it isn't all the surprising.

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Bear

# 7 (d1/s1): B 15 & Over 200 Medley (2:03.39) - all around a pretty rough swim...all splits were off but the back and breast were way off - 2:09.77
# 23 (d1/s1): B 15 & Over 100 Fly (56.40) - not a bad swim here 57.48, only a second off his best
# 25 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:11.59) - with the bad 200, there was no shot this would end well - 4:32.40
# 64 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Fly (1:57.01) - was hoping this one would be close after the nice 100, but it was a pretty big add for Bear - 2:03.61
# 72 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Free (1:45.91) - Another pretty big add at 1:49.81. At this point I was concerned. Bear wasn't tapered so I didn't expect personal bests, but these times were way off of his best, which is unusual. He typically stays within range and it's easy to see where with rest he'll be able to post best times. These times are so far off, I'm concerned he's within striking distance.
# 96 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 50 Free (23.83) - 24.86 - is another poor swim - he's going 23 second splits after practice when racing for the high school team.
# 104 (d1/s3): B 13 & Over 500 Free (4:41.77) - a terrible swim of 5:00.40 - the coach admitted following this swim that he thinks Bear is worn out. The coach says he is going to start to look for ways to allow Bear to recover more, hopefully he does, because I think the wear and tear is breaking him down again.

Breeze

11-15-2018, 08:31 AM

Roanoke vs. Emory & Henry - 11/17

Let me start by saying this meet is going to be a laugher. Roanoke is one of the top teams in conference with multiple good swimmers in every stroke. Plus with 19 people on the men's team and an equal number on the women's team, they have a significant depth advantage. E&H will get crushed across the board. I'm not sure yet what events will be contested or what Brett will compete in, but I'll update this thread when I know more.

Breeze

11-19-2018, 07:53 AM

Roanoke vs. Emory & Henry - RESULTS

Men

Emory & Henry - 45
Roanoke - 213

Notes
- Freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) led the Wasps with a second-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle (4:55.18) and a third-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle (2:11.41).
- Freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.) took third in the 800-meter freestyle with a 10:15.13.
- Freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.) was third in the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:19.58 while freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) was third in the 50-meter butterfly (:29.78).

Women

Emory & Henry - 65
Roanoke - 185

Emory & Henry - 107
Hollins - 106*

Notes
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) went 2:15.16 in the 200-meter freestyle to pick up her fist win and clocked times of :28.12 and 1:03.82 in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle for victories.
- Junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) posted a runner-up finish in the 100-meter individual medley (1:15.35).
- Freshmen Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) and Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) had third place finishes in the 50-meter backstroke and 100-meter butterfly. Sweigart went :37.95 in the back while Tunstall stopped the watches in 1:13.02 in the fly.

Overview

This was probably Brett's best meet of the season so far.

50 Meter Breast - Brett posted a 36.10, which is faster than the splits he swam earlier in the year when he got rolling starts in relays. So a very nice result. Not really sure why they competed in this event as it isn't present at a championship meet. It could be because the longer the event the wider the spread at the finish given the disparity in talent between the two teams.

100 Meter Breast - Brett dualed one of the Roanoke swimmers for second. He had the lead at the turn but was passed in the back 50. He did post a season best/personal best time in the 100 meter with a 1:19.58, and converted this time is within a tenth of a second of an outright personal best swim.

100 Meter IM - In an amazing outcome, Brett managed to tie teammate Blake at a time of 1:14.55. He was about 1.5 seconds back at the mid point, which isn't a surprise with fly and back as the opening legs. Brett obviously out swam Blake by the same amount on Breast/Free, but honestly, I have to believe Brett actually made up the 1.5 seconds and more in the Breast and then wasn't able to hold off Blake in the Free...because Blake's free is slightly faster than Brett's. But I don't honestly know exactly how that one went down. It would have been a fun one to watch, I wish I had seen it. If I convert this time, it comes out to be around 1:07 and change, which would be a personal best for Brett...

* Hollins only has a women's team

Breeze

11-19-2018, 08:00 AM

South Forsyth vs Cambridge @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 11/19

Today is going to be long day at the pool for the twins. They got up early this morning for practice at 5:45. That practice will end with just enough time for them to go eat before they will need to be back at the pool for this meet. Immediately following the completion of the meet, they will get back in the pool for their afternoon practice. The kids were currently scheduled to compete in:

Bailey

200 IM
100 Fly

Bear

200 IM
500 Free

but the coach emailed and stated some changes to the line ups were coming so ultimately, I don't know what they will be in yet...

Breeze

11-20-2018, 08:34 AM

South Forsyth vs Cambridge - RESULTS

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Bailey

200 Medley Relay - A Team - Bailey swam the fly leg in 29.22, which she wasn't happy with, but the team still won the event.

200 IM - Fly was a mediocre 30.06, back was ok at 35.31, the breast was poor 44.81, and the free was also poor at 34.48. In total she added a bunch even to her best high school time - 2:24.36

100 Fly - again she wasn't pleased, but this one wasn't too bad. She posted a 1:04.23, which is better than her typical 1:04 high or 1:05 low at a high school meet. She finished 2nd in this event.

400 Free Relay - C Team - the split listed for Bailey either isn't right, or the kids swim in the wrong order. So no point in posting an incorrect time.

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Bear

200 Medley Relay - A Team - Bear also swam the fly, and his time was a 25.92, which is an ok time, especially under the circumstances. The team finished 2nd, to the best relay team in the county.

200 IM - 27.66 fly, is ok, 34.98 back is off by a couple to 3 seconds, the breast at 41.35 is also a bit slow, but the free finish in 29.,03 is WAY off...I wasn't there to watch, so he may have cruised home knowing he couldn't improve his position. I certainly hope so, because that split is several seconds off of where it is when he is right - 2:13.02

500 Free - 5:06.97, his opening split was the only one sub 60. When he's on, they are all sub60.

400 Free Relay - A Team - opened the relay with pretty solid 52.46, the second fastest split in the relay even with the cold start.

Breeze

11-20-2018, 08:40 AM

Emory & Henry - Brett Update

Brett will be coming home for the Thanksgiving break today, and I can't wait to see him and spend some time with him. Hopefully, we'll be able to get him to have a conversation about his experiences. Up until now, when we've seen him we've only gotten small pieces of what's going on. It'll also be interesting to see how seriously he takes his swimming. If he tries to stay in the pool, it'll be a good sign about his dedication. If he doesn't he likely will regress and will likely regress again during the Christmas break, which ultimately will mean he will probably be a non-factor at ODACs.

Breeze

11-21-2018, 08:11 AM

Gold Swimming - General Update

Coach Andy announced at Monday nights practice that he is resigning as head coach of the Gold's Cumming facility and taking an assistant coaching position with Emory University. This is a huge step for Andy, as he will be an assistant on a perennial powerhouse program and the women's defending D3 national championship team. The head coach at Emory was a teammate of his at Kenyon University (during their stretch of 30 straight national championships), and he had an opening this season.

I believe Andy's plan is to stay an assistant at Emory for the next few years which will allow both of his kids to complete high school, at which point he will probably start looking for his own head coaching opportunity.

Breeze

11-30-2018, 06:52 AM

Emory & Henry @ Washington & Lee Invite

The mid-season event for E&H will see them compete against the ODAC Dynasty (20) Washington & Lee, York (PA), and Messiah. This will be the last swim before the long break between semesters. E&H will be severely outmatched by Washington & Lee and York. Plus Messiah is a deeper and better team as well, but not so overwhelmingly so. Just hoping for some good swims to carry into the break.

I don't know what Brett is swimming in this meet, but it is a 2 day event, so he could swim up to 6 events and may find himself in some new races.

Breeze

12-04-2018, 08:14 AM

Emory & Henry @ Washington & Lee Invite - RESULTS

Note: as it turns out there were a couple of extra teams not noted in the preview that competed at this event...Randolph College and Virginia Wesleyan.

Women

TEAM PLACE – 4th/6

Notes:
- The Wasps got the meet off to a start with a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.), junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.), freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) and junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) clocked a 1:45.86 in the event.
- Sweigart posted a time of 5:56.81 in the 500-yard freestyle to finish 11th while Tunstall was 11th in the 200-yard individual medley (2:19.93).
- Anson got her individual events started with a swim of :24.82 in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing sixth. She won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.40, just .95 seconds off the E&H record and was fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (:54.06.).
- In the 400-yard medley relay, the Wasps swam a 4:18.86 to take sixth and were seventh in the 200-yard medley relay (2:01.14).
- Tunstall finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly, stopping the watches in 1:03.37 while Sweigart and Scarbrough were fifth (1:09.50) and seventh (1:11.99) in the 100-yard breaststroke.
- In the 100-yard backstroke, junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) was ninth with a time of 1:12.75.
- Sweigart was fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:35.83 while Scarbrough swam a 2:41.26 to finish seventh.
- The 400-yard freestyle relay saw the Wasps take seventh in 3:56.53.

Men

TEAM PLACE – 5th/6

Notes
- The Wasps started things off with a record-breaking swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay on the efforts of freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.), freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.), junior Nick Barr (Chilhowie, Va.) and freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) to go 1:38.00.
- Justice posted three new school records on the weekend. He went :23.11 in the 50-yard freestyle, a 1:05.28 in the 100-yard breaststroke and clocked a :51.41 in the 100-yard freestyle.
- In the 400-yard medley relay, the team of freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.), Justice, Henningsen, and Gardner went 4:01.61 for a new E&H record.
- Madaris, freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.), Gardner and Barr stopped the watches in 1:54.16 to claim a new school best in the 200-yard medley relay.
- The 800-yard freestyle relay saw a pair of records fall. Henningsen's leadoff leg of 1:56.12 was good for a new 200-yard freestyle record as he teamed up with Justice, Breeze and Madaris for a swim of 8:04.28.
- Breeze notched a record in the 200-yard breaststroke of 2:31.48 while Henningsen went 2:15.65 in the 200-yard butterfly for a new best.
- E&H closed out the weekend with a 3:35.55 in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Gardner, Henningsen, Madaris and Justice combined for the new best time.

Overview

200 Free Relay - An ok split of 26.65. His personal best is a 26.06, so with a rolling start I'd like to see him closer to that PB time, but his freestyle still isn't right, and he's continuing to try and clean it up.

500 Free - as I mentioned is Freestyle is a work in progress, but it is getting better, as he posted a 6:00.37 time. That's far from his personal best of 5:39, but it's also miles better than the 6:30 he swam last time out.

200 Medley Relay - Brett's split in the breast was a 31.88, which is faster than he's ever gone in a 50 breast...even in all of his previous breast splits in relays.

100 Breast - after his good split in the relay I was eager to see what he might do here. He opened with a 31.97...so right on his relay split...in fact without a rolling start this was almost certainly a faster swim with another 50 to go...he came home in a 36.78, which shows he's starting to round into better shape as his back half was much better. He posted a 1:08.75 for a new personal best swim...and an improvement of close to 3 seconds! He was extremely pumped after this one!

800 Free Relay - Brett swam a 2:08.21 split. Personal best is around a 2:05...so back to needed to clean up the freestyle...but it wasn't a terrible time.

200 Breast - After the strong 100, I was hoping for a big drop in this one, as the 200 is the better race for Brett. But he really took it out way to fast opening with a 32.32, the second 50 was fine with a 37.73, but then he started to fall off, and he appeared to tire so much that his turns slowed way down and his pullouts were truncated, which is a killer in this race. He finished in 2:31.48, another personal best and another 3 second drop, and while he was happy with the improvement, I got the feeling from the way he worded his texts to me, he was a bit disappointed that he didn't do better...

Breeze

12-05-2018, 11:21 AM

Georgia Senior Short Course State Championships @ GaTech - 9/7 - 9/9

Bailey - she's been swimming better coming into state than she has in a while, and while she still has some back pain, it isn't at the level it's been over the last few years. I believe she's in a decent position to have some good swims this time around, and I'm really praying she does. She's worked really hard for basically the last 4 years with very little improvement. She has a tendency to stress herself out at the big meets (I think her desire to do good after years of struggling has a lot to do with that), hopefully she'll enter this meet with some confidence. I've urged her to consider doing a time trial or two in order to try and improve some times in events where she doesn't have state cuts, because she rarely gets to swim events tapered. So far she is resisting, if she ends up swimming any, I'll add those times to the results post.

# 3 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Medley (1:06.03Y)
# 9 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:01.09Y)
# 17 (d2/s4): W Open 200 Fly (2:14.91Y)
# 35 (d3/s7): W Open 200 Medley (2:16.63Y)

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Bear - he has been working extremely hard heading into this meet but unlike last year when we saw glimpses of his improvement with some PB swims in high school and some small drops leading up to this event, this year he's been off by a decent amount. Hopefully, the taper will allow him to perform at peak level. He really needs a good swim here to help with his recruiting. Bear has cuts in three additional events (100 & 200 IMs, and 1000 Free) that he isn't swimming this time around.

# 8 (d1/s1): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91Y)
# 12 (d1/s2): M Open 400 Medley (4:11.59Y)
# 18 (d2/s4): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01Y)
# 26 (d2/s5): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77Y)
# 38 (d3/s8): X Open 1650 Free (16:47.81Y)

Breeze

12-10-2018, 02:50 PM

Georgia Senior Short Course State Championships - RESULTS

Bailey

# 3 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Medley (1:06.03Y) - This is an event that Bailey doesn't get to swim very often. She swam it 4 times this year, but before that we go all the way back to when she was 12. Coming in it felt like the lack of opportunity to swim this race might mean there was some time to be had. She opened with a fly leg that looked strong and the time was solid, the back was ok, the breast was much, much better than I expected and a spirited free to the wall resulted in a 1:03.89, a personal best and a drop of 2.14 seconds...a great way to start the meet.

# 9 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:01.09Y) - The time in this race has only dropped during taper swims at the event. All other 100 fly swims have been adds of 2 to 7 seconds. As a 13 year old her best was a 1:01.62. Then at 14 years old Bailey went 1:01.25, as a 15 year old she nudged it down to 1:01.09, this year she dropped it to a 1:00.21 for a personal best and a drop of close to a full second. This put her only .22 from the sectional cut.

# 17 (d2/s4): W Open 200 Fly (2:14.91Y) - After her strong 100 fly, we were optimistic about this race. We were hopeful not only for a time drop, but maybe a sectional cut (2:11.59). Her real personal best is a 2:13.79, from when she was 13. It doesn't show in the seed time because it was so old it was no longer viable for her. She opened with a 29.22, which is better than her typical 30+ second opening. The second split was a strong 33.02, followed by a 34.47, which put her in great shape heading into the final 50, unfortunately, she really hit a wall. It was obvious several of her strokes were slipping through the water as she was spinning her wheels a bit, but she fought home in 36.21 and posted a personal best time of 2:12.92. This was a huge drop from her seed time and a nice drop from her real personal best too. It was also good enough to bring her back for finals, as she moved up to 36th place with this swim.

# 17 W Open 200 Fly Final (2:12.92Y) - In finals, Bailey's goal was to get the sectional cut, which means she needed to drop about 1.3 more seconds. She opened with a 29.24, almost identical to the morning. Then posted a 33.05, also almost identical to the morning swim. In the 3rd 50 she made a bit of a move posting a 33.89 split, which was about a .7 improvement. Then in the final 50 she stayed strong and kept the stroke longer and finished in 34.88 a time really close to her 3rd split from the morning and a huge improvement posting a time of 2:11.06, and getting the sectional cut and a promotion to Gold's National Team! She also managed to beat 3 swimmers in the heat that came in with faster times from prelims, climbing to 33rd overall.

# 35 (d3/s7): W Open 200 Medley (2:16.63Y) - After 4 big swims, the hope for a clean sweep was high. Bailey swam her fly within .01 of the time posted during the fly leg of her personal best swim, the backstroke however was off over a full second. The breast, like the 100 was again much better than expected, over 3 seconds better than her usual split and almost a full second better than her split in this leg during her personal best swim. The free was a solid 31.75, but the total came to 2:16.84, and she came up just short of a best time.

# 9 W Open 100 Fly - Time Trial (1:00.21Y) - Given how close she was to the sectional time, and given how well she swam the 200 the night before, Bailey tried to get the cut in a time trial. She opened .03 off her opening on Friday, but she wasn't able to build on the back half and ended up adding a little, most of it was on a short arm finish - 1:00.72. Disappointing, but probably an indication of fatigue. The last day is hard and with Bailey being 5' 2" and change, it can really take a toll. The good news is, she was close to the PB time again, so it reinforces the fact that she's improved significantly this season.

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Bear

# 8 (d1/s1): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91Y) - Bear was really excited about this swim coming in. He was just over a second away from an NCSA cut here, and he trained hard this season, hoping to reach that time in this race. Unfortunately, it was obvious early, when he fell off the pace of the heat that he wasn't going to get the cut. He did manage to finish in 1:46.69, so he only added around .7 seconds, but it was a huge disappointment and blow to Bear.

# 12 (d1/s2): M Open 400 Medley (4:11.59Y) - This is a race I didn't have any confidence in, as Bear has really struggled in this one because of problems in his backstroke and continued on/off aspect of his breaststroke. As expected this one was no pretty, with the backstroke really being the major problem as the breast was very respectable, but unfortunately he ended up posting a time of 4:23.68. Much better than the 4:30 times he'd been swimming recently, but no where near where he needs to be.

# 18 (d2/s4): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01Y) - After two underwhelming swims on Friday, Bear was a bit bummed headed into this one. There was some hope that his Fly would be strong, but his swims leading into this event were well over 2 minutes, so it was probably wishful thinking. He swam pretty well, but again added about .7 seconds finishing in a time of 1:57.88. A decent swim, not where he wanted it, but good enough to make finals.

# 26 (d2/s5): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77Y) - It was obvious pretty early that this wasn't going to be Bear's best swim, as he pretty quickly feel into 58 high splits...he finished with a time of 4:47.92, again not where he wanted to be, but again good enough to make finals.

# 18 M Open 200 Fly Final - (1:57.88Y) - after the tough double from the morning Bear was looking at duplicating that double in the evening. It started off rough with this swim. He added a couple more seconds from the morning to finish at 1:59.78

# 26 M Open 500 Free Final (4:47.92Y) - the 500 started out much better than the morning. He actually had his splits a couple of seconds better at about the mid-point of the race. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to maintain that spread and he ended up finishing with a slight improvement from the morning but again no where close to his personal best - 4:47.25.

# 38 (d3/s8): X Open 1650 Free (16:47.81Y) - This was Bear's last chance at an improvement, and while he really hadn't given any indication that he was swimming well enough to drop time, especially given that he didn't drop in the 500s, this was an event that seemed to have some room to improve. The last two times Bear swam the 1650 he had pneumonia and he had the poor taper after trying to rush recovery from the flu. So I held out hope that he might be able to do something in this race. In addition, he came into this one seeded 4th, and I felt like he might be able to earn a medal with a good swim. The race started, Bear dove in...AND...his goggles rolled down his face and stopped over his mouth. He's got 66 laps to go, and his goggles are a problem. I was completely heartbroken at this point so much so I felt nauseous.

On the first wall Bear did an open turn so he could adjust his goggles. He got them in place, but they were extremely twisted so when he pushed off the wall they rolled back down. Making matters worse, he was way behind the other swimmers that flipped on the first wall. At the second wall, Bear flipped and while laying on his back underwater with his feet on the wall, he adjusted his goggles, got them in place, then finally pushed off. At this point Bear was about 7 seconds behind the leaders, and he still couldn't see because the goggles were filled with water. He managed to make it through the 3rd wall without being able to completely tell were the wall was, and before flipping on the 4th wall he quickly drained the goggle on his right eye. Now, he still has 62 laps to go, he has 1 eye clear and he's behind the entire field by well over half a lap. He was facing a long and depressing swim, but he didn't quit and he didn't panic and try to immediately catch up, rather he dropped into his pacing and started churning laps. In fact, he was churning laps at a 1:00 pace, and despite all the fidgeting with his goggles he managed to go 1:00 splits early in the race as well.

At the 400 yard mark, Bear passed one of his competitors and was no longer in last. At the 500 yard mark he passed 2 more competitors. At the 600 yard mark he jumped another spot and at the 800 yard mark he moved into 4th place, but while he had cut into the 3rd place swimmer's 11 second lead, he was still 7 seconds behind with half of the race gone. He continued to post strong splits and he kept slowly reeling in his competitor. At the bell lap, Bear out-touched the guy he had been stalking by .05, then he swam the last 50 almost 2 seconds faster and...HE FINISHED 3RD with a personal best time of 16:37.04 - an improvement of almost 11 seconds! What an incredible effort that was...it was truly one of the most impressive things I've ever personally witnessed in sports. This is something that I will never forget.

JonInMiddleGA

12-11-2018, 12:07 AM

Wow. A performance that had to leave you all ... goggle-eyed ;)

Great story, great job Bear.

Breeze

12-12-2018, 09:36 AM

South Forsyth - Toys for Tots Invite @ Daniel Recreation Center, LaGrange, GA - 12/14

Bailey and Bear will both be swimming in this meet. Bailey is hoping getting to swim close to taper will allow her to post a time much closer to her personal best, which if she can accomplish it, will ensure her of a top 4 swim for South and a spot in the state meet.

I'm not sure yet which events they will be swimming.

Breeze

12-13-2018, 09:27 AM

Max Planck's Quantum Invite @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 12/14 - 12/16

This meet is really designed to allow non-State meet qualifiers a chance to get a mid-season taper swim in. Bailey and Bear are going to compete in this one, Bailey is hoping to extend her taper to make a run at her back cuts. Bear originally thought about extending his taper, but mentioned last night that he decided to just focus on the end of year meet at Sectionals and has already ramped up his training again (obviously, this also goes for the high school meet noted above).

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Bailey

# 15 (d2/s2): G 15 & Over 100 Back (1:03.88Y)
# 67 (d3/s4): G 15 & Over 200 Back (2:15.42Y)

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Bear - If Bear somehow swims well on Friday at the high school meet and on Saturday here, he may work the 200 free in and try to get his NCSA cut.

# 12 (d2/s2): B 15 & Over 100 Free (51.04Y)
# 76 (d3/s4): B 15 & Over 100 Fly (56.40Y)
# 80 (d3/s4): B 15 & Over 100 Medley (1:00.37Y) - Bear mentioned he might just drop this one given his struggles with backstroke right now.

Breeze

12-18-2018, 06:31 AM

South Forsyth - Toys for Tots Invite - RESULTS

Bailey - The whole reason for Bailey swimming this meet was so she could do the 100 fly while at least semi-tapered, but for some strange reason she didn't swim the fly at all. The team didn't get home from this meet until well after midnight, and each of the swimmers only competed in 1 event, rather than the normal 2. The new coach for South has done a nice job of making the season fun, but she is a nightmare when it comes to organization, and errors like these are only a small part of the issue.

Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - B Team - - Bailey swam the fly leg in a strong 28.75 split. The relay team finished 4th overall, the top B team in the meet, and better than 11 other A teams.

Girls 100 Yard Free - This was such a waste of time. Bailey isn't going to be a factor in the 100 Free at 5' 2"+, even tapered I don't think she'd be able to touch the state cut in this event. There are just to many girls that are sprint free swimmers. She did manage to go 1:00.17, which is far from a personal best, but it appears that it is a high school best.

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Bear

Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay - B Team - Bear swam on the B medley relay in the fly leg, which is absurd. Bear should be on the Free leg of the A relay, and the guy swimming the Free leg should be on the back. Bear posted a pedestrian 26 second split. The team finished 5th and was the top B team in the meet.

Boys 200 Yard Free - Bear posted a 1:51.55, which is pretty good for a non-tapered meet. In fact, it is only about 1 second off his high school best time, which comes from the state meet last year, which was a drop taper event.

Boys 200 Yard Free Relay - A Team - Bear posted the fastest split in the relay with a 23.43. The team finished 2nd, about 2 seconds behind the winners.

Boys 400 Yard Free Relay - A Team - Bear had by far the fastest split here with a 51.39 to open the race. That's only .35 off of his personal best (which is a bit misleading because he never swims this event tapered). By the end of that opening 100, Bear had given the team a 6+ second lead on the second place team. The rest of the relay was able to cruise home for the event win.

thealmighty

12-18-2018, 05:40 PM

Breeze

12-19-2018, 06:38 AM

How tall is Bear now? Growth prospects, if any, moving forward?

(My dad was 6'2'' and I was 5'4'' going into summer when I was 16. Thought I was screwed by genetic gods. By the time school started, I had grown almost 7''.)

Bear is sitting right at 5' 8". As for his prospects for additional growth - his hands and feet have been much bigger than both Brett's and mine, and I always hoped that was a sign that he might "grown into them", so I'm still holding out a bit of hope. Plus Brett grew in his junior and senior years, as well as a little this year. Also, we have other family members that were late to finish growing, so maybe he can get a little taller. However, I think 5' 10" is probably going to be a best case scenario (and one at this point I think he'd be extremely happy with).

It's a little unfortunate, his shorter stature definitely hurts on the recruiting trail.

Breeze

12-20-2018, 07:49 AM

Max Planck's Quantum Invite - RESULTS

Because the high school meet on Friday night ran so late, and the kids didn't get in bed until 1 o'clock or so, they decided to skip the Saturday portion of the meet.

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Bailey

# 67 (d3/s4): G 15 & Over 200 Back (2:15.42Y) - ended up swimming a 2:16.06, only a half second off her personal best with an extended taper, this isn't a bad results at all, and indicates that during the season ending swim in March, she could be looking at a time drop.

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Bear

# 76 (d3/s4): B 15 & Over 100 Fly (56.40Y) - managed a 56.46, only a fraction off of his personal best - which was stunning given he immediately started ramping up his workouts early in the week.

# 80 (d3/s4): B 15 & Over 100 Medley (1:00.37Y) - after his strong fly, there was a decent chance he could improve here and he did - he dropped a second to finish in 59.34.

Breeze

12-21-2018, 10:49 AM

South Forsyth vs Cambridge & Milton @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 12/21

I was waiting to post this until I had exact information around what events and relays the kids were going to swim, but we just received a text from the coach stating that there are a lot of sick kids and the meet is going to run late, so she's going to shuffle some things and take some swims away so things can run on time. Which means, the kid's events may change so what I have might become irrelevant anyway...as I mentioned above - it's always something with the new coach...

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Bailey - has missed several practices recently due to studying for exams and a sore throat/ear ache, so coming out of a taper and missing practice, I expect she's going to struggle for a while until she rounds back into shape.

Girls 100 Fly
Girls 200 IM
Girls 200 Medley Relay
Girls 200 Free Relay

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Bear - this meet will start right after practice, but I'll be interested to see if he can approach his best times like he's been doing recently.

Boys 200 Free
Boys 500 Free
Boys 200 Medley Relay
Boys 200 Free Relay

Breeze

12-31-2018, 09:54 AM

South Forsyth vs Cambridge & Milton - RESULTS

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Bailey

Girls 100 Fly - posted a 1:04.25...which is really good considering she was coming off of an extended taper and she missed a few practices when she was under the weather.

Girls 200 IM - posted a 2:23.82...off of her high school best by about 4 seconds, but not too far off from a typical high school meet.

Girls 200 Medley Relay- B team - for some reason she swam the backstroke leg...and she posed a 30.71...not great but not terrible. The team was the top B team in the meet.

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Bear

Boys 200 Free - Went 1:53.98, and won the event by 2.4 seconds...so there was some coasting in at the end.

Boys 500 Free- Got under 5 minutes at 4:59.77, and won the event by 9 seconds...he admitted there was A LOT of costing that took place in this race.

Boys 200 Medley Relay - team won the event, but I don't have Bear's split in the freestyle leg as the team results aren't split out by swimmer.

Boys 200 Free Relay - The team won the event, I'm not sure which leg Bear swam, so I don't know what split is his...

Breeze

01-02-2019, 11:22 AM

Emory & Henry - Winter Training Trip

Brett left yesterday (1/1) to head back to E&H with teammate Blake. They got back to campus around 5 PM, and then they had to get up early to hit the road at 2 AM for their winter training. They will be heading down to Largo, Florida. I'm not sure what facilities they will be using, but they will be swimming, lifting, and more over the next week, before heading back north to school.

Breeze

01-03-2019, 02:17 PM

Emory & Henry - Winter Training Trip

I still haven't heard from Brett, but I do know the team appears to be staying in a condo on Indian Shores Beach. They also appear to be training at a Seminole County pool.

Breeze

01-08-2019, 06:39 AM

Bailey - General Update

On New Year's Eve, Bailey went to a party at a friends house. During that party there were a group of guys that started playing "basketball" in the basement. Bailey wasn't aware of this, and when she walked into the basement, she ended up walking out right in front of a guy who was jumping and she got elbowed in the head, but worse, she was knocked into the wall as well. She came home the next day complaining of a headache. The next day she went to practice, but when she got home that night her headache was back. The headache lingered so we took her to the doctor and she had a concussion. Because of this, she's been out of the pool (with the exception of the 1 practice she went to right after banging her head), since the 31st. She will return for a limited practice today. Fingers crossed.

Breeze

01-10-2019, 10:00 AM

Bailey - General Update

Bailey's plan to swim on the 8th didn't come to pass. The wife suggested that she had upped her interactions significantly by going to school the whole day, and swimming on top of that would be too much. It's a good thing that she didn't swim, as she woke up on the 9th with a bad headache, and the doctor stated that she had overdone by staying at school all day. So we've rolled back her treatment a couple of phases and we will slowly progress forward again and hope for no more setbacks.

Breeze

01-11-2019, 06:44 AM

Emory & Henry Tri Meet @ King University - 1/11

E&H will match up against King University and Mars Hill University today. Both of the teams E&H will swim against are Division 2, so their swimmers are on scholarship. They are also both better than E&H, so I don't expect much from a score perspective, but I'm hopeful, that the Winter training helped get Brett is better shape and maybe we will see something that will indicate the potential for a strong ODAC championship meet.

The wife and I are heading up this weekend, so I should be able to provide some first hand accounts.

Breeze

01-11-2019, 06:48 AM

Lees-McRae vs. Emory & Henry - 1/12

Lees-McRae visits E&H on Saturday. This team, like E&H is relatively new, but they are surrounded by good swimmers in the very deep swim state of North Carolina, and they have put together a good team quickly. Like E&H, I'm not sure how much depth they have, but because both teams suffer from the same issue, I expect Lees-McRae will win.

Again, the wife and I will be present for this one. Really looking forward to seeing Brett swim 2 meets in 2 days.

Breeze

01-16-2019, 08:45 AM

Emory & Henry Tri Meet @ King University - RESULTS

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Women

Emory & Henry - 63
King University - 105

Emory & Henry - 49
Mars Hill - 141

Notes

- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) won a pair of individual events to lead the way. She stopped the watches in 2:00.48 in the 200-yard freestyle and went :55.13 in the 100-yard freestyle.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) took second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.60) by .16 seconds and was third in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:30.84.
- Junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) notched fourth-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly (1:08.59) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:15.19).
- The relay of freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.), Sweigart, junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) and Anson finished as the runner-up for the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:03.90.
- E&H took third in the 200-yard medley relay (2:07.27) on the efforts of Simmons, freshman Leah Mumpower (Bristol, Va.), Tunstall and Scarbrough.

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Men

Emory & Henry - 52
King University - 130

Emory & Henry - 44
King University - 137

Notes

- Freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) led the Wasps with a record-breaking swim in the 200-yard freestyle of 1:55.59. He finished fourth overall in the event.
- Freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) was third in the 50-yard freestyle (:23.48) while freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) took third in the 100-yard freestyle at :53.03.
- The relay of freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.), freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.), freshman Nick Moore (Lebanon, Va.) and junior Jarod Bracero (Union City, N.J.) was third in the 200-yard medley relay.
- In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Gardner, Henningsen, junior Nick Barr (Chilhowie, Va.) and Justice went 3:49.23 to finish third.

Overview

With the kids coming out of extremely hard training in Florida, the times for all the swimmers were well off their personal bests. Brett did manage to swim a 6 minute 500 Free, which is far from where he should be (he swam 5:40s in high school meets as a freshman and sophomore), but it is better than he swam earlier in the season. He also went a 1:11.06 in the breaststroke - immediately after swimming the 500 free. This is the 3rd fastest he's ever gone in the 100 breast, only beaten by his personal best swim earlier in the season at the Washington and Lee Invite, and by his opening 100 in the 200 breast at the same meet.

Breeze

01-17-2019, 06:31 AM

Lees-McRae vs. Emory & Henry - RESULTS

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Women

Emory & Henry - 81
Lees-McRae - 43

Notes
- The Wasps earned seven event wins and posted a pair of second-place relay finishes on their way to the win.
- Junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) started the day off with a victory in the 200-meter freestyle (2:42.35) while freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) won the 200-meter individual medley in 2:53.64.
- Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) won the 50-meter freestyle in :30.68 and the 100-meter butterfly (1:13.63) while junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) went 1:09.57 in the 100-meter freestyle.
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) took first in the 400-meter freestyle, stopping the watches in 4:52.34.

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Men

Emory & Henry - 61
Lees-McRae - 100

Notes
- Emory & Henry got seven second-place finishes on the day led by freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) in the 100-meter freestyle (1:04.31) and the 100-meter backstroke (1:16.13).
- Freshman Brett Breeze (Cumming, Ga.) was the runner-up in the 200-meter individual medley at 2:47.79 and the 100-meter breaststroke (1:22.63).
- Freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) earned second-place finishes in the 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly at 2:17.39 and 1:09.59, respectively.

Overview

Brett didn't do as well in this meet as he did the night before. His split in the medley relay wasn't as good, and his 100 breast swim was several seconds off his best meters time, which translates to around a 1:14 in yards. He did pretty well in the 200 IM. He out split Nick Moore in the opening 50 fly leg, and Nick swims fly regularly. The overall time wasn't a personal best for Brett as he swam about 3 seconds faster earlier in the season, but given the times everyone was posting, this is right in line and I believe shows he has some upside in this event.

Breeze

01-18-2019, 11:43 AM

South Forsyth - County Championship @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 1/19

The high school county championship is this weekend, and this already long meet, that allows all the high schools to recognize their seniors, just got much longer as they've reconfigured this event to be a prelim/final format. Meaning kids will compete as normal in the afternoon, then return in the evening to swim finals. It's definitely going to be a long day.

To complicate things in this meet, the year round swimmers from SwimAtlanta are going to drop taper for this meet, which will heavily skew results, whereas Gold is still planning to have practice that morning, so Bear and Bailey will suffer from that arrangement as well.

The South coach has done weird things all season with the lineups, especially the relays. The kids believe it is her attempt to get as many kids qualified for the state meet as possible. Unfortunately, it also serves to hurt the team overall. In this meet, the girls have a legitimate chance of winning county especially with their depth, but the relays are put together very poorly and it could cost them in the end. On the boys side, the team has almost no depth so she's loaded up her relays to try and maximize points, but given the teams, I don't think this strategy will have a major impact.
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Bailey - as I mentioned a few posts back, Bailey has been recovering from a concussion, and she's still not fully back. She's going to be severely out of shape for this one and it will unquestionably impact her results.

#2 Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - D Team - with Bailey's concussion, she probably doesn't need to be counted on for one of the top relays, but looking at the names in the top 3, I can tell there are probably going to be cases where the lower teams have swimmers out-split the A team. Bailey is in the fly leg.

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM (2:19.23) - Bailey comes in seeded 10th, but she likely will finish lower than that, and I don't expect she will make finals. The 2:19 time is a high school best not a personal best, but I don't expect her to better the seed time.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly (1:02.40) - Bailey is seeded 7th with her high school best time of 1:02. Her personal best is a 1:00...which would put her 4th, but again she probably won't touch these times, I expect a 1:05 or 1:06.

#24 Girls 400 Yard Free Relay - D Team - Same situation as the medley relay...

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Bear - you will notice Bear is only in 1 individual event and 3 relays. This is part of the aforementioned chance to maximize points by loading up the relays.

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - Bear has the free leg, Jake on fly and Riley on back...I'm not sure she has the guys swimming the correct legs, I'm not sure Jake shouldn't be on back and Riley on Free, Bear on Fly...but regardless they are seeded 4th, and I don't believe even if everyone of the guys swims their best they will have a shot at 3rd. They also should have 4th pretty locked up. The coach actually could have worked in a couple of other swimmers here and not had any adverse impact on the teams finish and score.

#15 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle (4:51.40) - - Bear is seeded 3rd here behind teammate Jake and a year rounder from Dynamo Daniel. Coming out of practice, I don't think Bear will beat his seed time, but given it's pretty far off his personal best, he might finish in the neighborhood

#17 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay - A Team - Riley and Jake join Bear again in this relay. It's a tough turnaround from the 500 for Jake and Bear. They are seeded 3rd, but I don't think they can touch 2nd...but unlike the medley, they might all be needed to hold on to 3rd.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay - A Team - Riley and Jake join Bear for the 3rd time on a relay and again they are seeded 3rd, and they won't even come close to 2nd place, as the top 2 teams are absolutely loaded. They also have a pretty big lead on 4th, so again the coach probably could have substituted another swimmer here and given one of the guys a second individual event to swim with no adverse impact to the team score.

Breeze

01-22-2019, 08:35 AM

Emory & Henry vs. Sweet Briar, Hollins, & Hampden-Sydney @ Sweet Briar - 1/20

I thought I did a write up on this one already, but I don't see it, so I guess I just dreamed it. Anyway, Hollins and Sweet Briar are both all girls schools and Hampden-Sydney is an all boys school, and all 4 teams are scheduled to meet up on 1/20 at Sweet Briar for this meet. The E&H girls will almost certainly beat both of their opponents, as Sweet Briar and Hollins are pretty weak. The boys however, are going to struggle, as Hampden-Sydney finished 3rd at ODACs last year.

Breeze

01-23-2019, 10:39 AM

South Forsyth - County Championship - PRELIM RESULTS

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Bailey

#2 Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - D Team - Bailey's D relay managed to finish 10th overall in the prelims. There are 7 teams competing but Bailey's supposed 4th best relay from South was good enough to get top 10...this does 2 things - it illustrates South's depth and also the coach's lack of attention to detail - as some of the D swimmers out swam teammates in the higher rated relays. Bailey's split was a 29 low, which is good, right on her normal high school meet split.

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM (2:19.23) - The seed time here is from her state meet last year, where she swam with a drop taper, meaning it would be difficult for her to meet this time when she was 100% healthy...so coming off the concussion her 2:23.32 was very strong. It is about a full second faster than her typical high school swims. It was obvious that she was tiring during the free leg, but a gallant effort, and good enough to finish 10th and make the A final for the evening session.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly (1:02.40) - Again, Bailey's typical high school swim is a 1:04 mid to a 1:04 high in this event...but somehow she managed to go a 1:03.85. Like the 200 IM, her personal best is from a drop taper at State in 2018, so this was again a strong swim and also good enough for 10th in the prelims and an A final appearance during the evening session.

#24 Girls 400 Yard Free Relay - D Team - this time Bailey's relay team finished 11th overall...she lead off the relay with a 1:00.04, slightly better than a normal high school split for her...and surprisingly good enough to outpace 3 of the 4 girls on the B relay team. (this event was a timed final, so Bailey didn't have to race it again during the evening final)

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Bear -

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - Finished 6th in prelims...a full 3 seconds ahead of 7th, and the meet only allows the top team from each school to make finals in this event, so there was absolutely no reason to keep her 3 best swimmers in all relays. Bear split a 23.5 on the relay with a conservative start and a coast finish.

#15 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle (4:51.40) - - Bear was very disappointed in this swim. Jake his teammate disconnected from his early and he also lost connection to Daniel at about the midway point. He was hoping for a better result. He finished in 4:58.77, but he backed off a bit in the last 25 because he had 3rd sewed up, and he wasn't going to have a best time so no reason to drive all the way to the wall. (This event was a timed final, so Bear didn't have to swim this again at the evening finals session)

#17 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay - A Team - tough turn around from the 500 for Bear and Jake, but Bear managed a 23.32 with a conservative start, and the team finished 3rd heading into finals.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay - A Team - Bear had yet another conservative start...so conservative that it skewed his split...it shows him swimming a 51.3, but his split from take off to finish was probably closer to a 50.3. The team finished 3rd. (this was a timed final, so Bear didn't race this again during the evening session).

Breeze

01-23-2019, 01:44 PM

South Forsyth - County Championship - FINALS RESULTS

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Bailey

#2 Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - D Team - only 1 relay per school made finals, so Bailey didn't swim this event.

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM (2:23.32) - Managed to improve from the morning by just over a second, moving up from 10th to 9th in finals - 2:22.23

#12 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly (1:03.85) - Bailey was slightly off the pace from the morning posting a 1:04.03, and finishing 10th. All and all one heck of meet coming off her concussion and missed practice time

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Bear -

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team (1:46.38) - Seeded 5th coming into finals and finished 5th...Bear split a 23.17 and team improved on their time by over a second from the morning - 1:45.20

#17 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay - A Team (1:33.27) - Came in seeded 3rd and finished 3rd. Bear split a 23.47 with a conservative start...team added just over a second from the morning swim - 1:34.46

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Overall

The boys ended up finishing 2nd in county, despite the poor lineup decisions made by the coach. Overall, the decision to swim Bear, Jake and Riley in 3 relays cost the team between 50 and 60 points. The overall winner on the boys side was Lambert who won by 300+ points and they extend their championship run to 10 straight years. South held on to second with West only 4 points behind and Central only 1.5 points behind them.

On the girls side South was able to end Lambert's 9 year run. Overall the War Eagles outscored Lambert by 27 points, but that's a bit misleading. In the swimming portion, South dominated, but Lambert girls took 1st through 5th place in diving and made up 100 points in the overall score. It was almost enough to extend their streak, and will probably be enough to get them the win next year.

Breeze

01-24-2019, 10:04 AM

Emory & Henry vs. Sweet Briar, Hollins, & Hampden-Sydney - RESULTS

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Women

Emory & Henry - 92
Hollins - 68

Emory & Henry - 104
Sweet Briar - 61

Notes
- The Wasps won eight of the 11 races beginning with the 200-meter medley relay. Sophomore Lauren Trotter (Bristol, Va.), freshman Leah Mumpower (Bristol, Va.) and juniors Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) and Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) went 2:25.49 to win by nearly 13 seconds.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) won the 800-meter freestyle clocked a 11:02.37 in the 800-meter freestyle, finishing 32.8 seconds ahead of second place.
- Scarbrough added a pair of wins to her relay victory, taking the 200-meter individual medley in 2:43.86 and the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:18.61.
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) picked up victories in the 50-meter freestyle (:28.37) and 100-meter butterfly (1:07.60) freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) won the 100-meter freestyle in 1:06.30.
- Mumpower gave E&H its last win of the day, going a 5:21.49 in the 400-meter freestyle.

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Men

Emory & Henry - 46
Hampden-Sydney - 148

Notes
- Freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) won two events for the Wasps, taking the lead in the final 25 meters of both races. He went :58.81 in the 100-meter freestyle and 1:15.79 in the 100-meter breaststroke, winning the breast by just 0.1 seconds.
- Freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) was second in the 50-meter freestyle (:26.23) while freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.) swam a 2:34.40 to finish as the runner-up.

Overview

Brett swam the 400 Free a little faster than he did earlier in the season, but he still posted a pedestrian 5:22.27. He immediately got out after the 400 and raced the 100 breast, which was slightly better than his swim from Saturday last week, but no where near as good as his Friday swim - 1:22.32. Brett also mentioned that they started lifting again last week, so he's extremely sore right now. Hopefully, he'll take the taper well and will perform at the ODACs next month.

Breeze

01-25-2019, 08:46 AM

William Peace & LaGrange vs. Emory & Henry @ Emory & Henry - 1/26

The final meet of the regular season is tomorrow, as E&H host William Peace and Lagrange. The women should easily defeat Lagrange, but William Peace will be nip and tuck, as that score could come down to single digits. On the men's side, E&H will be close to both of their opponents, but will probably come up just short both times.

Brett is apparently swimming the 200 IM and the 100 Breast.

Note: LaGrange is less than 2 hours from the house, so we are hoping next year E&H uses one of its travel trips to head down, so we can watch a meet without having as far to travel.

Breeze

01-25-2019, 11:32 AM

South Forsyth - Last Chance Meet @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 1/26

The last meet for the twins prior to the High School State Championship. Both Bailey and Bear have state cuts. Bear will most likely swim the 200 and 500 free at state. Bailey's time in the 100 fly from state should be good enough to be one of the top 4 swimmers from South and get her a spot in the state meet. Not sure about her best 200 IM time.

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Bailey

#4 Girls 200 Free (2:07.83) - if Bailey had been training regularly I think she might have a shot at a PB here, but my guess is she'll finish a 2:08 mid. Practice before hand will also impact her times.

#12 Girls 100 Fly (1:02.40) - I don't think she comes close to this time...anything in the 1:03s like the county meet would be an improvement over her typical high school swims. I'm a bit concerned that the coach has her swimming this. The 1:02 time should be a top 4 for the South team and thus good enough to swim at state, but I'm afraid she might be going off of only 2018-19 season times, which would make Bailey's best a 1:03.88 and that might not be top 4...

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Bear

#3 Boys 200 Free (1:50.22) - would love to see a drop in this time. It's a full 5 seconds off his PB and if he could get into the 1:48 or so range I'd fell better about his position heading into Sectionals.

#13 Boys 100 Free (51.32) - this isn't a personal best, but it's only about .3 off of his best. Anything close to his seed time would be good, especially given the twins will have practice before this meet.

JonInMiddleGA

01-25-2019, 06:35 PM

The final meet of the regular season is tomorrow

Srsly? Seems like the season just started.

LaGrange is less than 2 hours from the house, so we are hoping next year E&H uses one of its travel trips to head down, so we can watch a meet without having as far to travel

This is a thing we discovered with Sewanee being the closest game played by my son's buddies at W&L. The ODAC is definitely not travel easy/friendly for fans in Georgia.

Breeze

01-28-2019, 11:32 AM

South Forsyth - Last Chance Meet - RESULTS

Bailey and Bear both begged out of this meet. There were no relays and no score was kept, as this meet was all about allowing individual swimmers to shoot for state cut times. Given Bailey and Bear are both already qualified to swim at state, neither felt any urgency to compete this weekend and the coach was ok allowing them to skip the event.

Breeze

01-29-2019, 07:23 AM

William Peace & LaGrange vs. Emory & Henry - RESULTS

The Emory & Henry College Men's & Women's Swimming Teams closed out the regular season Saturday with a double dual against LaGrange College and William Peace University. Both of the Wasps' teams were dominant in their victories.

The Emory & Henry men picked up five wins and three runner-up finishes in the 11-event meet and broke a pair of school records. The Wasp women won 10 events with a trio of 1-2 finishes as they out-matched their opponents.

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Women

Emory & Henry - 119
LaGrange - 10

Emory & Henry - 113
William Peace - 48

Notes
- Three different Wasps earned a pair of individual wins. Freshman Anne-Louise Tunstall (Mount Airy, N.C.) posted a :30.67 in the 50-meter freestyle an a 1:13.67 in the 100-meter butterfly.
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) used a 2:14.99 to win the 200-meter freestyle by more than 15 seconds and followed it up with a 1:02.18 in the 100-meter freestyle.
- Junior Savannah Scarbrough (Crozet, Va.) stopped the watches in 2:43.78 in the 200-meter individual medley and went 1:26.40 in the 100-meter breaststroke for a win.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) won the 400-meter freestyle with a 5:25.00 while junior Taylor Simmons (Fincastle, Va.) posted a 11:30.55 to take the 800-meter freestyle.
- E&H swept the relays with times of 2:27.07 in the 200-medley and 2:06.43 in the 200-freestyle.

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Men

Emory & Henry - 94
LaGrange - 71

Emory & Henry - 107
William Peace - 51

Notes
- Freshmen Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) and Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) broke records for the Wasps. Justice went :58.53 in winning the 100-meter freestyle to set a new program standard while Henningsen's 4:42.299 in the 400-meter freestyle was also good enough to win the event by 10.3 seconds.
- Henningsen also won the 200-meter freestyle in 2:12.09 while freshman Tariq Gardner (Richmond, Va.) claimed the title in the 50-free (:26.83).
- The Wasps' final win of the day was in the 200-meter medley relay as freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.), junior Jarod Bracero (Union City, N.J.), freshman Nick Moore (Lebanon, Va.) and junior Nick Barr (Chilhowie, Va.) clocked a 2:19.95.

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Overview

The regular season comes to an end and the E&H women finish with a record of 9-5 (5-2 in ODACs), and the men finished the season 4-8 (2-3 in ODACs)

Initially, in the preview for this event I noted the Brett was supposed to swim the 200 IM and the 100 Breast, well as it turns out that's not what happened. Somehow Brett got tagged as the swimmer who would do the gauntlet by Coach Cody. Apparently, Cody makes all his swimmers do this at least 1 time during their career with the team. The gauntlet consists of swimming the 800 Free, 200 IM, and 400 Free all in one event. This is the most race yardage a swimmer can do in a dual meet (given the 1650/1500 isn't generally contested in a meet of this type). Brett actually did pretty well:

800 Free - Brett managed to go 11:30.30, which isn't a great time, and he admitted as much, but it is the 3rd time he swam this event this season and it is a season's best time by 12 seconds.

200 IM - posted a 2:40.35 which was also a season best swim with a 4 second improvement over his previous best.

400 Free - another mid distance free swim that still isn't as strong as his times when he was swimming year round, but another season's best and an improvement of 2 seconds - 5:20.31

All 3 swims were season bests, and the first one was the 800 free, which means the last two might have been even faster if he hadn't been fatigued from the 800. Hope this means good things at ODACs

Breeze

01-31-2019, 06:10 AM

Emory & Henry - General Update

Yesterday, Coach Cody posted on the EHC Swim Facebook site that his girlfriend has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I don't know any specifics, but I will be praying for them, and if I learn more I'll post it here.

JonInMiddleGA

02-05-2019, 12:23 AM

Apparently, Cody makes all his swimmers do this at least 1 time during their career with the team.

And now it's out of the way early :)

Breeze

02-06-2019, 10:10 AM

2019 GHSA 6-7A State Swim Meet @ Georgia Tech - 2/8 - 2/9

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Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly (1:04.23) - Bailey is seeded with a 1:04.23 time, which is just an indication of how lazy the coach is. This isn't even her best time from the season. That would be a 1:03.88. Last year at this meet she went around a 1:02.5, her personal best from December's year round state meet is a 1:00 low. I'm hoping she can improve on last year's time in this event. If she can get anywhere close to her personal best it would be phenomenal, but unfortunately, even a personal best swim isn't going to get her to finals. To make the top 16 she'd need to swim in the 58 second range.

Bailey also qualified in the 200 IM, and based on the information I can find she should have the 4th fastest time on the team and she should be competing in this event, however, the coach dropped her. The seed time entered for the girl that replaced Bailey doesn't beat Bailey's best for the season (but given she didn't have Bailey's best time for her 100 fly, I'm not sure the other girl's seed time is her best either). I've tried to find times from all of the team's meets, but I can't locate a couple, and without knowing for sure that she's incorrectly dropped Bailey, I'm not going to speak up. Bailey will not be in any relays at state.

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay (1:45.67) - This was probably the coaches biggest blunder of the meet. For some strange reason she elected to put her 4 best swimmers in this event. During the county meet this same group of 4 managed to finish 5th in a county of 7 teams, and yet she felt this was her best change to get a relay into the top 16?????? Bear will swim the free leg in the relay and they will finish in the 30s overall. Such a waste...not to mention this race is right before Bear's next event.

#3 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle - (1:53.80) - Bear has only raced this event 3 times this year and other than Senior State where he went a 1:46.69 he hasn't come close to his personal best of 1:45.91. If he can at least match his performance from last year 1:48s, he'll have a shot at the B final. It would take a personal best swim for him to get into the A final, and given that Bear will not be fully tapered for this event (whereas most of the people he'll be swimming against will be), I don't expect him to reach the finals.

#15 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle - (4:59.77) - - Bear hasn't been on his game with this event yet this sesason. In fact, even at Senior State he was a good 7 seconds off his personal best time of 4:41. However, if he can get to the 4:47 he posted back at Senior State in December he could make the B finals. A finals will take a swim at least approaching his personal best, and again, the lack of a full taper will probably prevent that from happening.

#17 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay - (1:36.90) - As you can probably tell from the event number, this event is directly after the 500 free. Bear will have very little time to recover. Not that it really matters as the team will be lucky to finish in the high 30s overall. Bear should have been matched with the other 3 swimmers from the medley relay in the 400 Free. If those 4 where together in that event, they would come in seeded 16th and they could possibly score. However, the coach obviously didn't bother to do any research on this and ultimately wasted her relays.

JonInMiddleGA

02-07-2019, 05:53 PM

This coach sounds like she's probably related to one we saw in a different sport in HS.

Breeze

02-11-2019, 06:33 AM

General Update

This happened during the Saturday finals:

The oldest high school yards record in the books has been broken.

At the 2019 Georgia 6-7A State Championships, Mill Creek High School’s Jake Magahey wrote his name in the history books in the 500 free. His time of 4:15.63 broke Jeff Kostoff of Upland High School’s previous National Public High School record of 4:16.39 set in 1983.

Magahey’s splits:

100 – 49.28
200 – 1:40.15 (50.87)
300 – 2:31.88 (51.73)
400 – 3:23.99 (52.11)
500 – 4:15.63 (51.64)

The National Independent High School record in the event is 4:12.87 set by Santa Margarita Catholic’s Grant Shoults in 2016, which still stands as the overall mark.

Before Magahey’s stellar performance, Kostoff’s mark stood as the oldest boys’ record to date. The oldest record, for boys or girls and any course, is Tracy Caulkins’ 100 SCM breaststroke of 1:07.47 set in 1981. Her record remains the indepedenent and overall high school mark.

Magahey does his club swimming with SwimAtlanta and his best time in the 500 free is a 4:14.61 that was fast enough to win the event at Juniors East in December where he also took first in the mile. The junior also won the 200 free (1:35.62) at the 2019 Georgia State Championships. - SwimmingWorld Magazine

In case you are curious - Jeff Kostoff was a 2 time Olympian (1984, 1988) finishing 6th and 9th in the 400 IM. So keep an eye on Magahey, he'll certainly be in discussions for Olympics over the next several cycles.

Edit to provide some context:
- During Jake's 500 yard swim, 3 of his 5 100 yard splits were faster than Bear has ever sprinted a 100 free with a dive.
- The race consisted on the 10 fastest swimmers in the state and 2nd place was 15.5 seconds behind (not on the same lap)
- The 10th place finisher in the heat was lapped (over 2 laps behind).
- This was also not his personal best swim for the 500 free.

Breeze

02-12-2019, 07:58 AM

2019 GHSA 6-7A State Swim Meet - PRELIM RESULTS

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Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly (1:04.23) - As I mentioned in the pre-event write up I was hoping Bailey could beat her time from last year and I felt it would be phenomenal if she was able to get close to her personal best time, well - she looked great and posted a time of 1:00.78. This is extremely close to her personal best time of 1:00.21, but it's almost identical to the 1:00.72 time she swam in time trials in in the same meet where she posted that best time. It turns out they bring the top 30 swimmers back to finals, but it would have taken a sub 59 second swim to get there. I'm hoping this means she'll swim well at the taper meet this Spring.

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay (1:45.67) - Bear's sprint free looked awesome in this race, as he posted a split around 22.5, which is the fastest he's ever gone. The team also managed to finish 21st, so they returned for finals the next day.

#3 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle - (1:53.80) - Bear looked sluggish in this race, he did manage to match his time from last year with a 1:48.00, but it wasn't pretty. He also managed to finish 29th, so he was able to return for finals.

#15 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle - (4:59.77) - - Bear again looked sluggish. His former coach Andy was sitting with us and he was analyzing Bear during the race, he mentioned that the stroke looked off, but he wasn't sure now was the time to try and fix it because Bear has a tendency to get overly analytic with his stroke and it can really hinder his performance. Bear finished in a time of 4:54.19, he wasn't pleased with the swim, but he did manage to get the 28th spot so he was going to swim it the next night at finals.

#17 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay - (1:36.90) - The sprint still looked extremely good. Bear managed to go a 23.15 immediately after the 500...it was as strong swim, and all in all Bear and the 3 non-year rounders put together a great effort, but the finished 31st, so they wouldn't be back for finals.

In case you are wondering, in the 400 free the 3 swimmers Bear paired with for the medley combined with a 4th non-year rounder to qualify 33rd, so they didn't make finals either. Had the coach simply combined her 4 best swimmers in the 200 or the 400 free they easily would have qualified.

Breeze

02-12-2019, 12:40 PM

2019 GHSA 6-7A State Swim Meet - FINALS RESULTS

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Bailey

Bailey didn't have a swim in finals, but the South Forsyth girls finished 3rd in the state!!!

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay (1:45.67) - This relay was the top seed in the first heat, and it was exciting. They had a lead in the back, lost it bad in the breast, then the flyer closed the gap but Bear entered the water in 3rd place...he was able to basically duplicate his 22.5 split from prelims and he won the heat.

#3 Boys 200 Yard Freestyle - (1:48.00) - Bear worked extremely hard in this one, trying to go faster, but it looked labored and he really wasn't going anywhere. This time Andy filmed Bear and noted that he was really picking his head and chest up out of the water creating a significant amount of drag, so much that he was forced to alter his kick to get over the wave of water he was creating, and that altered kick created more drag. It's the classic swimming dichotomy, you can work twice as hard and it creates 4x the drag and ultimately you swim slower. It's not always about power in swimming. Bear finished in 1:48.62

#15 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle - (4:54.19) - - Before the 500, Andy sent Bear the video he made along with some simple instructions. And from the start of the race it was obvious Bear was trying to make the adjustment. He was able to hold the more efficient stroke for about 225 yards, then he began to try and work harder and he fell back into some bad habits. However, he did significantly improve on his seed time, posting a 4:48.84. This swim moved him from 29th to 19th overall, still not close to his PB, but a step in the right direction. Now he really needs to work on cleaning up that technique before Sectionals in March.

Breeze

02-13-2019, 07:56 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships @ Greensboro Aquatic Center - 2/15 - 2/17

The ODAC Championships is coming up at the end of the week, and I'm planning to do a write up on the team and how it fits into the meet as well as how Brett's swims line up, but I was hoping to see a copy of the psych sheet before posting. However, ODAC athletics has failed to post anything yet. Last year they had a conference preview and the psych sheet out the Monday before the event. Not sure why the delay, but it's quite annoying to a stat geek like me.

Breeze

02-14-2019, 11:29 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships @ Greensboro Aquatic Center - 2/15 - 2/17

The ODAC Championship is a big swim meet for a D3 conference with 12 women’s teams and 10 men’s teams competing. In the meet the top 16 places score with the points distributed like this:

1 – 20 points 9 – 9 points
2 – 17 points 10 – 7 points
3 – 16 points 11 – 6 points
4 – 15 points 12 – 5 points
5 – 14 points 13 – 4 points
6 – 13 points 14 – 3 points
7 – 12 points 15 – 2 points
8 – 11 points 16 – 1 point

Washington & Lee dominates the conference having won 11 straight women’s title and all 4 of the previous men’s titles. They will undoubtedly win again this year by a wide margin. E&H finished 4th on the women’s side last year and 10th on the men's side.

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The Emory & Henry College Men's & Women's Swimming Teams will enter the championship portion of their seasons this weekend at the 2019 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championships, held at the Greensboro Aquatics Center. The three-day, 18-event meet will run from Friday to Sunday with preliminary races in the morning and finals in the evening. The Wasps will send eight men and seven women to this year's championship.

"The ODAC Championship meet is what we build our whole season around. Our biggest goal when we get into the pool in the fall is to prepare ourselves to swim fast this weekend," commented Head Coach Cody Skinner, now in his third year leading the Wasps. "We have had a good regular season. We swam some dual meets against really tough competition and some Division II and NAIA schools that have scholarships. Our record shows that we had success during the year, but the big measuring stick is the championship meet at the end of the year. We are excited for the possibility of one of our swimmers to attain a NCAA "B" Cut which will get her into the conversation for the NCAA Championship meet in March."

Women
- Junior Olivia Anson (Apex, N.C.) has the second-best swim over the course of the year in the 200-yard freestyle and is also seeded fifth in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles.
- Freshman Cat Sweigart (Bridgewater, Va.) is sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke and ninth in the 200-yard breaststroke while freshman Leah Mumpower (Bristol, Va.) is seeded eighth 500-yard freestyle.
- E&H has the fifth-best time in the 200-yard freestyle relay and is sixth in the 400-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley and 400-yard medley relays.

Men
- Freshman Braxton Justice (Spanishburg, W.Va.) is seeded 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke and also has strong seeds in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.
- Freshman Mack Henningsen (Abingdon, Va.) and freshman Blake Madaris (Acworth, Ga.) hold the #11 seeds in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard individual medley, respectively.
- The Wasps' have their best relay seed in the 800-freestyle relay at fifth and are sixth in the 400-yard medley relay.

Women’s Individual Event Breakdown
50 Freestyle
- 5) Anson – 24.82 – less than a half second from first.
- 41) Trotter – 31.28 – also ran
100 Freestyle
- 5) Anson – 54:06 – another ‘A’ final swim for Anson
- 16) Tunstall – 57:07 – sitting in a pretty good spot to at least hold on to the final scoring position
- 38) Trotter – 1:12.86 – also ran
200 Freestyle
- 2) Anson – 1:55.40 – just over a second ahead of third and just under a second behind first…
- 22) Simmons – 2:16.39 – Simmons has improved a good deal on mid-distance swims recently, but too far to go to get points this weekend.
500 Freestyle
- 25) Mumpower – 6:15.23 – also ran
1650 Freestyle
- No Entry
100 Backstroke
- 25) Simmons – 1:12.73 – also ran
- 32) Trotter – 1:22.42 – also ran
200 Backstroke
- 27) Simmons – NT – personal best puts her just outside of the top 16, it’s not likely she gets into scoring range but it’s not entirely out of the question either.
100 Butterfly
- 12) Tunstall – 1:03.37 – seventh place is less than 1 second faster than her seed time. 1 second slower is still 15th, so she should score in this one.
200 Butterfly
- 19) Scarbrough – NT – her personal best time of 2:34 puts her in the top 16, and based on enry times if she can even come close to that, she should make the ‘B’ finals
100 Breaststroke
- 6) Sweigart – 1:09.50 – sixth through eighth is less than .12 seconds apart. Needs a good swim to ensure an ‘A’ final appearance.
- 13) Scarbrough – 1:11.99 – she has a 3+ second advantage over the 14 seed and only .2 from 11, making it very likely she scores here
- 20) Mumpower – 1:19.47 – would need a really strong swim to slip into the back end of the scoring range
200 Breaststroke
- 9) Sweigart – 2:35.83 – needs over a second improvement to move up into the top 8
- 28) Mumpower – NT – personal best time is outside of scoring range
200 IM
- 12) Tunstall – 2:19.93 – looks likely she finishes between 11 and 14, big gaps on either side of those spots
- 23) Sweigart – 2:29.81 – would need a huge time drop to reach 16
400 IM
- 11) Scarbrough – 5:04.51 – solidly in the middle of the scoring pack.

Women’s Relay Event Breakdown - with relays Cody will be facing some tough decisions. By my count a swimmer can compete in a maximum of 4 relays, and Cody doesn’t have enough good swimmers to spread the wealth across all 5 races (this goes for the men too). He’s almost certainly going to have to analyze the races and look for gaps where a weaker swimmer might not hurt the team as much. The projected teams listed below take into account the need to limit swimmers to 4 events and is my best guess as to what Cody will do.

200 Free Relay
- 5) – 1:45.86 – Anson, Simmons, Sweigart, Scarbrough
400 Free Relay
- 6) – 3:56.53 – Anson, Tunstall, Simmons, Scarbrough
800 Free Relay
- 8) – NT – Anson, Tunstall, Simmons, Scarbrough – calculating all 4 swimmers 200 free times without adjusting for rolling starts – this team’s time comes in sixth
200 Medley Relay
- 6) – 2:01.14 – Simmons (bk), Sweigart (br), Tunstall (fl), Anson (fr)
400 Medley Relay
- 6) – 4:18.86 – Scarbrough (bk), Sweigart (br), Tunstall (fl), Simmons (fr)

Overall

The E&H Women are projected to finish 5th

Men’s Individual Event Breakdown
50 Freestyle
- 17) Justice – 23.11 – has a shot to score in this event, especially if he responds well to the taper
- 21) Gardner – 23.48 – has looked good at times and rough in others, not sure which we will see this weekend
- 29) Barr – 24.74 – a good time for a rugby player who swims in his spare time.
- 38) Moore – 26.75 – also ran
- 41) Bracero – 29.43 – nothing else to put him in
100 Freestyle
- 17) Justice – 51.45 – just like the 50 free, if the taper is good he could score
- 28) Gardner – 54.64 – doesn’t have the stamina to challenge the top 16 in this event
- 35) Barr – 57.73 – also ran
- 42) Moore – 1:08.16 – I expect he’ll be faster than this time, but still a non-factor
200 Freestyle
- 17) Henningsen – 1:55.59 – taper could help as the 13th through the 17th spots are separated by just 2 seconds
- 28) Barr – 2:11.96 – nothing else for him to swim, but he’ll be a non-factor
500 Freestyle
- 20) Henningsen – 5:22.13 – it appears he’s too far out to reach the top 16, but it is the 500 and we’ve seen significant time drops in this event during tapers before
1650 Freestyle
- No Entry
100 Backstroke
- 23) Madaris – 1:01.41 – not going to challenge for points here, as he’d need to get down to ~58 seconds
200 Backstroke
- 18) Madaris – 2:13.73 – here Blake may be able to slip into the back end of the scorers, he’s just 1 second off from the 16th seed.
100 Butterfly
- 21) Gardner – 1:03.40 – like the 100 free, he lacks the stamina to really challenge in this event
- 25) Moore – 1:11.53 – also ran
200 Butterfly
- 11) Henningsen – 2:15.65 – barring a DQ, Mack will almost certainly score here
100 Breaststroke
- 10) Justice – 1:05.28 – again barring a DQ, Braxton should score
- 17) Breeze – 1:08.75 – he’s really probably 18th, as there is a no time (NT) swimmer entered who has a personal best around a 1:04 but still that is right on the cusp of scoring. He’s going to need to drop some time to ensure he earns points.
200 Breaststroke
- 13) Breeze – 2:31.48 – this one is going to be close as there are several NT swimmers with PB times very similar or faster than Brett’s. A good swim here and he could climb up to around 10
200 IM
- No Entry
400 IM
- 11) Madaris – 4:59.81 – this one is going to be tricky because there are 7 NT swimmers, most of them are very good in this event, a couple fast enough to make the ‘A’ final. Just not sure how well a 5 minute swim holds up here.
- 18) Breeze – NT – Brett’s PB is a 5:02, but the strange thing is, I have no idea what to expect in this event. My first instinct is to state that he’s in no where near as good a shape as he was when he posted that PB time, but on the other hand he was swimming around a 1:15 fly leg, where he’s now swimming under 1:05…so that’s a 10 second improvement at the beginning of the race. If I was forced to guess, I say around a 5 minute time would be a good effort from Brett, which of course puts him in the same boat with Madaris mentioned above.

Men’s Relay Event Breakdown

200 Free Relay
- 7) – 1:36.50 – Gardner, Justice, Barr, Breeze
400 Free Relay
- 7) - 3:35.55 – Gardner, Justice, Barr, Henningsen
800 Free Relay
- 5) - 8:04.28 – Madaris, Justice, Henningsen, Breeze
200 Medley Relay
- 7) – 1:54.16 – Madaris (bk), Breeze (br), Henningsen (fl), Gardner (fr)
400 Medley Relay
- 6) 4:01.61 – Madaris (bk), Justice (br), Henningsen (fl), Gardner (fr)

Overall

The men are projected to finish 7th

*Note: The number preceding the swimmer's name is where they are seeded in the event.

JonInMiddleGA

02-17-2019, 06:40 PM

Breeze

02-19-2019, 08:02 AM

Breeze

02-19-2019, 10:03 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 1, PRELIM RESULTS

Before the start of the meet, we learned that Brett had been moved to the 400 IM, and out of the 500 free. Given that he had no individual swims on Friday morning, and that he might be in a relay, but that wasn't guaranteed, we elected to get up to the event in time for Monday finals. Otherwise we would have had to leave around 4 A.M. Friday to be there for the prelims. The wife did watch Prelims on her phone during the trip.

200 Yard Free Relay

- 5) E&H Women (1:45.86) - Anson, Simmons, Scarbrough, Tunstall - combined for a 1:48.81 and a 6th place finish

- 7) E&H Men (1:36.50) - Gardner, Breeze, Madaris, Justice - Gardner led off the relay and in the opening 25 he was right with the leaders early but he completely missed the wall on the turn, which obviously should have led to a DQ, but the official was looking the other way. The missed wall, led to a slow split of 24.2. Brett followed with a 25.26, which even if we add the maximum benefit of .7 for the relay rolling start, would still have been a personal best for him. The team finished with a time of 1:37.38, which was 8th and just barely good enough to keep them in the 'A' final.

500 Yard Freestyle

Women
- 25) Mumpower (6:15.23) - dropped an incredible 25.39 seconds, finished 18th. 5:49.84

Men
- 20) Henningsen (5:22.13) - dropped 14.85 seconds, and also finished 18th. 5:07.28

200 Yard Individual Medley

Women
- 12) Tunstall (2:19.93) - added a little bit of time finishing in 2:20.32, good enough for 13th and a spot in the 'B' Final
- 23) Sweigart (2:29.81) - Brett's training partner, dropped 7.94 seconds and climbed to 15th, also making the 'B' Final - 2:21.87

Men
- No Entry

50 Yard Freestyle

Women
- 5) Anson (24.82) - finished 6th with a 24.45
- 41) Trotter (31.28) - nice swim with a 28.36 - finished 32nd

Men
- 17) Justice (23.11) - split a 22.19 in the relay earlier in the day, and split a 22.12 with a cold start here. Good enough to make the 'B' Final as the 13 seed.
- 21) Gardner (23.48) - swam 23.54 finishing 23
- 29) Barr (24.74) - not his best swim - 25.54, 32nd
- 38) Moore (26.75) - form is coming along nicely...but turns are a disaster - did manage a PB 25.82. 35th
- 41) Bracero (29.43) - dropped a bunch 27.62 finished 37th.

400 Yard Medley Relay

- 6) E&H Women (4:18.86) - Trotter (back), Mumpower (breast), Scarbrough (fly), Simmons (free) - Cody went with the B team in this prelim and they posted a 4:36.98, but it was still good enough to qualify 5th heading into finals.

- 6) E&H Men (4:01.61) - Madaris (back), Breeze (breast), Henningsen (fly), Gardner (free) - posted a 4:01.80, and a 5th place heading into finals. Brett split a 1:07.14, which again, even with a maximum penalty for a rolling start would have still been a personal best swim.

Session 1 Overview

Session 1 started out promising. Brett had 2 swims in relays, which showed the coach felt he was swimming well enough to have him do the 100 breast in the 400 IM, which isn't a marginal thing, given that Braxton's 100 Breast was about 3 full seconds faster coming into this weekend. Plus he swam in the 200 free relay, and his freestyle wasn't one of the top 5 on the team coming in. In addition, both of his swims were in line to be personal bests. Neither would have been a big drop when the rolling start was factored, but personal bests are never something to take lightly.

All in all, the team looked to be in good form, with several swimmers dropping a decent amount of time.

Breeze

02-19-2019, 10:55 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 1, FINALS RESULTS

200 Yard Free Relay

- 6) E&H Women (1:48.81) - Tunstall, Sweigart, Mumpower, Anson - reworked relay for finals paid off with a 1:43.82 time and a 4th place finish. - 30 points

- 7) E&H Men (1:37.38) - Gardner, Henningsen, Madaris, Justice - Brett gets pulled before finals, which I expected. and the team climbed all the way to 5th - 1:34.41 - 28 points

200 Yard Individual Medley

Women
- 13) Tunstall (2:20.32) - improved from the morning and even dropped below her prelim seed time finishing in 2:19.59, but she wasn't able to improve on her 13th place finish in prelims. - 4 points
- 23) Sweigart (2:21.87) - she couldn't match her time from the morning posting a 2:22.72 and finishing 16th - 1 point

50 Yard Freestyle

Women
- 6) Anson (24.45) - finished 5th with a 24.29 - 14 points

Men
- 13) Justice (22.12) - like Gardner in prelims, Justice missed the wall on the turn, and again the officials failed to notice it. He posted a 23.05 and settled for 16th place because of it. - 1 point

400 Yard Medley Relay

- 5) E&H Women (4:36.98) - Anson (back), Sweigart (breast), Tunstall (fly), Scarbrough (free) - The free sprint specialist Anson was forced to move to back in order to maximize the team's time, and it paid off...they finished in 4:12.38 and 4th place - 30 points

- 5) E&H Men (4:01.80) - Madaris (back), Breeze (breast), Henningsen (fly), Gardner (free) - the same team from the morning, but the overall time was much better with them stopping the watches at 3:56.36. Brett improved significantly from his morning swim posting a time of 1:05.87, this again would easily be a personal best swim, by A LOT. Unfortunately, even though the team improved, one of the other teams that sandbagged the prelims, passed them in the standings and the boys ended up 6th. - 26 points

Session 2 Overview

Brett had very little to do in the second session, but his breast stroke in the relay was strong and that swim created some excitement for Saturday.

The team did well on the first day of competition.

Day 1 Women's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 293
2 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 186
3 ROANOKE COLLEGE 156
4 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 79
5 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 69
6 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 59
7 HOLLINS UNIVERSITY 49
8 FERRUM COLLEGE 46
9 SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE 36
10 GUILFORD COLLEGE 26
11 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 14
12 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 0

Day 1 Men's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 278
2 ROANOKE COLLEGE 181
3 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 120
4 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 103
5 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 55
6 HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE 53
7 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 50
8 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 43
9 FERRUM COLLEGE 24
10 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 14

Breeze

02-20-2019, 09:19 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 2, PRELIM RESULTS

Brett was looking at two individual events on Day 2, the 100 breast and surprisingly the 400 IM.

200 Yard Medley Relay

- 6) E&H Women - (2:01.14) - Trotter (back), Mumpower (breast), Sweigart (fly), Simmons (free), swam the relay in 2:04.57, and finished 6th. I expected this relay to be reworked for finals.

- 7) E&H Men - (1:54.16) - Justice (back), Breeze (breast), Gardner (fly), Barr (free) - in a relay that it appeared E&H might struggle to make the top 8, the team finished 7th with a time of 1:47.96. Brett split a 29.68, which was an all time best for him, and he was very excited to have broken 30 seconds on his leg.

400 Yard Individual Medley

Women
- 11) Scarbrough - (5:04.51) - Savannah stepped up to take on this event and she qualified for the 'B' final in the 10th spot with a 4:57.99 swim.

Men
- 11) Madaris - (4:59.81) - Blake ended up 13th, his time was crushed by his breaststroke leg which took over 1 and a half seconds. 4:49.86.

- 18) Breeze - (NT) - Brett's personal best in this event was a 5:02 from back when he was 14. Coming into ODACs Brett was originally scheduled to swim the 500 free, but in practice his fly had improved so much that Cody started training him for the IM. Cody initially didn't believe Brett would be ready to compete in the 400 IM, but changed his mind a few days before the meet. Brett was anxious about this race, because it had been so long since he swam it, and because it is a grueling event. On the other hand, he was intrigued by the opportunity, knowing he was much bigger and stronger and a better swimmer. I was hoping Brett would go in the 4:50 range, and Cody had a goal time for him of 4:45.

The race started and Brett opened with a fly leg just under 1:05. It was a shock to see, and while he was probably 6th in his heat to the wall after the fly, he was only around a half second to 1 second behind the majority of the pool. The back, which is now Brett's weakest stroke didn't really hurt him. He posted a 1:12 split, but was actually slightly faster than the average time in the heat. In fact, Brett managed to pass 1 swimmer and close on a second. In the breast leg, Brett separated from the majority of the field. he split a 1:17, which was the second fastest in his heat. He pulled into 3rd overall in the heat during this leg. On the freestyle, he opened with a 35.64 second 50, but the swimmer next to him was closing hard, so Brett sprinted home in the last 50 to hold on to his position and he finished with a 30.84 split. Overall, he finished with a time of 4:41.61, a personal best by a mile, and good enough to seed him 10th heading into finals. This swim blew me away. I had no idea he could go this fast!!!

100 Yard Butterfly

Women
- 12) Tunstall - (1:03.37) - swam a time almost identical to her seed - 1:03.35. Seeded 13th heading into finals

Men
- 21) Gardner - (1:03.40) - went sub60 - 59.95, but still didn't qualify for finals.
- 25) Moore - (1:11.53) - big time drop 1:05.46

200 Yard Freestyle

Women
- 2) Anson - (1:55.40) - blistered prelims with a 1:54.61 and was top seed headed into finals.
- 22) Simmons - (2:16.39) - managed to drop a couple of seconds and slip into the last qualifying spot - 2:14.22

Men
- 17) Henningsen - (1:55.59) - Mack dropped down to 1:51.82 and moved up to 14th so he qualified for the 'B' final
- (28) Barr - (2:11.96) - - Nick dropped 6+ seconds and finished in a 2:05.07, finishing 17th overall, just missing the finals by 1 spot (but also by 6+ seconds)

100 Yard Breaststroke

Women
- 6) Sweigart - (1:09.50) - Cat managed to drop about half a second and hang onto 7th place with a 1:09.08. Qualifying her for the 'A' final.
- 13) Scarbrough - (1:11.99) - swam a 1:11.29 - and qualfied for the 'B' final in the 10 spot.
- 20) Mumpower - (1:19.47) - dropped over 6 seconds to climb all the way to 14th and a spot in the 'B' final - 1:13.25

Men
- 10) Justice - (1:05.28) - Braxton's huge pullouts help propel him to a 1:03.52 time and a 10th place spot in the 'B' final.

- 17) Breeze - (1:08.75) - Given his 2 good swims in the medley relay the day before, and his nice split in the 200 medley earlier in the day, I was excited to see what he might be able to swim. I was hoping he could go under a 1:06.69, because that would give him the Georgia state cut and make him eligible to swim at long course state in July. He and Braxton were next to each other during this race, and Brett was chasing the whole way. He would fall behind on every wall, then he'd close in the middle of the pool, only to reach a wall and start chasing again. Brett said, "I'm closing hard on him every lap, I get to his shoulder, we turn off the wall, and I'm staring at his damn feet again." Regardless, it helped push Brett to a personal best swim of 1:05.50. After the race the two hugged over the lane rope, it was pretty cool to see the comradery between Brett and his teammate. This swim was good enough to place him 14th overall. It was also Cody's goal time for Brett next year.

100 Yard Backstroke

Women
- 25) Simmons - (1:12.73) - dropped time to 1:11.32, but only climbed to 21st.
- 32) Trotter - (1:22.42) - dropped 10 seconds to 1:12.81, placing her 22nd in prelims.

Men
- 23) Madaris - (1:01.41) - only dropped a fraction of time at 1:01.26, which was outside the top 16.

Breeze

02-20-2019, 11:05 AM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 2, FINAL RESULTS

Brett made 'B' Finals in both of his individual events and will be swimming them again in finals.

200 Yard Medley Relay

- 6) E&H Women - (2:04.57) - left the same lineup in place - Trotter (back), Mumpower (breast), Sweigart (fly), and Simmons (free)...this was a smart bit of coaching by Cody, who realized they were 3 full seconds from 5th, which would be difficult to improve in a 200 yard swim, and they were 4 seconds from 7th, so this became an opportunity to use some additional swimmers in relays, which will make his top swimmers available for the last 2 later in the meet. - 26 points

- 7) E&H Men - (1:47.96) - Justice (back), Breeze (breast), Gardner (fly), Barr (free) - The team split a 1:45.92, which was good enough for 6th - but they were DQed. This was a painful call for a couple of reasons. The DQ cost the team 26 points, which force them way down the standings. It was also difficult because it was a bad call. The officials stated the Brett left early on the relay exchange, but the touch pads, which are synched to record the difference between when a swimmer touches the wall and when the next swimmer leaves the block stated Brett was .16 after the touch. However, for some stupid reason the coaches in the ODAC elected not to use the touch pads, but rather use the officials discretion. Making matters worse, another team did have a negative split in the relay that wasn't caught. Brett again improved on his split from the morning, this time going a 29.23.

400 Yard Individual Medley

Women
- 10) Scarbrough - (4:57.99) - added a little time from the morning (4:58.94) and finished 11th, the time add didn't matter, she was 5 seconds from 10th. - 6 points

Men
- 13) Madaris - (4:49.86) - In similar fashion to prelims, Blake's back enabled him to charge out to the top 3 in the heat, but his breast killed him and he finished where he was seeded 13th - 4:48.94. - 4 points

- 10) Breeze - (4:41.61) - After the morning swim, Brett came by to talk, and he was extremely pumped up. He said he did really, well, but he felt he could go faster. He said he felt he could go 1:02s in the fly, and he thought 1:17 on the breast as too slow. Plus he wanted a more even split in the free, something like 32/32 rather than the 35/30 he swam.

After the race started it was obvious Brett was going to take the fly out faster. He posted a 1:02.84, and again was 6th or 7th after the opening 100, but was within a second of most of the pool. Just like in prelims the back wasn't great, it was still in the 1:12s, this time about half a second faster, but just like prelims, it was good enough to catch up to or pass 3 swimmers. Going into breast Brett was 4, but by the end of the first 25 he was already in second. he split in the 1:15s this time. Heading into the freestyle he was being challenged by the same swimmer that attempted to pass him in prelims. Brett tried to pick up the pace, but wasn't able to hold him off this time, closing with a 33.2 and 32.06 split in the free. All in all, he swam another personal best 4:36.18, and finished 11th. This was again faster than the time Cody wanted from Brett as a sophomore - 6 points

100 Yard Butterfly

Women
- 13) Tunstall - (1:03.35) - swam much better in finals dropping to a 1:02.73, and climbing to 11th - 6 points

200 Yard Freestyle

Women
- 1) Anson - (1:54.61) - battled hard to win this event, but faded late and settled for 3rd - 1:55.41
- 16) Simmons - (2:14.22) - Added over a second back to her time - 2:15.77, but still earns a point - 1 point

Men
- 14) Henningsen - (1:51.82) - Mack also added time back in finals, but he held on to 14th place - 1:52.37 - 3 points

100 Yard Breaststroke

Women
- 7) Sweigart - (1:09.08) - with a huge effort in the finals, Cat dropped to a 1:08.20 and edged out a tight battle to take 5th - 14 points
- 10) Scarbrough - (1:11.29) - similar swim to the morning - 1:11:51, 11th place - 6 points
- 14) Mumpower - (1:13.25) - similar swim to the morning - 1:13.42, 14th place - 3 points

Men
- 10) Justice - (1:03.52) - managed another good swim and held on to 10th spot - 1:03.17 - 7 points

- 14) Breeze - (1:05.50) - Brett started out good, with a split right on 30, and he was chasing Braxton again, who was 1 lane over, but in the back half, he faded back a bit. Could have been fatigue, it wasn't long after his 400 IM that he was back in the water for this race. However, he still managed to post a personal best, and it just continued his run of great swimming. He finished in 1:05.32, but he did slip to 15th place. - 2 points

800 Yard Freestyle Relay

- 8) E&H Women - (NT) - Tunstall, Scarbrough, Mumpower, Anson - the team combined to swim an 8:34.67 and a 5th place finish - 28 points

- 5) E&H Men - (8:04.28) - Justice, Breeze, Madaris, Henningsen - before this event someone asked which of the boys was going to be swimming this event, and one of the father's replied, "Probably the only 4 capable of doing it." Which is a joke, but with a thread of truth. Justice opened with a 1:51.06, Brett followed with a 1:59.30, the first time he split under 2 minutes in this event. Madaris, was a 2:00.52, and Mack closed with a 1:55.15. In total they posted a 7:46.03, and they finished 5th. - 28 points

Day 2 Women's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 672
2 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 448
3 ROANOKE COLLEGE 356
4 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 185
4 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 185
6 HOLLINS UNIVERSITY 122
7 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 112
8 SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE 78
9 FERRUM COLLEGE 74
10 GUILFORD COLLEGE 55
11 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 46
12 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 3

Day 2 Men's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 601
2 ROANOKE COLLEGE 442
3 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 346
4 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 211
5 HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE 177
6 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 105
6 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 105
8 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 90
9 FERRUM COLLEGE 80
10 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 25

At one point following the DQ in the opening relay E&H men fell all the way to 8th place.

Breeze

02-21-2019, 12:07 PM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 3, PRELIM RESULTS

After 2 great individual swims yesterday, Brett has what I believe is his best event, the 200 Breaststroke.

200 Yard Backstroke

Women
- 27) Simmons - (NT) - had a nice swim with a 2:34.77, but only managed 18th place.

Men
- 18) Madaris - (2:13.73) - Blake dropped 4 seconds from his seed time down to a 2:09.76, and climbed to 15th place and a spot in the 'B' final

100 Yard Freestyle

Woman
- 5) Anson - (54:06) - Liv posted a 53.30, which put her 5th heading into finals.
- 16) Tunstall - (57:07) - improved slightly to a 56.74, but she slipped out of the top 16 so no finals appearance. I thought she should have been in the 200 fly, but apparently she requested this race and Cody accommodated.
- 38) Trotter - (1:12.86) - 10+ second drop for Lauren - 1:02.30

Men
- 17) Justice - (51.41) - Huge swim from Braxton, drops below 50 seconds with a 49.14, 14th heading into finals.
- 28) Gardner - (54.64) - similar swims to most of the season - fading bad in the back half - 54.24, did climb to 24th
- 35) Barr - (57.73) - 55.52, climbed to 29th
- 42) Moore - (1:08.16) - huge time drop for Nick, and if his turns were better this would have been much closer to Gardner's time. Form in the middle of the pool is very good...may have a good upside for next year if he can get his turns figured out - 57.57

200 Yard Breaststroke

Women
- 9) Sweigart - (2:35.83) - - continued her strong meet, with another 'A' final performance - 2:29.86, qualifies 6th
- 28) Mumpower - (NT) - - another great swim for Leah as she gets into the 'B' final - 2:45.52 - 14th

Men

- 13) Breeze - (2:31.48) - Coming into this event, my hope for Brett was similar to my hope in the 100 Breast - swim fast enough to get the state cut. In this case, he'd needs to go a 2:24.19. Cody wanted him around a 2:25. Brett was excited about this race, knowing this had been his best event previously. However, he also admitted that he was really getting stiff and sore from his efforts over the last 2 days. I wasn't sure how that was going to impact him, but I suggested he drink a lot of water and stretch the best he could.

Brett opened his heat with a 31.02, which was pretty quick given the distance he was going to need to go. I was concerned he may have taken it out a bit too fast, like he did at the mid-season taper. He followed with a 36.73, so he split the opening 100 in 1:07.75. In the back half he faded a bit more than he wanted closing in 1:17.63. Overall he posted a personal best time of 2:25.38, right where Cody wanted him. Though Cody wasn't super pleased with his 1:17 back half, feeling he should have been a little quicker there given his 1:15 split in the breast during his 400 IM final swim.

Brett finished 13th in a very tight event, with 8th place less than 3 seconds faster. In fact, Brett was closer to 8th than the 14th place swimmer was to him.

- 21) Bracero - (NT) - decided to switch to this event...was very nervous about it, but Brett talked him through. Finished in a 2:56.03.

200 Yard Butterfly

Women
- 19) Scarbrough - (NT) - she had a awesome swim, so good that she missed the 'A' final by just .08 seconds. Her 2:25.89 time was good enough for 9th.

Men
- 11) Henningsen - (2:15.65) - Mack dropped around 3 seconds and qualified in the 'B' final as the 12th seed. - 2:12.41

400 Yard Free Relay

Women
- 6) E&H Women - (3:56.53) - Trotter, Simmons, Sweigart, Anson - posted a 4:01.18 and qualified 4th.

Men
- 7) E&H Men - (3:35.55) - Gardner, Henningsen, Moore, Justice - combined for a 3:35.58 time and a 6th place finish heading into finals.

1650 Yard Freestyle

No E&Hers were competing in the mile, but I'm including this event because the men's score coming into the final day has E&H tied with Bridgewater, and while E&H doesn't have a swimmer in this event, Bridgewater has a swimmer seeded 3rd. The points he receives in this event, will set the primary target for the E&H boys to shoot for, as this is a timed final, so his points will go on the board first.

Breeze

02-21-2019, 01:14 PM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - DAY 3, FINAL RESULTS

Women's Standings
Heading into the final day, the E&H girls were tied with Bridgewater, but the Eagles had 3 girls score in the 1650 which gave them a 26 point lead. Plus BC had 5 swimmers qualfied for 'A' finals swims and 3 set to swim in the 'B' final. Whereas E&H only had 2 in the 'A' and 2 in the 'B'. Even with the better seed in the relay (and beating Bridgewater in the relay wasn't guaranteed), E&H was clearly not going to match Bridgewater down the stretch and was going to have to settle for 5th.

Men's Standings
On the men's side the Bridewater swimmer in the 1650 finished 5th, giving them a 14 point lead. However, the men had 4 guys swimming in 'B' finals, Blake in the 200 back, Braxton in the 100 Free, Brett in the 200 breast, and Mack in the 200 Fly, compared to Bridgewater with 2 swimming in 'B' finals (1 in the 200 breast, and 1 in the 200 fly). Plus, the men had a higher seed in the 400 free relay. It was going to be close.

200 Yard Backstroke

Men
- 15) Madaris - (2:09.76) - seeded 15th coming in, Blake dropped a tiny bit from the morning but did move up a spot, which earned a very needed extra point. 2:09.37, 14th place - 3 points

(Bridgewater's lead 11)

100 Yard Freestyle

Woman
- 5) Anson - (53.30) - continued to swim well with a 53.61, good enough for 5th overall. - 14 points

Men
- 14) Justice - (49.14) - stopped watches at 49.23 and also finished 14th - 3 points

(Bridgewater's lead 8)

200 Yard Breaststroke

Women
- 6) Sweigart - (2:29.86) - - almost identical swim from the morning 2:29.81, but slipped to 7th - 12 points
- 14) Mumpower - (2:45.52) - - dropped another 4 seconds and moved up to 12th overall - 2:41.96 - 5 points

Men

- 13) Breeze - (2:25.38) - before this race, I asked Brett if Coach Cody had any suggestions for him on how to swim the race, and he said Cody told him that he really should take it out a little slower and try to bring it home in a 1:15, but then he commented that he thought he might just try and sprint the whole thing. I warned him that might not be a great idea. That E&H was in a tight race with Bridgewater and every point mattered. That he didn't want to go out to fast and collapse on the back half and cost his team points.

The race started and Brett was out exceptionally fast, opening with a 30.54, almost a half second faster than the morning, and the fastest opening 50 in the race, with second place .04 back. In the second split Brett went a 35.77, the second fastest split in the heat, and it meant his opening 100 was a 1:06.31 close to 1.5 seconds faster than the morning. At this point it was obvious he was trying to sprint the whole thing, so I was just hoping he could hold on. He was currently in second place .7 behind the leader. In the 3rd 50, Brett posted the fastest split in the heat again with a 36.50, moving back into first place by .24 seconds. In the final 50 it was a dead heat all the way to the wall, but the other swimmer finished perfectly on his stroke and Brett had a slightly long finish, which cost him the heat. He did post the 3rd fastest split in the last 50 and finished 10th with an overall personal best time of 2:20.08. Coach Cody told him that he was prepared to chew him out for taking it out too hard, but then he never faded...so Good Job!

This AMAZING swim earned him the state cut that I was hoping he'd get. I do believe his success early in the meet provided him the confidence to attack this race. I also believe some of the racing he did earlier may have taught him how to push through the discomfort racing can create. This was a huge outcome for him. - 7 points

(Bridgewater's lead is 3 points - the Bridgewater breaststroker took 15th to provide them with an additional 2 points)

200 Yard Butterfly

Women
- 9) Scarbrough - (2:25.89) - Savannah looked a bit tired the second time around in this event. She added over 4 seconds to post a 2:30.01 and settled for 10th - 7 points

Men
- 12) Henningsen - (2:12.41) - Mack has another great swim dropping almost 4 seconds to post a 2:08.63and finish 12th, but the Bridgewater swimmer was 13th, so E&H only gains 1 point - 5 points

(Bridgewater's lead - 2 points)

400 Yard Free Relay

Women
- 4) E&H Women - (4:01.18) - Tunstall, Sweigart, Scarbrough, Anson - combined for a 3:51.34 and a 5th place finish - 28 points

Men
It all came down to this event, but the Bridgewater boys failed to make the 'A' final in prelims and they ended up being stuck with 9th place and 18 points. As long as the men don't get DQed the worst they could do is 8th place which will give them 22 points, so barring some terrible gaff E&H was going to pass Bridgewater in the standings.

- 6) E&H Men - (3:35.58) - the men were extremely conservative with their takeoffs to insure they didn't get DQed, and Gardner, Henningsen, Madaris, and Justice combined for a 3:29.44 and a 6th place finish - 24 points

Breeze

02-21-2019, 02:06 PM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Championships - FINAL STANDINGS

Women's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 988
2 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 675
3 ROANOKE COLLEGE 516
4 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 296
5 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 251
6 HOLLINS UNIVERSITY 162
7 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 147
8 FERRUM COLLEGE 103
8 SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE 103
10 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 61
11 GUILFORD COLLEGE 55
12 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 19

Men's Scores

1 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 913
2 ROANOKE COLLEGE 622
3 RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE 541
4 RANDOLPH COLLEGE 280
5 HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE 274
6 EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE 149
7 BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE 143
8 FERRUM COLLEGE 125
9 VIRGINIA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 122
10 GREENSBORO COLLEGE 42

rjolley

02-21-2019, 02:24 PM

I'm not going to spoiler anything (duh) but I will tell you that I just went through the posted times from Fri & Sat. (As of 740p Sun isn't up yet)

Affirmation, if nothing else, that we do care & we do enjoy following this.

Want to echo Jon's sentiments about caring and following along. I must admit I look forward to seeing updates about Brett, Bear, and Bailey, like I'm seeing updates for one of the kids I coached. It's great to hear about kids developing through their time with sports. Thank you for sharing your family's triumphs and setbacks with us.

Izulde

02-22-2019, 12:15 AM

I also follow along. Phenomenal meet by Brett, by the way - love seeing him finally break through in an environment that appears to be perfect for him.

JonInMiddleGA

02-22-2019, 01:16 AM

And I'm going to further add that my wife knows enough of these particular tale to ask about all three competitors all season long.

Her takeaway from the ODACs -- even before hearing the final day results -- been similar to Izulde's: that it's wonderful to see kids find the right place for themselves.

Congrats to Brett on a great meet

Breeze

02-22-2019, 10:48 AM

Thank guys...I've really enjoyed doing this journal, and going back to re-read sections has definitely brought back a lot of memories. I also know that Brett was completely blown away when I gave him a copy of it last year around this time; when it looked like he was going to give up the sport. In fact, I think the journal helped remind him how much he actually enjoyed swimming, and I honestly believe it had an impact on his final decision to attend E&H.

However, even with all that, it's nice to know that others are actually reading along and enjoying the journey as well. Thanks again guys.

Breeze

02-22-2019, 12:07 PM

Emory & Henry - ODAC Review

The ODAC Championship was probably the most fun I've had at a swim meet. Other meets have had moments of joy, even overwhelming joy with...High School swims against rival schools. Bear & Bailey swimming in A finals at State Championships. Fantastic finishes, huge time drops, compelling and breathtaking comeback charges, Bear even participated in a state championship relay that battled all 4 legs head to head to win by a hair at the end.

But, for all of that, the overall experience at ODACs was extremely different..

Big year round meets, like state championships and sectionals are very businesslike. Yes, teams do compete in these meets, like Chattahoochee Gold, SwimAtlanta, Dynamo, etc., but those are "teams" more in name than practice. Sure, each team will field relays, but that's about the only time it feels like a team meet. Once relays are over, things become much more focused on individual performance and fall into a very monotonous pace of heat followed by heat with the overall outcome of the meet almost always a forgone conclusion. These big year round meets limit participation only by time cut standards so the largest teams will always win because they'll put the most swimmers into an event giving them more opportunities to score. Meaning, there is little to no excitement around the standings. In our case, the Gold team kids are pretty tight and so are the parents. While we are at the meet we follow all of them, but even with that, there are maybe 8 to 10 kids you are rooting for in total, out of thousands who are swimming.

At high school meets, the team aspect is present, but the execution is off and the swimming is lacking in fundamental ways. For us the teams are very large, with 80+ kids on the roster, and well over half of those non-year round swimmers. So there is a distinct lack of ability in many cases and heats can be painful to watch because the swimming is so poor. Moreover, there is little to no coaching. In fact, the coach's lack of interest often hinders the team's ability to perform, because swimmers are put into the wrong events, or the wrong kids are used in the relays. It can be very frustrating.

At ODACs, the energy and team atmosphere was evident from the first race through the last, with loud cheering and chants taking place every session. The pool of swimmers was much smaller so the sessions were shorter, and the level of swimming was on average very good. In our case it was great to root for every E&H swimmer because we know every one of them and we knew every swim and every point was going to be important. ODACs was truly a combination of the best of year round and the best of high school with a smaller pool of competitors so it was easier to follow along and less time was spent waiting for a race you had interest in.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E&H did very well in during the meet. I believe Coach Cody has to be extremely pleased with the outcome. In all here is how the team scoring broke down:

Women

Oliva "Liv" Anson - 44 points - Second Team All ODAC
Cat Sweigart - 27 points - Third Team All ODAC
Savannah Scarbrough - 19 points
Anne Louise "Al" Tunstall - 10 points
Leah Mumpower - 8 points
Taylor Simmons - 1 point

In total 6 of the 7 women scored in the meet, and his 3 freshmen all contributed, accounting for ~43% of the individual points earned. Here is a breakdown on each swimmer:

Liv Anson - did exactly as expected. There was a hope she might challenge an NCAA D3 'B' cut, but she didn't
Cat Sweigart - had an excellent meet, probably slightly out-performed expectations
Savannah Scarbrough - did exactly as expected
Anne Louise Tunstall - the one female swimmer that may have under-performed a little. Mostly due to insistence on swimming 100 free, when she should have been in a mid-distance free or fly race instead.
Leah Mumpower - dropped a significant amount of time in every race. Significantly outperformed expectations
Taylor Simmons - earned a point this year, which probably wasn't expected.
Lauren Trotter - improved significantly in her swims, may have moved up into a bigger role next year.

Men

Brett Breeze - 15 points
Braxton Justice - 11 points
Mack Henningsen - 8 points
Blake Madaris - 7 points

4 of the 6 freshman accounted for all the individual points earned by the men. They also were the most frequent names on the relays as well. Here is a breakdown on each swimmer:

Braxton Justice - knew with more significant training he had a huge upside and he showed some of that early in this meet.
Mack Henningsen - grinder who improved a bunch at championships and appears to be positioned for a nice career.
Blake Madaris - his results were probably a bit disappointing. He is significantly overweight which hindered his performance, if he can get back in shape could be more of a factor next year.
Tariq Gardner - didn't step up as hoped
Nick Barr - only returner from last year improved significantly this time around.
Jarod Bracero - non-swimmer with no expectations - did drop a good bit of time
Nice Moore - project swimmer from the start with no expectations, but form improvement is dramatic and upside appears good

Brett Breeze - given that he exceeded my most grandiose expectations, I have to believe he exceeded Cody's as well. I do know that he basically swam goal times Cody wanted him to hit as a sophomore in all three of his races. I also would bet the farm that Cody didn't expect Brett to be the top male point earner on the team! (In fact, in some of the videos of the races, even from across the pool, you can tell by Cody's body language that he is stunned by Brett's performance)

If anyone is interested, the entire meet was broadcast on the Internet. You can watch by choosing a session here:

http://www.odaconline.com/tournament/swim/2019championships/streaming-channel

Breeze

02-22-2019, 12:27 PM

General Update - Bear

After practice this morning Bear went back home suffering from a headache, sore throat, and nausea. I'm extremely concerned right now. The flu is rampant in our area, and I have 4 or 5 co-workers that have been infected this week. I'm praying he doesn't get sick because even a just a cold right now would significantly adversely impact his performance at Sectionals in a few weeks. It would also mark the 3rd straight year his performance at this meet would be hindered by sickness.

There is too much hard work put in to have the rug pulled out from under you 3 years in a row!!! It's just no fair!!!

Breeze

02-27-2019, 06:17 AM

General Update - Bear & Bailey

I mentioned previously that Bear wasn't feeling well the other day. It ends up he's just got a cold. He missed a couple of practices, and he's still far from 100% but at least it hasn't crippled his preparations for Sectionals.

Bailey on the other hand ended up getting an infected lymph node in her neck. Which is causing her a considerable amount of pain, especially when she has to turn her head to breath. She came home early from practice yesterday, and now she is running a fever. She's going to miss several days of practice as well. Though she is qualified to swim at Sectionals she has decided to skip that event and participate in the March Madness swim a week later, because she'll be able to swim more events and she's hoping to earn more Sectional cuts. I'm hoping that extra week will enable her to get over this sickness and swim well when the time comes.

Breeze

03-01-2019, 06:33 AM

General Update

During the second day of the Ivy League Swim Championships, Raunak Khosla, a kid that Brett used to compete against regularly (especially when Brett was younger) broke a conference record.

The 200 IM saw an new Ivy league meet record and Brown pool record. Princeton freshman Raunak Khosla swam a speedy 1:42.80, out-touching Penn senior Mark Andrew (1:42.97). Both swimmers were under the previous meet record of 1:43.24, and pool record of 1:43.80, both of which were held by Andrew.

Breeze

03-06-2019, 11:53 AM

2019 ESSZ Senior Short Course Sectionals @ Triangle Aquatic Center, Cary, NC - 3/7 - 3/10

Bear will be heading up to Cary, NC tonight only this time I won't be going. I came down with the flu over the weekend and I'm not fully recovered, so the wife will be going. Bear is still not 100% recovered from his cold reported earlier, plus he still trying to rebuild his stroke and is severely lacking in confidence right now. Unfortunately, this is looking like a 3rd straight sectionals meet where Bear doesn't perform the way he was hoping.

#2 Men's 1000 Yard Freestyle - (9:41.74) - Seeded 12 - capable of dropping enough time to climb into the top 8 (which equals an A final only the 1000 is only swum 1 time), but any drop in time would be huge...

#6 Men's 200 Yard Freestyle - (1:45.91) - Seeded 53 - extremely tight race here...a drop of a couple of seconds and Bear could climb into the top 20...but an add of a couple of seconds and he could fall just as far

#12 Men's 400 Yard IM - (4:11.59) - Seeded 34 - will almost certainly scratch this race

#16 Men's 200 Yard Butterfly - (1:57.01) - Seeded 34 - hasn't raced a bunch of fly this year, so not sure what to expect...

#24 Men's 500 Yard Freestyle - (4:41.77) - Seeded 27 - another pretty tightly seeded event. Bear showed some promise in this event at high school state by trying to adjust his stroke. He posted a better time than he had in quite a while there and he's had a month or so to fine tune it a bit. Even if it isn't 100% perfect, he could drop time in this one if he's managed to cut down on the drag a bit.

#30 Men's 1650 Yard Freestyle - (16:37.04) - Seeded 22 - last time Bear swam this he had that amazing race where his goggles came off on the dive, but fixed them while swimming and still posted a personal best and climbed through the field to finish 3rd. Given his stroke was far from perfect on that weekend, and he had the entire effort of fixing his goggles in his last swim, I believe there is time he can cut here no matter what kind of form he's in. Without the goggle issue at State I believe he was looking at a 16:20 something effort. Hoping he can get there this weekend.

Breeze

03-15-2019, 07:53 AM

2019 ESSZ Senior Short Course Sectionals - RESULTS

This was a very disappointing meet. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting huge drops, especially with his stroke being off, but I was hopeful that Bear might get a personal best or two. However, not only did he not get a PB, but he added significant time in his distance events. Making matters worse - we found out that he's been dealing with cramping/muscle spasm issues for 2 years now! This is heartbreaking because with him getting bigger and stronger his times should be improving, but now I learn that every distance race he competes in (and some sprints), he cramps up in the shoulders, back, and hips, and he fights through the pain to compete. In fact, these cramps were apparently the catalyst of the stroke issues, as he adjusted his stroke to make it less painful.

The information about the cramping was told to Coach Andy years ago, but Andy felt the issue was mental and that Bear was tightening up because he was trying to hard, and he urged him to swim more relaxed. At this point however, it seems pretty obvious there is something else going on. We are going to look into options to try and determine the underlying problem.

#2 Men's 1000 Yard Freestyle - (9:41.74) - Seeded 12 - 9:59.62

#6 Men's 200 Yard Freestyle - (1:45.91) - Seeded 53 - 1:46.64

#12 Men's 400 Yard IM - (4:11.59) - Seeded 34 - Scratch

#16 Men's 200 Yard Butterfly - (1:57.01) - Seeded 34 - 2:01.10

#24 Men's 500 Yard Freestyle - (4:41.77) - Seeded 27 - 4:50.88

#30 Men's 1650 Yard Freestyle - (16:37.04) - Seeded 22 - 17:08.35 - tried taking it out slower to see if he could avoid the cramping - didn't work.

800 Free Relay - Bear split a 1:47.28

400 Free Relay - Bear split a 50.01

Breeze

03-19-2019, 11:20 AM

General Update - Bailey

We finally have a reason for Bailey's swollen lymph node. She recently went back to the doctor with a sore throat, and while culturing her tests it was determined that she has mono. This will effectively shut down the rest of her short course season. She had a meet scheduled for this weekend but she's now going to withdraw. It's unfortunate, because she was swimming well coming into 2019, but she's really struggled to stay in the pool most of this year so far, and mono explains a lot of that. Plus by not taking the time off, she's been unable to completely recover. Hopefully, she can take a few weeks, get healthy, let her back rest, and prepare for a good long course season.

rjolley

03-19-2019, 12:27 PM

Sorry to hear Bailey and Bear are having problems. Hope they have a speedy complete recovery and return to the pool.

JonInMiddleGA

03-19-2019, 06:10 PM

Breeze

03-21-2019, 08:41 AM

General Update - Bear

Scary moment yesterday. Bear came home very upset. He was playing basketball after practice and he was accidentally tripped up and fell on his elbow. He was afraid it was broken, so we spent the evening at Children's Healthcare. Turns out it doesn't appear to be broken (may have to follow up with an orthopedic to look for hairline fractures if it is still bothering him in a week). He's just got some significant swelling and bruising, which we will treat with ice and ibuprofen. Thank the Lord it wasn't more serious.

Breeze

04-11-2019, 06:25 AM

Emory & Henry - General Update

Looks like the ODAC conference might be adding 2 new women's teams for the 2019 season. In addition to the University of Lynchburg joining for both men and women, Salem College in North Carolina is also starting up a swim team for 2019. The all girls school is apparently looking to join the ODAC. If they join it would bring the number of women's teams to 14.

Breeze

04-25-2019, 08:45 AM

General Update

On Friday (4/26), Bailey and Bear both have doctor appointments. Bailey will be going in to get her blood tested to see if she is finally over her mono and will be allowed to get back in the pool. Bear will be going to a sports medicine doctor to see if he can determine how to address his lat cramping issue that has held him back for the past 2 years.

Breeze

04-26-2019, 11:35 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear's "cramping" problem appears to be a repetitive motion/overuse injury and will require physical therapy. I haven't gotten the whole scoop yet, but basically what I currently know is:

- he will not have to quit for awhile, but will have to back-off on his workouts some
- he is going to become part of the doctor's study on peak performance and optimal training

Basically the doctor is trying to work with athletes to help them identify their optimal training level so that effort with diminishing returns that often cause overuse injuries can be avoided in the future.

I do not know the timeline for how long the PT will last.

Breeze

04-29-2019, 11:13 AM

General Update - Bailey

Bailey has been cleared to slowly start working back into swimming.

JonInMiddleGA

04-29-2019, 12:14 PM

General Update - Bailey

Bailey has been cleared to slowly start working back into swimming.

Cool.

Breeze

05-03-2019, 06:29 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear went to his first PT session yesterday. Most of the time was spent with diagnosis movements, which led the therapist to warn Bear that he may have lesions in his shoulder and if he doesn't he certainly close to getting one. This is a huge concern. If he has a lesion, he will require shoulder surgery and he'll basically be finished with swimming for the year, meaning he would miss his entire senior year. The therapist said the treatment will let her know for sure if lesions are present.

Following the diagnostic period, she massaged his trap and lats, and he was in a significant amount of pain during the procedure. They will be doing some dry needling and may do some cupping as well as the massage. He's been told he can continue to swim while he's in therapy, but the problem we are having is convincing him to take it easy. His mindset right now is to swim as much as he can but still fall under the doctor's orders. For instance, the doctor said to back off his yardage 25% to 50%, so he immediately started calculating 25%. The therapist said she felt 40% off at a minimum, so he calculated 40%, with thoughts of increasing each subsequent week. The boy has always been a grinder, which is exactly what made him so successful in the difficult events, and I admire him for his dedication, but this mindset is also what led to his current situation as he attempted to swim through discomfort. Now we have got to get him to understand his best option is to back off long enough to allow the PT to work, then slowly ramp back up. Trying to keep the yardage up will only prolong the amount of time the PT will require to provide a benefit (or it could completely negate the PT altogether).

Breeze

05-07-2019, 09:15 AM

General Update - Bailey

Bailey's back has been bothering her again, which is a surprise considering she's been out of the pool for so long. In fact, despite the fact she was cleared of Mono and told she could start practicing, we've held her out of the water until we can take her to see the sports doctor that looked at Bear's shoulders. She is scheduled to go on Friday. Obviously, I'm hoping it isn't serious, but the doctor mentioned during his discussions with Bear that lower back issues are not something to mess around with, and I'm concerned that she may have a bigger issue than what we were initially led to believe.

Breeze

05-20-2019, 06:34 AM

General Update - Bailey

So Bailey went to see the doctor on Friday and he diagnosed her with lumbar fasciitis syndrome. I won't go into too much detail on this as it's complicated and you can find much better explanations online than I can provide here. Basically, the fascia in question is a thick membrane that covers all the muscles in the region as well as the spine. It is subject to injury from strain, overuse, or repetitive stress. The doctor believes that Bailey strained her back with her hyper-flexibility while swimming the fly and then compounded the problem by continuing to swim, thus adding overuse and repetitive stress on top of the strain.

The extremely good news is he told her that "She doesn't have a bad back" and "This will not be a chronic problem for you". However, he did say that we need to get it healthy, and that she can only swim moderate effort freestyle and backstroke, until she is released from treatment.

She starts her PT today, only she will be going to a hospital based facility due to the fact this is the 3rd time she's had her back treated.

Breeze

05-24-2019, 07:31 AM

General Update

A number of changes have occurred recently and they significantly impact Bear and Bailey. Let me start by stating that Bear and Bailey are basically the youngest of the kids in the group they hang out with. Basically, all the kids fall in a range between Brett and the twins, which was great until now. Now with the older kids graduating and going off to college, the number of friends the twins have to hang out and practice with is getting small.

Over the last several weeks a few of the guys that Bear trains with have left. One because his school schedule conflicts with his ability to attend morning practice, another because he wanted to move to a team where his good friends swim. Initially this wasn't a big deal because it cleared up room in the lanes. However, with his good friend Seth graduating and going to Gannon University to swim and play water polo, and the college kids who've been swimming with Gold to keep in shape returning to campus in the fall, Bear would be left with just Tommy and Riley (when healthy and attending). Unfortunately, we just learned that Tommy is changing teams effective today. That leaves Bear with only an inconsistent Riley to practice with and no one to really train with.

We called the SwimAtlanta where Tommy is moving (not the same one we used to swim with) to see if they could take Bear as well, but they are already overfull. The coach said he would know in July if he's going to have a spot available, but the problem is Gold auto-renews our contract in June. We are really in a tough spot right now.

Bailey appears to be fine staying with Gold. She has her one good friend remaining still swimming on the team, and her commitment to swimming has dwindled significantly (of course being out of the pool for basically all of 2019 thus far will do that).

We'll see where this goes, but I hope Bear can get in with SwimAtlanta, the sport is too hard to do it solo.

Breeze

05-29-2019, 06:26 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear had his follow up with the doctor after a month on PT and swimming at about 60% of the yardage. The doctor noted some improvement, as he could feel the muscles being a little looser. Bear admitted during the discussion that he does still occasionally get a flair up at practice and he has to stop. The doctor asked Bear what his focus was with this treatment and Bear admitted he just wants to be ready to go full speed in the fall, so the doctor suggested he continue with the same treatment, exercise, and swim plan he was on for another month.

Breeze

06-10-2019, 08:58 AM

College Update - Bear

Bear had his first phone conversation with a college coach on Friday (6/7). Washington & Lee reached out to gauge his level of interest. They had a nice talk, and Bear got some good information about the school, team, support staff, and more. He's wanting a high academic school, and one where he can compete at a high level in conference and W&L definitely fits that definition. Also, the head coach swam with Coach Andy for years, so Andy sent an email to endorse Bear.

thealmighty

06-11-2019, 10:08 PM

Remember back when you started this dynasty and your kids weren't even that close to being teenagers yet?

Now look where we (yes, we followers feel a part of the family in a way by now) are!

Breeze

07-05-2019, 06:51 AM

Remember back when you started this dynasty and your kids weren't even that close to being teenagers yet?

Now look where we (yes, we followers feel a part of the family in a way by now) are!

I'm glad to have you guys along for the ride.

Breeze

07-05-2019, 06:54 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear was cleared to start ramping up his practices just before we went on vacation (6/24). Unfortunately, the ramp up method is a slow one, with incremental increases on a weekly basis. It's important that he follow this method to increase workload because the Dr. believes the initial injury was due to ramping up effort too quickly. The reason it's unfortunate that he has to ease into this is...the state meet is in a few weeks, and at this point there is no way Bear can be at full training before that event takes place. Bear is planning to swim it, we just aren't sure what he's going to swim. He obviously won't be doing the distance stuff, but right now he's thinking maybe the 200 free and the 200 fly, and time trialing some sprint frees.

Breeze

07-11-2019, 06:23 AM

General Update - Bear

It's been so long since I posted regularly in this thread I had to go back and re-read some to determine where I left off...

Bear will be changing teams in the fall back to SwimAtlanta (only a different location near us). He has really enjoyed his time with Gold and it was absolutely the right move to make when we switched initially but now things have significantly changed. Just 2 years ago Bear had a large group of friends that swam for Gold, but Brett, Daniel, and Charlie graduated in 2018, and this year Seth will be graduating, which was going to leave Bear with about 3 other guys to hang out and train with...Noah left the team about earlier in the summer because he lives too far away to take advantage of morning practices, so he found a team closer to home. Owen left a few days later because Noah wasn't going to be there, and he had quite a few friends at SwimAtlanta. Then Tommy (Coach Andy's son), moved to SwimAtlanta just a few weeks back - this move was facilitated by Coach Andy to try and spark Tommy's effort and interest in swimming following a long period of lethargy. This left Bear as not just the last remaining member of the group that hung our regularly, but 1 of only 2 boys on the entire team, and the only one in the elite lanes. So we were able to get him a spot at the same SwimAtlanta facility that Tommy moved to. It also is the facility where Owen is swimming. In addition, his high school teammate and friend Jake is at the same pool, and he is a distance swimmer so he'll provide Bear with a great training partner moving forward.

We hated to do this, as we are big fans of the Gold Coach, Ryan, but it was unquestionably in Bear's best interest. As I've said before, swimming is way to hard a sport to do if you don't have a support group that makes it fun. Bear was quite reserved for over a day knowing he was going to have to tell Ryan about the switch; I think mostly because there was some guilt weighing on him. Ryan, if you'll recall, is the coach that helped him train to break the team record in the 1000 a few years back. Thankfully, Ryan understood, even telling Bear that there were no guys left for him on the team, and that he understood the reasons behind the switch.

I really feel bad for Ryan. Numerous kids have left recently, and I think he's overwhelmed. They moved him up to head coach when Andy left, and he absolutely deserved that role, but they didn't back fill his position. Instead the owner of the club, in an obvious effort to save money has decided he'll start coaching some of the teams on occasion. Which means when he decides not to, Ryan is left to figure out how to get that team's practice covered. In addition, they hired recent graduates Daniel and Charlie to be summer coaches for the team. While they are both good guys, and undoubtedly can help, it does create an odd situation at times. Hopefully, Ryan doesn't get blamed for the exodus occurring because he doesn't deserve that.

Breeze

07-11-2019, 06:34 AM

General Update - Bailey

Bailey had her first phone conversation with a college coach. Cumberland University called her a few weeks back. They have been emailing her for quite a while, and they are extremely interested in trying to get her on the team. Cumberlands is an NAIA school, and if they could sign Bailey, the moment she steps on campus she makes the team much better. Her times indicate she would be an A finalist at the conference championships in whatever 3 events she chose to compete in. In addition, she has several times that are good enough to immediately qualify her for the NAIA National Championships, and her 200 Fly is good enough to potentially make the A final at the National Championship meet.

I was present for the talk, and Bailey really down played it to the wife, but seemed pretty upbeat when talking to me about it. Unfortunately, Cumberlands isn't the type of school Bailey is interested in. She wants to go to a bigger school in a nice size city (not necessarily urban, but definitely not rural). In truth my expectations are that she will quit swimming at the end of the high school season this upcoming season, but I made her promise to visit a few schools to see what they have to offer. My fingers are crossed that she'll swim in college. She's going to enter college as a Sophomore because she's dual enrolled last year and she'll do it again this year, and I keep trying to impress upon her that she could swim at a small college for 2 or 3 years, graduate and then go to a bigger college to get her Master's degree, and she'd still be the same age as most of the students on campus.

Breeze

07-11-2019, 06:44 AM

General Update – Brett

I regret to inform you that Brett’s time at E&H has come to an end. I noted in an earlier thread that during the first semester Brett’s girlfriend had been causing him a lot of issues, which ultimately impacted his grades. I didn’t get into how significant that impact was, but needless to say, it put him behind the 8-ball heading into the second semester. He really needed to have a strong performance this time around, and while he did better, he didn’t do well enough to maintain his scholarship. Given that we could barely afford to send him to E&H as it was, we certainly can’t afford to do so now.

This wasn’t entirely unexpected. Before he ever left for college we knew with his ADHD issues that he would struggle, but he is extremely smart and we hoped he would mature quickly away from home and rise to the occasion. I am heartbroken for him, as he really enjoyed being on that team, he was at home on the campus, and he loved Coach Cody. He also found a girl that he cared about and was a good influence on him. I’m so sorry it’s come to an end so soon.

I’m also a bit depressed if I’m being honest - and this is probably why I've taken so long to post this message. I'm going to really miss watching him swim, especially given that he was finally starting to achieve and get rewarded for his efforts in the pool, it’s a shame that it’s over. I absolutely loved going up to Abingdon and watching meets, and the ODAC Championship was, without question, the most fun I’ve ever had at a swim meet, and I was looking forward too many more.

Brett is currently enrolled at North Georgia. He’s hoping to get his AA degree there and then look to finish up his bachelor’s degree somewhere he can swim. My fingers are crossed he can make this happen.

JonInMiddleGA

07-16-2019, 04:14 AM

Brett is currently enrolled at North Georgia. He’s hoping to get his AA degree there and then look to finish up his bachelor’s degree somewhere he can swim. My fingers are crossed he can make this happen.

Obviously it's a tough situation but, if I can offer something optimistic, I've known quite a few students who got their feet on steadier ground with time at UNG and they've transferred easily into more rigorous environments.

This may very well be only a detour.

Izulde

07-16-2019, 01:56 PM

Yep. I got kicked out of two different universities due to academics. Got my head right at a community college and eventually ended up with honors graduate from my bachelors program, then got my MFA.

So this type of detour is quite common and isn't the end of the world by any means.

Breeze

07-17-2019, 01:22 PM

Obviously it's a tough situation but, if I can offer something optimistic, I've known quite a few students who got their feet on steadier ground with time at UNG and they've transferred easily into more rigorous environments.

This may very well be only a detour.

Yep. I got kicked out of two different universities due to academics. Got my head right at a community college and eventually ended up with honors graduate from my bachelors program, then got my MFA.

So this type of detour is quite common and isn't the end of the world by any means.

Thanks guys...this is the same message we've delivered to Brett. In fact, I used my former college roommate as an example. After his first year in college he had attended more universities than he had credit hours (3 to 1), and he turned out just fine. Hopefully, he dedicates himself a little better the second time around.

Breeze

07-22-2019, 09:28 AM

Georgia Senior Long Course State @ UGA Natatorium - 7/26 - 7/28

It's been a long time since we've had a meet, so long it feels a bit odd posting this. Bear will compete at the state meet, but because he's been in rehab and it's in shape, he will not compete in any of the distance event. In fact, the only event he'll swim in the 200 free. I asked him about how he's doing in that event at practice and he said he can go out in his fastest time but he could also come back in a 1:30...so lack of peak shape is even impacting him in a 200. However, if he does well enough in the opening parts of the race, he may time trial the 50 and/or the 100 free as well.

Breeze

07-26-2019, 05:55 AM

Georgia Senior Long Course State @ UGA Natatorium - 7/26 - 7/28

#6 Men's 200 Meter Freestyle (2:01.03) - Bear will be swimming this one event during the state meet. He still has qualifying times in all the distance events and the IMs and 200 Fly, but because of his limited training due to being in physical therapy he won't be contesting those other events. If his stroke is strong in the opening 50 and 100 it is possible that he might choose to time-trail those events in an effort to improve on his person best. Honestly, I expect that he'll do fine in the first 100, but the lack of extensive training will bite him back half. My guess would be he posts something in the 2:05 range.

Note: Last night was Bear's final practice with Gold. It passed without any comment because all his friends have left the team already. It will be interesting to see if Coach Ryan has any comment for Bear today, since this will most likely be their last interaction.

Breeze

07-31-2019, 07:03 AM

Georgia Senior Long Course State - RESULTS

#6 Men's 200 Meter Freestyle (2:01.03) - As expected, it wasn't pretty. Bear opened with a one minute 100, which was only about 1.5 seconds off the times he was posting when he swam personal bests. In the back half, the lack of training reared it's head - he ended up swimming a 1:09.31...which was over 7 seconds slower than the split he posted during his personal best...

Breeze

08-14-2019, 06:00 AM

General Update

Piedmont College here in Georgia is starting up a swim team for the 2010 season. I'm only posting this because it could be a good landing spot for Brett if he decides he wants to swim when/if he gets his grades in order. Of all the schools in the area, I'm really surprised this is the one that decided to start a program.

Here is the press release:

Piedmont College President James F. Mellichamp announced today that the college has launched a men’s and women’s swimming program and that Teddy Guyer, a 25-year coaching veteran, will lead the teams.

With varsity competition planned for 2020-21, the squads will train and host meets at the Ruby Fulbright Aquatic Center in nearby Clarkesville. Guyer, who served as head swimming coach at Mars Hill University from 2005 to 2019, will begin his duties August 1.

“Our focus at Piedmont has been adding value to our student experience. And we have been able to accomplish that, in part, by adding sports programs that align with our core values and mission,” said Mellichamp. “Swimming has tremendous potential, and we are particularly pleased to partner with the aquatic center in this exciting new venture. This new program is an example of Piedmont’s continued growth and rising profile.”

Guyer served as the inaugural swimming coach at Mars Hill University and Warren Wilson College where he served as head coach from 1993 to 2005. He has compiled a record of 354 wins to 73 losses. Guyer has coached 114 all-conference swimmers, had 19 swimmers make NCAA national cuts and coached an All-American. Along the way, he’s collected seven Coach of the Year Awards.

“We are extremely excited to add men’s and women’s swimming as our 20th and 21st programs,” said Piedmont Athletic Director Jim Peeples. “As a successful head coach who has started programs, Coach Guyer has a unique skillset. I know that he will serve our student athletes with both passion and personal touch.”

One of the top Division III athletic programs in the region, Piedmont has won the USA South Presidents Cup award three consecutive years. The award is presented annually to the institution with the top-performing athletic program within the conference. During the 2018-19 academic year, Piedmont captured four regular-season championships and won five conference tournaments.

A native of North Carolina, Guyer graduated from Western Carolina University in 1991 with a bachelor of science in physical education. He also received a Certificate of Coaching Excellence by the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) in 2013.

“I am so excited to be at Piedmont, and I can’t thank President Mellichamp and Athletic Director Jim Peeples enough for giving me this opportunity to start this team,” Guyer said. “My goal is to produce a winning team right away with dedicated student athletes. I am looking forward to this new challenge in my coaching career.”

With swimming being very popular in North Georgia and Atlanta, Guyer plans to spend much of his time recruiting in-state talent. But he’s looking beyond Georgia, too.

"Swimming is a worldwide sport, and everyone wants to come to the United States to swim so I will also be trying to work the international side,” said Guyer. “I would like to see the team have more than 30 swimmers within two years and eventually around 40 after that.”

The 14,500 square-foot aquatic center, maintained by the Habersham County Parks and Recreation Department, includes stadium seating for 250, locker rooms, a 25-meter competition pool and a heated recreation pool.

“Habersham County is delighted to be working with Piedmont College to host the swim teams,” said Habersham County Manager Phil Sutton. “It is exciting for us to be able to use the county’s athletic facilities to host college-level swim practices and meets.”

Just an FYI, the Ruby Fulbright center is the same pool where Bear practices in the summer while we are on vacation at a lake in the north Georgia mountains.

JonInMiddleGA

08-14-2019, 07:05 AM

Of all the schools in the area, I'm really surprised this is the one that decided to start a program.

Question about how stuff works: would student/athletes enrolled at a satellite campus be eligible?

Piedmont operates a satellite campus in Oconee County (i.e. right across the county line from Athens), and it's a somewhat popular option for locals who didn't get admitted to bigger schools for their freshman year. There's also a decent (to my understanding) swim program or two around here.

Just kinda made me wonder if that might be some part of their thinking with this move.

Breeze

08-14-2019, 07:27 AM

Question about how stuff works: would student/athletes enrolled at a satellite campus be eligible?

Piedmont operates a satellite campus in Oconee County (i.e. right across the county line from Athens), and it's a somewhat popular option for locals who didn't get admitted to bigger schools for their freshman year. There's also a decent (to my understanding) swim program or two around here.

Just kinda made me wonder if that might be some part of their thinking with this move.

Honesty, I'm not sure how that works. I'd assume as long as you are enrolled in courses, regardless of where you attend you are eligible to be on the swim team. However, I'm not sure how practice would work. Typically the head coach wants to watch/coach the team, so I don't know if the Oconee swimmers would be expected to commute for practice or if they might assign a satellite coach to work out of another facility. It'll be interesting to see how this fleshes out. I've said for a long time that there are so many great swimmers the Georgia and North Carolina area that it's a shame that the colleges in north Georgia haven't stepped up to start a team, because I think you can build a pretty competitive one quickly. My comments were more centered on the public schools (lower costs), but this might still fit especially with the Hope scholarship helping to pay for school. I'll be following along just out of curiosity.

JonInMiddleGA

08-14-2019, 04:11 PM

if the Oconee swimmers would be expected to commute for practice or if they might assign a satellite coach to work out of another facility.

I had to Google to be more precise but that's basically a 60 mile trip one-way.

A lot of HS athletes around here are already accustomed to frequent (near daily) trips to Atlanta for training in sports such as track & field as well as (out of season) seasonally for baseball & football so it isn't THAT out of the realm of possibility that they'd commute to practice.

edit to add: as you said, it's something I'll keep one eye on a bit just out of curiosity

Breeze

08-19-2019, 10:58 AM

General Update

Today is the start of the new swim season for Bear. He will have his first practice with Swim Atlanta this afternoon. Bailey's first practice with Gold will be tomorrow.

Breeze

08-22-2019, 07:57 AM

College Update - Bailey

With practice for the 2019/2020 season underway, and with this being the twins' senior year, I figured I'd take a moment to highlight the schools that are actively recruiting them.

While I find it unlikely that Bailey will choose to swim in college, I did make her agree to visit 3 schools to at least see what they have to offer before she decides to give up the sport. Here are the teams actively recruiting her:

Alfred University
Arcadia College
Asbury College
Assumption College
Babson College
Bard College
Barton College
Berry College
Birmingham Southern College
Bryn Mawr College
Catawba College
Centre College
Columbia College
Cumberlands University
Eastern Connecticut State University
Florida Southern University
Grinnell College
Grove City College
Hamiltion College
Hartwick College
Juniata College
Lake Forest College
Lawrence University
Lenior Rhyne University
Lewis & Clark College
Macalester College
Medaille College
Millersville University
Milligan College
Oberlin College
Randolph College
Salem College
Sarah Lawrence College
Smith College
Soka University
State University of NY at Oswego
Stevens Institute
Sweet Briar College
Trinity College
University of Lynchburg
University of Mount Union
University of Sioux Falls
US Merchant Marine Academy
Vassar College
Washington & Lee University
Westminster College

Izulde

08-22-2019, 03:52 PM

Some fantastic colleges on that list with high educational and prestige value.

Izulde

08-22-2019, 03:54 PM

dola, I'd put Vassar on the for sure visit list.

Breeze

08-27-2019, 08:40 AM

College Update - Bear

Here is Bear's list:

Arcadia University
Babson College
Bard College
Bates College
Binghamton University
Brandeis University
Bucknell University
Carson Newman College
Centre College
College of William & Mary
Colorado College
Davidson College
DePauw University
Drew University
Eastern Connecticut State University
Florida Southern University
Georgia Tech
Greensboro College
Grinnell College
Grove City College
Hamilton University
Hartwick College
Henderson State University
Juniata College
Lake Forest College
Lawrence University
Lewis and Clark College
Macalester College
Oberlin College
Piedmont College
Randolph College
Queens University
Saint Leo University
Stevens Institute
Swarthmore College
Trinity College
Trinity University
University of Connecticut
University of Lynchburg
University of Mount Union
University of the Cumberlands
University of the South
US Merchant Marine Academy
US Military Academy
Vassar College
Washington & Lee University
Westminster College
Youngstown State

Originally, when schools started contacting the twins there was very little crossover, but over the last few months it seems the coaches/recruiters have figured out they are related and they are now cross recruiting.

Breeze

08-28-2019, 09:20 AM

General Update - Brett

Figured I'd take a minute to provide this update since it is related to swimming.

Brett has been working at the Cumming Aquatic Center since he was 15. He started a just a lifeguard, but then at 16, he got is Water Safety Instructor license and started giving swim lessons. He was very good at giving lessons, and was the most requested instructor the pool has ever had. Recently, he'd gotten frustrated with the pool because they changed several policies which limited his ability to get enough hours, and he was too often scheduled to be just a lifeguard (which he hates doing). So he applied to be a coach with Gold.

Originally, we didn't think he'd be able to take the job because there is an agreement in place between Gold and the pool to prevent the team from taking employees from the facility. In fact, Coach Andy, when he heard that Brett was interested in coaching mentioned that he would have jumped at the opportunity to add Brett if he had been allowed to do so. However, Brett was hired, in fact, the owner of the team paid a fee to the pool to release Brett so he could be a Gold coach. He's currently working with the pre-competition kids, but he's being groomed to take over the entry level competition team and the Sectional and Sectional Advanced (typically middle schoolers) team.

Breeze

09-12-2019, 10:00 AM

Bear College Update - Berry College

Bear will go on his first visit this Friday. We will be headed over to Berry College, an in state private school about 1:45 hours west. This isn't his first choice but it is a good opportunity to get a visit in, to see what it is like, and because Berry is in-state it keeps the option open for him to receive some of the lottery funded scholarship money that is available. Given these factors this might end up being the most affordable option when all is said and done. Plus it is a good academic school and an absolutely gorgeous campus. I'll provide details about the trip next week (assuming Bear communicates his thoughts about the school to me).

He's also currently working to set up a visits to Centre College and Carson Newman. He's also in discussion with several other schools.

JAG

09-12-2019, 02:12 PM

rjolley

09-12-2019, 02:13 PM

Does swimming have the same visit restrictions that basketball and football have? Is there any reimbursement for travel or is it all on the dime of the recruit?

Breeze

09-12-2019, 02:33 PM

Does swimming have the same visit restrictions that basketball and football have? Is there any reimbursement for travel or is it all on the dime of the recruit?

I know with the big schools the situation is just like other sports. 5 official visits that are paid for by the schools. But in our case, I honestly don't know. Brett was never recruited hard enough or by schools far enough away that it might become an issue. With Bear it might, as he has some schools that are over 10 hours by car that are recruiting him. Depending on where he elects to visit, I'd assume that he'll have some visits paid for. In this case, we'll drive over so it's not a factor. Will let you know more when I know more.

Breeze

09-19-2019, 07:04 AM

Fall Kick Off @ GaTech Aquatic Center - 9/21-22

Bear

Bear has is first meet of the season on Saturday and Sunday. It’s difficult to get a read on where he is right now. He says he’s still not in shape from taking it easy over the summer to address his overwork injury in his lats and traps. However, he also says that the kids at SwimAtlanta work much harder than he did when he was at Gold. In addition, Bear is having some tenderness in his lat/trap area again, so he’s going in for treatment today (9/19), and I don’t know how that will impact his ability to race. It’s going to be interesting to see how this shakes out.

# 3 (d1/s1): 50 Free (23.83) – Because of the way SA runs practice, Bear is doing at lot more sprint work than he did with Gold. He might be in a position to do well here, even if it is early, untappered, and he’s not in shape yet.

# 6 (d1/s1): 100 Fly (56.40) – Coach Landon has indicated he wants to work on Bear’s fly, not sure if they’ve started or not…so no idea what to expect.

# 7 (d1/s1): 200 Free (1:45.91) – This is one of the events where fatigue from practice, and not being in peak shape will probably hinder his results.

# 17 (d2/s5): 200 Medley (2:03.39) – breast and back are both probably still an issue, because he hasn’t focused on fixing them yet, so I don’t expect much.

# 21 (d2/s5): 100 Free (51.04) – 50 free will be a good indication of what to expect here.

# 22 (d2/s5): 200 Fly (1:57.01) – I don’t expect much in this grueling race with Bear being worn out and out of shape.

# 24 (d2/s5): 500 Free (4:41.77) – see the 200 fly

Breeze

09-19-2019, 07:34 AM

Bear College Update - Berry College

The visit went well, but it was more of just a standard college visit with a little one on one time with the coach. Bear will be going back in a few weeks for an overnight visit. Once he returns from that, I'll provide more insight into his thoughts.

(Bear would have stayed overnight during the visit, but he had the ACT on Saturday morning)

Breeze

09-26-2019, 10:29 AM

Fall Kick Off - RESULTS

Bear

The results were pretty poor, and I’m not going to go into the gory details. Bear did manage to beat his 50 free seed time, but he reminded me that the time listed wasn’t really his personal best; he’s beaten that time in high school meets numerous times. The results did sort of track my predictions, in that the shorter races would be his best. The longer the races the worse he did, and given that he’s still struggling to back into shape it isn’t all that surprising. He wasn’t the only one in his group that added a bunch of time. Hopefully, he’ll feel good and do well when he’s on taper.

Bear is still struggling with soreness and recovery. We are looking into options of things we can do/get that will aid the recovery process. We will be going over options tonight (9/26).

Breeze

09-26-2019, 10:53 AM

Bear College Update - Carson-Newman University

Bear will go on his first official visit this Friday (9/27) when we head up to Carson-Newman. The school is in Jefferson City, Tennessee, which is about a 4 hour drive. We will once again head up immediately after Bear's dual enrolled class at 9 A.M. Here is a look at Bear's itinerary for the trip:

Friday
- Arrive at 1 P.M.
- meet the coaching staff & weekend hosts
- 1:30 lunch
- 2:00 campus tour & meeting with admissions office
- 3:30 watch inter-squad meet
- 7:30 dinner
- socialize with team for the remainder of the evening

Saturday
- watch morning practice
- breakfast following practice
- wrap up discussion (which I'm invited to attend)

Carson-Newman is part of the Bluegrass Conference in swimming. This is the same conference that Queens University swims in, and originally Queens was probably Bear's first choice for school. They are the 4 time Division 2 National Champions, but they are so fast at this point that they aren't concerned with conference level swimmers (which Bear would be the moment he steps on campus, but he'll need to improve to challenge the national level time cuts).

Bear's academics far exceed what the school is looking for. In fact, that is one of the draw backs, considering Bear is ideally looking for a high academic institution.

As far as swimming, it looks like there are 2 distance freestylers currently on the roster that are faster than Bear, but 1 is a senior, so he'll graduate before Bear would arrive on campus (plus 2 of the 3 remaining distance swimmers on the roster that are behind Bear are also seniors and the other is a junior) . The remaining distance swimmer is currently a sophomore, and his best time beats Bear by about 10 seconds, but remember Bear's best 1650 time was the race where he had to fix his goggles, which probably cost him somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds. They do have a mid-distance Freshman, who is quite good and would be ahead of Bear in the 500. In conference, Bear's time is right on the edge of scoring in the 1650 and the 1000. He's also on the edge of scoring in the 500, but from the order of events it looks like the 500 and the 1000 are swum on the same day, so it's not likely someone would do both. I'm not sure what Bear's 3rd event would be, but it would probably be the 200 fly or the 400 IM, both of which he could potentially score in.

Carson-Newman is part of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, so it will be interesting to see what sort of religious requirements might be in place. We aren't Baptist, and we've seen with Brett's recruiting were the Baptist schools can require some pretty strict adherence to doctrine.

Izulde

09-26-2019, 11:47 AM

Ugh. Jefferson City is an awful place. I was there a couple times as a kid visiting a brother. Never will set foot in it again.

Breeze

09-26-2019, 11:52 AM

Ugh. Jefferson City is an awful place. I was there a couple times as a kid visiting a brother. Never will set foot in it again.

Interesting...what up with Jefferson City? We've only driven through it previously. What didn't you like? The more I know the better, so I can be on the lookout.

Breeze

10-01-2019, 09:52 AM

Bear College Update - Carson-Newman University

Bear said the trip was terribly disorganized. We got there about a half hour late (which we knew we would, and we told the coach ahead of time), but by being late, Bear ended up not having a host initially and ended up sitting with the coaches for lunch. Then he did the tour, which he said was fine. The facilities were pretty nice and the campus is pretty compact.

Then they watched the team's inter-squad meet. Which Bear said was odd, because there was no familiarity with the teams, so there was at best casual interest. Making matters worse, the recruits were placed in the stands a hour and a half before the start of the meet, which itself ran a couple of hours.

Then the recruits hung out with the team. They did some gaming, and then played a bunch of made up stuff around pool or table tennis. Interestingly, Bear's host ended up being a former Gold swimmer, who Bear roomed with during one of the travel meets in Pensacola.

The next day the recruits got up early to watch another practice before eating breakfast.

Overall, Bear wasn't terribly impressed. He has basically eliminated them from consideration, unless he finds that they are significantly more affordable than his other options, which is possible. They expect he'll max out the academic money and they were willing to give him athletic money as well, albeit less than I anticipated. However, they did mention that they didn't lose much from last years team, so they don't have a lot of money to work with. Plus, with him maxing out the academic side of things, I expect they low balled him a bit knowing the academic was going to make up the difference. They did admit that if he's making A finals or if he gets National Championship cuts that they would increase his scholarship.

Visit Score: 73

Izulde

10-01-2019, 03:23 PM

Interesting...what up with Jefferson City? We've only driven through it previously. What didn't you like? The more I know the better, so I can be on the lookout.

Granted, this was in the '80s-'90s, but...

Very high poverty, low education place. Nothing to do at all there (White Castle was one of the best food options). Despite Carson-Newman and 2,500 students making up a sizable portion of the 8,000 population (not sure if pop number includes students or not). High crime rate, abysmal jobs situation, a lot of old, decaying housing.

Just an utter blight of a place.

Breeze

10-02-2019, 06:17 AM

Granted, this was in the '80s-'90s, but...

Very high poverty, low education place. Nothing to do at all there (White Castle was one of the best food options). Despite Carson-Newman and 2,500 students making up a sizable portion of the 8,000 population (not sure if pop number includes students or not). High crime rate, abysmal jobs situation, a lot of old, decaying housing.

Just an utter blight of a place.

I can certainly see where you are coming from. One of the first things I said to my wife when she asked me about the school was - "It's not a quaint little town that you are going to want to visit. It's much more a classic, poor southern town. I did drive around the town a good bit, because I didn't have much else to do...and the area around the school is ok. Some new coffee shops and restaurants, but even those are retrofitted into older buildings. I wasn't around long enough and I didn't interact with enough people to get a sense of the other items you pointed out, but given what I saw - I expect those things are still present.

Breeze

10-03-2019, 08:29 AM

General Update - Bailey

Bailey is really struggling to get back in shape after missing most of 2019 with concussion symptoms and mono. She's talked frequently about how much she's struggling with the sets. I really believe given her level of fatigue and struggles meeting the demands of practice that she'll be extremely fortunate if she can get into any reasonable shape by the state meet in December. She has a meet next weekend, so we should get a picture of just how bad it is soon.

Breeze

10-03-2019, 08:40 AM

General Update - Bear

Bear has been unhappy with his practices so far this season. So unhappy in fact that he had a long talk with the coach. Bear expected to struggle a bit to hit his stride following a summer where he was only doing about 60% of the workout to allow his lat/trap overwork injury to heal, but he said his stroke feels awkward and he's far from the interval times he's looking to hit. Coach Landon told him not to worry about it. That for him the primary thing is to get into shape and to get his body use to the types of practices that he runs. He said he felt that would take probably 3 months. After that, they'll start to fine-tune his strokes a bit.

Breeze

10-10-2019, 08:29 AM

Gold Invite @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 10/11-10/13

Bailey

Bailey is definitely not back in shape yet after missing practically all of 2019 up to this point. She is regularly telling the wife and I how out of shape she is, and how hard sets that used to be pretty simple actually are now. However, she's also reported swimming some pretty good times in a few test sets, so maybe she can at least get close to her seed times. I certainly don't expect any personal bests. Those are hard to do untapered regardless, but close would be a huge win. You will notice almost everything on her schedule for the weekend is short...which is why I'm hopeful that she can do pretty well. I know she'd struggle with anything over a 100.

# 1 (d1/s1): G 11 & Over 200 Medley (2:16.63)
# 3 (d1/s1): G 11 & Over 50 Free (27.25)
# 45 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:03.88)
# 53 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:00.21)
# 97 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Free (56.91)
# 101 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Medley (1:03.89)

Breeze

10-11-2019, 06:03 AM

Bear College Update - Berry College

Bear is visiting Berry College today and tomorrow. We did visit the school a few weeks back, but as I mentioned, it ended up being more of a standard college visit with a chance to meet the coach, rather than an "official visit" where Bear would get to interact with the team.

Here is his itinerary:

Friday

8:00 - Arrival
8:45 - Breakfast with a team member (host probably)
10:00 - 11:50 - Class with a team member (Bear will probably sit in on a science class)
12:00 - Lunch with team
1 - 3:30 - Another class or hanging out with the team (may try to get into the pool at open swim to get his own practice in)
4 - 5 - Watch swim practice
5 - 6 - Meet with Admissions Counselor
6:30 - Dinner with team
7:30 - Hang out with the team

Saturday

7:30 - 8:30 - Breakfast
10 - Inter-squad meet
1 - Family Luncheon
2 - Football game (optional)

JonInMiddleGA

10-11-2019, 06:10 AM

Good vibes for both this weekend

Breeze

10-15-2019, 07:06 AM

Gold Invite - RESULTS

Bailey

Bailey probably did better than anyone expected. She clearly isn't in shape...but her times in these races were pretty much on par with a non-taper meet, and actually better than the times she had last year in this event. Which is a very positive outcome given her time out of the pool.

# 1 (d1/s1): G 11 & Over 200 Medley (2:16.63) - Not surprisingly, this is the one event that her time was a good bit slower than last year, but it was also the only 200 she competed in. She started out fine, posting a 31 second fly leg, which is typical for a non-tapered meet. She then was slightly slower through the other 3 legs and finished in a 2:27.73, which is about 3 seconds off her normal time in the event.

# 3 (d1/s1): G 11 & Over 50 Free (27.25) - she finished in 28.42, but last year she was 28.6. The coach also mentioned her form on freestyle is rough right now, so maybe there is more time to be gained before the season is up.

# 45 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:03.88) - manged to swim a 1:06.35, which also beat last year's effort of 1:07.38.

# 53 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:00.21) - 1:04.83 again better than her 1:05.36 from last year.

# 97 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Free (56.91) - Bailey didn't even want to swim this one...she seriously considered skipping it, because her free is so rough right now, but she clocked in at 1:01.23 (she didn't swim the 100 free last year in this event)

# 101 (d3/s5): G Open 100 Medley (1:03.89) - in her final swim of the day she finished the 100 IM in 1:07.89, which was good enough to beat a teammate, Mary Gray, who has very similar times in pretty much all the events, and it bettered her time from last year of 1:09.57 by a lot

rjolley

10-15-2019, 06:34 PM

Congrats to Bailey. Hope she sees this as a positive and builds off of it.

Breeze

10-16-2019, 11:11 AM

Bear College Update - Berry College

Bear seemed to really enjoy his time at Berry College. He felt more comfortable around and like he had more in common with the other swimmers. He really liked the fact that they spent a lot of time playing frisbee and throwing the football around. I'm sure it was very similar to what he's enjoyed for years about swimming with his buddies at Gold. They would often go play another sport after practice or on the weekends. The team also told him that they field an intramural football and softball team each year, and that if he were to go to Berry, he's already on those teams (apparently they aren't very good, which isn't all that surprising as not many swimmers are good all around athletes).

He also loves the facilities and the campus. His only reservation is the coach, who he's a bit unsure about. I don't think Bear dislikes the coach, but he is very different from any coach Bear has had previously, and therefore the comfort level isn't as high.

Visit Score: 90

Breeze

10-16-2019, 11:18 AM

General Update - College Swimming

You may have noticed in Bear's visit updates there is now a visit score at the bottom. That score is determined by breaking down the different aspects of the school, coach, team, facilities, surrounding area, etc., and applying an importance weight to each. As it turns out, after configuring everything the maximum score ended up being 100 (that wasn't planned). The score is being used as a simple measuring stick, not the be-all end-all. The highest score won't necessarily be where Bear ends up, but a low score will almost certainly eliminate a school from consideration.

Not sure if Bailey will use the same scale, create her own, or not use one at all. My guess is the later, because I still think she's going into these visits with no intention of actually swimming.

JonInMiddleGA

10-16-2019, 04:19 PM

He also loves the facilities and the campus.

It IS a pretty campus, for sure.

Question: how do they handle the campus work requirements (I assume that's still a thing there, was a cornerstone afaik) for athletes? Any dispensation / relief for them?

Otherwise, I'd think that's just an extra time commitment that has to factor in somewhere.

Breeze

10-17-2019, 06:41 AM

It IS a pretty campus, for sure.

Question: how do they handle the campus work requirements (I assume that's still a thing there, was a cornerstone afaik) for athletes? Any dispensation / relief for them?

Otherwise, I'd think that's just an extra time commitment that has to factor in somewhere.

So the work plan at Berry is no longer a requirement, however, 98% of the students still do it. The set up for the work is extremely well defined with multiple levels of responsibility depending on the role you select. These roles start out at a very basic level, maintenance, grounds-keeping, etc., but they evolve to allow students to potentially gain experience in the field they are studying; like research assistant, accounts payable/receivable, trainer/physical therapist assistant, etc. Kids are also paid for their work. On average they work between 5 and 8 hours a week, and typically earn around $2000 a semester (which can be applied directly to your tuition or pocketed for spending money).

Bear and Bailey are both working this semester and are aware that they will probably need to work regardless of where they go to help offset some of the costs, so I don't expect this will end up being a factor in the decision, but it is a good question, and we will make sure they keep it mind before they ultimately decide where they want to go.

Breeze

10-17-2019, 10:55 AM

The Twins College Update - Roanoke College

Bailey and Bear will be visiting Roanoke College this weekend. The school has been trying to get both of them up there for a while, and when things fell through with Centre College (due to their visit being Sun-Mon), the twins decided to go on this trip. Roanoke, you may recall from some of the write ups on Brett, is part of the ODAC conference. The wife and I noticed during the ODAC Championships how energetic the coaches were. They were jumping up and down and running all over the place encouraging their swimmers. And the team seemed to have a blast at the meet. Brett even commented, before the twins even decided to make this trip, that the Roanoke coaches looked like they'd be fun to swim for, and that the Roanoke team definitely had the most fun of all the teams.

Both the kids fit in nicely on the team and in conference. We'll see how this shakes out.

JonInMiddleGA

10-17-2019, 11:23 AM

So the work plan at Berry is no longer a requirement

Ah, I had no idea it had been changed. Was just a thing that had stuck with me about Berry since my own visit back in '83.

Breeze

10-24-2019, 09:21 AM

The Twins College Update - Roanoke College

Bear

Bear seemed to really enjoy Roanoke. The school is actually in Salem, VA not Roanoke, and it sits on the edge of the downtown strip. The campus is all brick and meticulously maintained, so it's an extremely nice campus. The team, though it started only a couple of years ago, is rather large, with currently around 18 boys and 22 girls. Bear really liked the coaches a lot. Said they were very easy to talk with and really related well to the team. In fact, he gave the coaches a perfect score. He also really enjoyed the food from the cafeteria. All in all, Roanoke ranks very high in his weighted scale, coming in with an 88 (Note: the previous 2 scores were redone, due to the information not saving properly, and have been adjusted in the above write ups). In fact, if not for a lower score due to distance Roanoke probably ends up with a higher total score than Berry's 90.

Visit Score: 88

Bailey

Bailey seemed to enjoy herself, and she admitted that she felt the coaches really wanted her to join the team, but that was about the extent of her feedback. She's still hesitant about the whole swimming in college plan, and I don't think she wanted to express to much excitement, because she didn't want to get my hopes up. However, following this visit she does seem a bit more interested in going to Berry and Rhodes.

Breeze

10-24-2019, 12:42 PM

War Eagle Invitational @ Auburn University - 10/25 - 10/27

Bear

Bear is staring to round into shape, as he's reported having a few good practices recently. Not sure if he's ready to challenge a personal best time yet, but hopefully, he shows some serious progress towards being ready for a big meet at state in December.

# 14 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Medley (2:03.39)
# 28 (d2/s3): B 13 & Over 100 Free (51.04)
# 30 (d2/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Fly (1:57.01)
# 38 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 500 Free (4:41.77)
# 52 (d3/s5): B 13 & Over 200 Free (1:45.91)
# 54 (d3/s5): B 13 & Over 100 Fly (56.40)
# 62 (d3/s4): B 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:11.59)

Breeze

10-25-2019, 06:18 AM

Bailey College Update - Berry College

This weekend it's Bailey's turn to visit Berry College. Unlike Bear, who visited during a recruiting weekend, Bailey will be the only recruit on campus. In some ways this is flattering, in that the coach wanted to get her on campus so badly that he arranged to have her visit solo. However, it is also a little disappointing in that there will be a decided lack of energy associated with a recruiting weekend. When Bear went there were 8 or so other recruits on campus with him, and the team played Ultimate, threw the football around, went to the football game on Saturday, and more. For Bailey, I'm not sure what they have planned, but it almost certainly won't be that extensive. For one, there is no home football game this weekend. Making matter worse, it's supposed to rain all day today (10/25) and tomorrow, which will further limit entertainment options. Fingers crossed that she has fun.

As for fit, Bailey would be the second 100 and 200 flyer, and in both cases she would be competing for A finals at the conference championship meet. Her 3rd event would be up in the air, but whatever it ends up being, she should be in a position to score at the conference meet.

JonInMiddleGA

10-25-2019, 03:05 PM

However, following this visit she does seem a bit more interested in going to Berry and Rhodes.

Random Rhodes story: back in the college visit days here, kid figured he might as well take a look at Rhodes while doing his western swing, being in the vicinity already & all.

Wife is driving and as it happened, they entered/approached campus near the football stadium. Kid turns to wife and says "keep driving".

Wife: "Huh"
Kid: "That's their stadium ... it's smaller than Slaughter Field" (his HS venue)
Kid: "Drive on"

And that was the story of his Rhodes 'visit' :D

(solid academically, no slight to Rhodes as an institution ... but for him coming from a very small HS a college that small wasn't on his list.)

Breeze

10-29-2019, 08:50 AM

Bailey College Update - Berry College

Bailey's college visit to Berry was rather odd. To begin, she was the only recruit on campus, and while that might be in some ways flattering given the coach's desire to get the recruit to the school as quickly as possible regardless of the situation, it also creates a strange dynamic where the recruit feels a bit isolated given there is no one else to interact with other than the team (who has their typical routines to go through). Making matters worse, her host completely ditched her, pawning her off on another teammate. We believe that the host was chosen because she was a Gold swimmer (albeit, not a good one), and the coach probably felt they might have something in common, but it was a bad decision. Bailey did like the girl she was pawned off on.

Bailey also like the campus, and the nutrition class she attended (which contained one of her lab partners from her Anatomy class at South). She had fun at an on campus party, which they apparently do every Friday before a Saturday football game. She also saw how well she would fit in from a swimming perspective. In fact, she commented on the team's best flyer, a girl that is close to 6' tall. Bailey laughed and said it would be funny if she decided to go to Berry, because when the fly came up, the two Berry swimmers would be complete opposites - a big 6' girl and a petite barely 5' 3" swimmer racing at almost the exact same speeds.

I think she liked the school, and I think she was comfortable enough there that if she wants to swim in college, I believe Berry will get some consideration...

No comment yet from Bailey on how it compares to Roanoke...

Breeze

10-30-2019, 07:06 AM

War Eagle Invitational - RESULTS

Bear

Interesting results for Bear...probably not ideally where he would like to be, but definitely better than the meet last month...

# 14 (d1/s1): B 13 & Over 200 Medley (2:03.39) - Breast leg was painful, over 40 seconds, he hasn't been that slow in breast in a while...he also coasted into the wall which cost him a couple of seconds...only posted a 2:11.13, which isn't as good as last year, but much better than the 2:14 posted last month.

# 28 (d2/s3): B 13 & Over 100 Free (51.04) - This was a good swim for being untappered (drop tappered) - he posted a 51.64, a good 2 seconds faster than last month.

# 30 (d2/s3): B 13 & Over 200 Fly (1:57.01) - A pedestrian 2:10.37.

# 38 (d2/s2): B 13 & Over 500 Free (4:41.77) - came in just over 5 minutes at 5:04.39, not great, but it's an 11 second improvement from last month.

# 52 (d3/s5): B 13 & Over 200 Free (1:45.91) - 1:52.35, a good 5.5 seconds faster than last month.

# 54 (d3/s5): B 13 & Over 100 Fly (56.40) - this was the lone event where Bear didn't improve from earlier in the year, but this swim was a pretty quick turnaround from the 200 free...so it was quite probably a fatigue/recovery issue. He finished in 58.22.

# 62 (d3/s4): B 13 & Over 400 Medley (4:11.59) - based on the poor 200 IM swim, and the fact that they wanted to get home earlier in the evening, Bear scratched this event.

Breeze

10-31-2019, 07:23 AM

Breeze

10-31-2019, 07:34 AM

Bailey College Update - Rhodes College

Bailey and I will be headed over to Memphis tonight, so she can be on campus around lunch-time tomorrow. Of all the schools that have contacted her about swimming, I believe this one has intrigued her the most. There are 3 reasons for this:

1. The school has been much more aggressive about communicating with her, and making her feel wanted from a swimming perspective

2. The school has a good academic reputation

3. Most importantly - the school apparently has a tight relationship with St. Jude's Hospital, which allows all Bio, Med, & Public Health students to get jobs/internships that allow them to build experience. This is important because Bailey really wants to major in Public Health.

Bailey got her itinerary for the trip earlier this week, and it is a perfect example of how they are trying to make her feel wanted, and it's the first example we've seen (Bailey or Bear) of a coach getting a little creative with recruiting. Here is her schedule:

Friday, November 1, 2019
1:00pm - Arrive and attend Campus Tour at Admissions office
2:00pm - Information Session
3:15pm - Watch Practice and meet with host
4:45pm - Meet with Coach Webb at the pool
5:30pm - Eat Dinner with the team

Saturday, November 2, 2019
8:00am - Watch Practice
10:00am - Eat Breakfast with the team
10:30am - Meet with Coach Webb
11:00am - Depart

Saturday, February 20 2021
6:15pm - Earn All Conference in the 200 fly at the SAA Championships

That last line is a nice touch...

Izulde

10-31-2019, 12:07 PM

And a prestige name there with St. Jude's. Impressive start by Rhodes there.

rjolley

10-31-2019, 12:38 PM

Bailey College Update - Berry College

So Bailey admitted last night, that her experience with Berry was a real turn off. That she felt not wanted by her host and felt like a burden to the swimmer that was nice enough to take her in. I think we can pretty much shut the door on this school. It's sad that 1 disinterested person can have that much of an impact, because Bailey seemed to enjoy the other aspects of the team. Shame on the coach for not being better prepared and for not assigning a more personable teammate to host Bailey, especially given how good Bailey would be for his team.

I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday to their recruiting show and this exact thing came up. The guy talked about how important the host is to the process. The gist of his point was, no matter what happens on the field, a good coach can talk up the positive points ("Yes, we lost, but here's why and once you're here, here's how you'll be able to help us win!"). However, if the recruit's host is not personable and makes the recruit feel alienated or not wanted, you might as well write that recruit off.

Breeze

11-05-2019, 07:26 AM

Bailey College Update - Rhodes College

Rhodes College was a very interesting place. The campus is fully fenced in, with security guards at the entrances, which is comforting in some ways and bit unnerving in others. The buildings have an old style feel and all the buildings are made of a beautiful sand colored stone. When you walk on campus there is a feeling of stepping back in time a bit. Bailey talked about all that they did on the visit, but I can best sum up her experience by quoting one thing she said..."This was definitely more my speed."

Mostly, I believe this was because the team was much more accommodating, the coach was very interested to have her on campus, and during the visit they went to downtown Memphis. They were unable to get to Beale Street because ESPN Game Day had the area closed down, but even without going there, she enjoyed the area and activities available to them. Plus she enjoys country music, so that aspect is present as well.

I asked how this compared to Roanoke, and she said she wasn't sure...but my belief is - if she swims in college, it's going to be here.

Breeze

11-06-2019, 07:43 AM

Bill Behrens Veterans Invite @ GaTech - 11/9-10

Bear

Bear has another meet, which is a bit surprising because it is a pretty quick turnaround. He has indicated he's doing better in practice, and this time around he's doing both the 500 and the 1000, so hopefully, he can do well enough to gain confidence before the state meet next month.

# 8 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01)
# 14 (d1/s2): M Open 100 Back (58.01)
# 18 (d1/s2): M Open 1000 Free (9:41.74)
# 22 (d2/s4): M Open 100 Free (51.04)
# 24 (d2/s4): M Open 100 Fly (56.40)
# 34 (d2/s4): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77)

Breeze

11-06-2019, 07:52 AM

High School Swimming - General Update

Just a quick update. High School Swimming started last weeked (11/2), but Bailey was on her trip to Rhodes and Bear had to work. This weekend Bailey is out of town again, and Bear has his own year round meet so we will miss this meet too.

Breeze

11-07-2019, 07:32 AM

Bailey College Update - University of Cumberlands

Bailey has another trip this weekend, and this one will probably be her last. Especially since she reiterated to the wife yesterday (11/6) that she was probably not going to swim in college.

Cumberlands isn't really in Bailey's sweet spot. While the enrollment is a bit higher than the rest of the schools she's visited; it is also more remote. It sits in Williamsburg, Kentucky, which is a town of about 5000, but that's it. The next closest city is Knoxville over an hour south, with Lexington just under 2 hours north. The school is also affiliated with the Baptist Church, which we are not, and that potentially could be an issue depending on the religious requirements. The primary reason why we are even bothering to check it out is - cost. Last year Cumberlands cut their tuition costs considerably, then this year they have eliminated the cost of books. Given the low costs, plus academic money and swim money it could be extremely affordable. We'll see...

Breeze

11-12-2019, 09:29 AM

Bailey College Update - University of Cumberlands

We ended up punting on this trip. Given that the school didn't really match up with what Bailey is looking for, and the primary reason for going was cost, we elected to forgo travelling to Williamsburg, KY this past weekend (11/8-9). Basically, we asked Bailey if there was any number they could throw out from a cost perspective that would make her say yes to attending, and her response was, "I don't know yet." Given that, we suggested she determine the cost of attending the schools she's more interested in, and then, armed with the knowledge of what schools going to cost, asking herself that same question again - if ultimately there is a dollar figure that could sway her, then we will reschedule the trip to see what the cost would be.

Breeze

11-13-2019, 06:38 AM

Bill Behrens Veterans Invite - RESULTS

Bear

Still inching in the right direction...my only concern is that the improvement is minimal and the time to state is short.

# 8 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - 2:07.76 - not great, but 3 seconds better than the previous meet just a couple weeks ago.

# 14 (d1/s2): M Open 100 Back (58.01) - strong turns helped here, 59.82. If he were to swim this tapered I'm sure we'd be looking at a PB.

# 18 (d1/s2): M Open 1000 Free (9:41.74) - disappointing 10:37.46 - the longer the swims the more he struggled in this meet.

# 22 (d2/s4): M Open 100 Free (51.04) - improved over 2 weeks ago by a fraction - 51.48

# 24 (d2/s4): M Open 100 Fly (56.40) - another improvement over 2 weeks ago, this time by about half a second - 57.86

# 34 (d2/s4): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - another longer swim and a disappointing 5:08.37

Breeze

11-14-2019, 06:46 AM

Bear College Update - Berry College

Bear has been accepted into Berry College. In fact, in his acceptance letter the school requested/suggested he apply for the honors college (which we will need to research to determine the requirements and benefits).

In total the package they put together for him was really good. I believe getting this information and realizing that the school will be affordable was a huge relief for Bear (I know it was a relief for me).

Being accepted into Berry is great, but Bear hasn't committed yet. Unfortunately, the application was required to determine the financial requirements for attendance, and committing is a completely different. He's still waiting to see what Roanoke puts together, and all indications are he still wants to visit Centre College but he's planning to wait until after the state meet. However, the package at Berry was good enough to eliminate Carson-Newman from consideration.

JonInMiddleGA

11-14-2019, 05:49 PM

[B][COLOR="Red"]Bill Behrens Veterans Invite -

In doing my research - after this name caught my eye - I know that the Behrens mentioned here was a nationally renowned swim coach.

That said though, any idea whether he's related to the long-time indy wrestling promoter (of the same name) in some way? The age of this Behrens and the age I suspect for the wrestling Behrens make father/son kind of marginal I think but it definitely wasn't a name I expected to have jump off the page at me in this thread.

JonInMiddleGA

11-14-2019, 05:49 PM

Bear has been accepted into Berry College. In fact, in his acceptance letter the school requested/suggested he apply for the honors college (which we will need to research to determine the requirements and benefits).

That's great. Whether it's a fit for Bear or not, it's still darned nice to be asked.

Breeze

11-15-2019, 09:13 AM

In doing my research - after this name caught my eye - I know that the Behrens mentioned here was a nationally renowned swim coach.

That said though, any idea whether he's related to the long-time indy wrestling promoter (of the same name) in some way? The age of this Behrens and the age I suspect for the wrestling Behrens make father/son kind of marginal I think but it definitely wasn't a name I expected to have jump off the page at me in this thread.

I don't know of any connection, and some initial searching didn't turn up any...

Breeze

11-20-2019, 10:12 AM

General Update

Years ago, Bear lost a State Gold medal in the 1000 Free by .08 seconds (if memory serves), to Brendan Hausdorf. For the next few years, these two battled in distance events with Brendan winning all but 1, when Bear was 13 (however, that year the State changed the medal presentation rules and combined 13 & 14 year olds, so Bear didn't get anything for that win).

Anyway...Hausdorf just signed to swim for LSU.

Breeze

11-26-2019, 06:03 AM

Breeze

11-27-2019, 07:17 AM

Bear College Update - Roanoke College

Bear got his financial package from Roanoke and it was far short of the offer from Berry. However, the coach said that he'll talk with the administration and get back to Bear with an updated offer. So now the negotiation begins....will be interested to see what he comes back with.

Roanoke requested that a parent be involved on the call, so I have gotten pretty good feedback from Cathy.

Basically, the coach really wants Bear bad, and he said he'd do everything in his power to match the package that Berry put together, including coming up with funds to offset the Hope/Zell Georgia based scholarship. Bear's next step is to send a copy of the Berry offer to Roanoke so they can determine what they'll need to do in order to match. Bear is also supposed to call his admissions adviser and let them know that he needs more money (which the coach will also state to the department, along with the information on Berry).

Some other tidbits of information:

- The coach stated that he was putting down roots, as his family and his wife's family are from that area, and he's very happy where he is. This is important because the primary reason Bear is interested is the coaching. He really likes the both of the coaches. They are super high energy, funny, and they relate well to the team (in fact, you can see them jumping around at the ODAC conference championships last year on the videos of Brett I posted). However, both are very young (late 20s probably), and they've done a phenomenal job building this program (it only started up 3 years ago). In fact, they've done so good they are already 2nd in conference and they are starting to challenge Washington & Lee who's won the conference for ~15 years. Honestly, I'm still not so sure he'll be there for 4 years, even if he's saying his plans are to stay...from the outside he looks to have a huge upside and it seems odd that he wouldn't want to pursue that - but could be wrong, or he could be doing what all college coaches do when asked this question - deflect.

- This year W&L is a bit vulnerable and Roanoke realizes it, but the coach doesn't think he has the horses yet to overtake them, but...

- He told Bear that if he could get him, along with a couple other kids he's currently recruiting that he'd beat them for sure (nice way to make Bear feel wanted).

- Bear's academic profile would put him in the top 10% of students on campus. Which is why his academic money is already maxed out in their offer

- They don't go on winter training trips...just train at their normal facility

- Kids are asked to help support the team by paying $100/season and by doing fund raising

- The coach really laid it on think, making sure Bear realized how much he wanted him to be part of the Maroons...

Breeze

12-02-2019, 09:36 AM

South Forsyth vs Lambert & Pinecrest- RESULTS

The twins participated in their first high school meet of the season on Saturday. I didn't post a pre-write up on this meet, because I thought, with the State Meet scheduled for this weekend, the kids were going to wait until after State so they didn't risk wrecking their taper/training.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

#6 Women 200 IM - - 2:26.25 - given Bailey hasn't completely rounded into shape after her bought with mono, this time is pretty good. Anything over a 100 is tough for her right now.

#12 Women 100 Fly - managed to swim her typical time in this event at a high school meet - 1:04.52

#18 Women 200 Free Relay - Bailey led off the relay with a 28.04 split...which isn't too far off her personal best time...and was right in line with the other girls who got a rolling start.

#24 Women 400 Free Relay - swam the 3rd leg, and closed hard on the team that won the event, closing by more than a full second...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

#3 Men 200 Free - Bear posted a very poor 1:56.46, which was concerning with state just a week away, but we found out later that his goggles came off on the dive, and like the 1650 at state last year, he tried to fix them while he was swimming. Ultimately, he just ripped them off and threw them on the side of the pool while in the middle of a turn. This explained the slow time.

#11 Men 100 Fly - nearly posted a personal best with a 57.02. Just off by about half a second. He was bit disappointed in this time as he beat his personal best in practice earlier in the day.

#17 Men 200 Free Relay - Bear swam a solid 23.59 split, which is better than this personal best time on record. Of course, this isn't an official meet, so the record won't count.

#23 Men 400 Free Relay - Bear went 3rd, and the team had a huge lead by the time he hit the water...he costed home on the last half lap and finished his split around 54 seconds.

Breeze

12-03-2019, 10:34 AM

Bailey College Update - Roanoke College

Interestingly, Roanoke College issued a preemptive strike...

Bailey is looking more and more like she's planning to hang up her goggles. She's still not applied to any of the schools she visited for swimming, even to the point of just seeing how much it would cost to attend the school. Roanoke, having not received an application, sent Bailey an acceptance letter offering her $100k over 4 years. The offer is apparently fully executable without ever seeing her transcripts. Also, given their willingness to negotiate with Bear, odds they would increase the offer to her, if she were to push the issue are high.

No idea what her thoughts on the letter are, because we didn't discuss it last night. My assumption is that she is flattered, but still not interested in the effort it would take to swim in college. I'll update the board, when I know more.

Breeze

12-04-2019, 07:33 AM

2019 Georgia Short Course State Championship @ UGA Natatorium - 12/6 - 12/8

Bailey - Unfortunately, especially given this will probably be one of the last meets Bailey swims, I don't expect much from her in this meet. She's still not really in shape yet, so much so she's not even competing in her best event, the 200 fly, because she runs out of gas before she can complete a 200.

# 7 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:00.21) - She did managed to swim her typical 1:04 at the high school meet last weekend...but I'm guessing she'll be a 1:01, and under the circumstances that's actually really good.

# 17 (d2/s5): W Open 100 Medley (1:03.89) - No idea on this one...she doesn't swim it often so I have very little to go on. I do know she's been really pleased with her backstroke in practice, so if it's improved, and she can gut out even a decent breast leg, she can probably post a personal best.

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Bear - It's been a long road for Bear, swimming for over a year with an over-training injury, then having to back off substantially on training for months while the injury healed. I still don't think he's where he wants to be with regards to getting back in shape, but he's starting to turn the corner. Hopefully, he's far enough around the corner to post some good times this weekend.

# 4 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - with his goggles coming off in his high school meet last weekend, I don't have s sense for where he is. My guess is, he'll be pretty close to a best here.

# 20 (d2/s6): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - broke his 100 fly PB in practice, if he's in good enough shape, this PB could be within reach. Will know for sure how in shape at about the 150 mark of the race.

# 28 (d2/s6): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - afraid to make a prediction on this one. He's really struggled in what was his best event for so long, I just don't have a feel for what he might be able to accomplish.

# 32 (d3/s10): M Open 200 Medley (2:03.39) - Breast is still ugly, in fact, when he posted his PB his Breast was pretty good...he was approaching Brett's times, but he's no longer anywhere close to that range, so I suspect this one will be a several second add.

# 42 (d3/s10): X Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - last time he swam this he was still dealing with the over-training issue, and he was screwing with his goggles because they came off on the dive. There is time available for a drop. In fact, there is a bunch of time available, if he's in shape. The messing with goggles last year probably cost him at least 15 seconds...so it'll all come down to how good he feels at the end of the meet. If he has the energy, he could do really well.

Breeze

12-10-2019, 08:16 PM

2015 Georgia Age Group State Championship – Day 3 Prelims

#68 Boys 12&U 400 Free Relay

Gold A Team – 3:48.00 : Seeded T1 – The Gold A Team, came into this relay already having earned 3 bronze medals and 3 team records. They were seeded T1, and where hoping for a better result this time out, as the Gold Team was clearly better at 100s than at 50s. The coaches for Gold, after having watched Nate try and close in the last 3 relays, decided they needed to switch up the order so as to not put too much pressure on him. They elected to have him lead off instead. Then the discussion came down to Bear vs Nicklas as the anchor. Coach Andy told the rest of the coaches, Bear will swim his best race no matter where you put him, but Nicklas does better when he’s challenged – so decision made – Nicklas is the anchor. The order ended up being Nate, Bear, Andrew, and Nicklas, and the irony of this change is – Swim Atlanta also changed their order as well. They front loaded their relay with their 2 best swimmers, hoping to disconnect and get the Gold swimmer to think they wouldn’t be able to make up the ground. Here is how it went:
Nate and Quinn (same Quinn that beat Bear in 400 IM) immediately separated themselves from the field. At the turn for the 50, Nate was up by .3, and third was already a full second back. At the end of the 100 things here were the splits:

Nate – 53.32 Quinn – 54.15

Bear was next up, and he opened with a 26.75 in the first 50…but the Swim Atlanta swimmer posted a 25.92 0 so the teams were tied with a split of 1:20.07. On the back 50, Bear lost a bit more time Here are the splits and the overall times:

Bear – 56.49 (1:49.81) Swim Atlanta – 54.85 (1:49.00)

Down by a little under a second, Andrew, the slowest of the 4 swimmers dove in. He’s more of a distance swimmer, so I was afraid that we might fall a good bit behind now. In the first 50 of the 3rd leg Andrew lost another .8 when he posted a 27.46 to SAs 26.75, but in the back half he closed some and the race was look like this:

Andrew – 57.66 (2:47.47) Swim Atlanta – 57.29 (2:46.29)

Nicklas had a 1.18 second deficit to make up when he hit the water. He was clearly closing on the Swim Atlanta anchor, and at the 50 turn of the 4th leg the deficit was almost cut in half as it was down to .57 seconds. Nicklas opened with a 26.80 to Swim Atlanta’s 27.55. The question was could he make up another .59 or did he wear himself out on the opening leg chasing?

Nickas – 55.46 (3:42.93) Swim Atlanta – 57.27 (3:43.56)
Gold wins Gold!!! And they not only broke the team record, they destroyed it by 8 full seconds.

I've got some really bad news to report, the Nate mentioned above lost his father to cancer today. This really hits close to home on so many levels. We really like the family, Nate and Bear were close. They both are looking to swim in college and often are looking at the same schools. And most jarring...he was diagnosed with oral cancer not long after I got my diagnosis...

I'm heartbroken right now...

Breeze

12-16-2019, 05:58 AM

Quick follow up to the Nate story above. Nate gave up swimming this year so he could play football and be part of the "team" atmosphere that that sport provides during his senior year of high school. Well, his team won the state championship less than 24 hours before the visitation for his dad.

Breeze

12-17-2019, 08:42 AM

2019 Georgia Short Course State Championship - RESULTS

Bailey

# 7 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:00.21) - figured she'd be in the 1:01s...she swam a 1:01.80. Under the circumstances, it was a pretty good effort. Also her form looked really good - good enough that with good health, desire, and some more training to improve fitness she could get a personal best before the end of the season. The big problem with that is the desire is no longer there...

# 17 (d2/s5): W Open 100 Medley (1:03.89) - posted a disappointing 1:05.14.. She did manage to beat her friend and teammate Mary Gray, who was swimming right next to her.

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Bear

# 4 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - finished in 1:47.42, which is better than it's been, but also disappointing as we were hoping to challenge personal bests in this meet and we aren't close yet. The opening 100 was pretty much on target with his splits from his best times, but his back half was much slower. Probably an indication that he's really not in true race shape for longer events yet.

# 20 (d2/s6): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - similar to the 200 free he posted a better time than he has been, but it's still not close to a PB. He finished in 1:59.96. He did however, post a personal best time at the 100 split. Finishing that in 56.25, compared to his PB time on record of 56.40. I really wanted him to time trial this one so we could see how much lower he might be able to go, when he didn't have another 100 fly to swim after the touch at the 100 split...but he didn't.

# 28 (d2/s6): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - based on the results of the first two swims, I was concerned about this one. It was justified. he finished in 4:56.43...

# 32 (d3/s10): M Open 200 Medley (2:03.39) - Bear managed a personal best in this one, and a pretty good improvement. Finishing in 1:59.69. That's over a 3.5 second drop. It's unquestionable that the new SwimAtlanta training is helping him with his sprints, and it is helping him round out his strokes again, rather than being so freestyle focused. He split a 26.14 in the fly, which is ok. His back was a 29.42...this is much faster than he typically goes. Then the breast was a very respectable 36.88. Free was off from what he would normally go, but I would expect that, given his slower back half times in the other 200s.

# 42 (d3/s10): X Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - it was pretty obvious from earlier results that he really isn't ready for the distance stuff. He had to grind out a 17:08.93...extremely disappointing for him...

Breeze

12-18-2019, 05:56 AM

Bear College Update - Roanoke College

Bear received Roanoke's reworked offer and they did increase the financial aid by about $6,000. In addition, they added in several low cost loans, but even with the increase and the loans considered, the total package is about $5000 higher than Berry even BEFORE loans are considered. I think he was disappointed by the offer, but not really surprised. He admitted over a week ago that he didn't think Roanoke would be able to come close to what Berry put on the table.

Breeze

12-20-2019, 06:03 AM

Bear - General Update

Right before the start of SERIOUS winter training, Bear has suffered an ankle injury. The guys were playing Ultimate before practice today, and one of the other kids fell and rolled up on him. Based on the description of how it occurred, it sounds like a high ankle sprain. We will get him checked today. I hope it's nothing serious. He can't afford to be out of the pool, especially now, when the increased training level might be all he needs to round back into shape. Moreover, with his shoulder issues, he doesn't need to have pull only practices for an extended period of time waiting for the ankle to heal. That's just asking for problems to return.

JonInMiddleGA

12-20-2019, 06:40 AM

the total package is about $5000 higher than Berry even BEFORE loans are considered. I think he was disappointed by the offer, but not really surprised. He admitted over a week ago that he didn't think Roanoke would be able to come close to what Berry put on the table.

I'm not sure I'm reading this right, so ...

by "$5,000 higher" do you mean that the offer from Roanoke is better than Berry's now? Or that Roanoke's cost remains higher even with the improved offer?

Breeze

12-20-2019, 07:16 AM

I'm not sure I'm reading this right, so ...

by "$5,000 higher" do you mean that the offer from Roanoke is better than Berry's now? Or that Roanoke's cost remains higher even with the improved offer?

Sorry, obviously my familiarity with the situation led to a less than detailed explanation.

The new Roanoke offer, even with extra loans applied is still $5000 short of what the Berry offer is, even before we consider loans on the Berry side. If we remove all the loans, for Bear to attend Roanoke, we would be looking at paying an additional 10k/year

JonInMiddleGA

12-20-2019, 12:23 PM

Sorry, obviously my familiarity with the situation led to a less than detailed explanation.

The new Roanoke offer, even with extra loans applied is still $5000 short of what the Berry offer is, even before we consider loans on the Berry side. If we remove all the loans, for Bear to attend Roanoke, we would be looking at paying an additional 10k/year

Got it. I had a feeling that you used "higher" the opposite way of how I initially read it .. but rather than wonder, I just came out & asked :)

Breeze

12-23-2019, 06:34 AM

Bear - General Update

On Thursday at practice the team was playing Ultimate, and Bear got tangled with another swimmer trying to make a catch. That second swimmer came down on Bear's ankle. We took him to the doctor on Friday for X-Rays, and he has a break in one of the small bones on the outside of his ankle. We have to take him to see an orthopedic before he can swim again. This is terrible timing because he really need to be in the water to get back in shape, but it will probably prevent him from getting the increased winter training regimen.

Breeze

12-23-2019, 06:49 AM

South Forsyth vs Forsyth Central @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 12/21

South swam a dual meet with Central on Saturday. With Bear's ankle injury, he obviously didn't compete. Bailey did, but she's been out of the pool for several days prepping for mid-terms, so she wasn't really in any shape to do well. In fact, she said she did terrible...unfortunately, I really can't elaborate. The wife and I had to run errands to get Christmas stuff finished so we didn't go, and the app that records the swim times shows the meet, but no-one uploaded the results. I can confirm, from Bailey's own admission that she did poorly. Of course they had her doing a 200 free, and if you recall the Gold coaches pretty much avoided anything over a 100 because they felt she wasn't in shape to race a 200.

In addition, this was supposed to be a fun, meet, so Bailey was listed a swimmer in the onesie relay. In this race each swimmer does a 50 while wearing a giant onesie. Then they get out, take it off, so the next swimmer can climb into it, then do their 50. Bailey said she nearly drowned...the onesie was huge, and she said when she dove it, it filled with water, especially the footies, which were about 18" past her feet, so it was like swimming with ankle weights on....

Breeze

01-02-2020, 09:19 AM

Bear - College Swimming

Over the Christmas Break, Bear committed to Berry College. I think it was a big relief for him to commit, especially after the ankle injury. He seems more relaxed and happier. I believe the weight of this decision was weighing on him. The good news is that the school really does check all of his boxes:

- Good academically
- Great campus
- Good swim team
- And after the scholarships, very affordable

If Bear can return to pre-injury form, he will be one of the best on the team and in conference. However, he isn't going to be so much better than the rest of the team that he feels out of place.

I'm not sure what Bear is going to study, but it will almost certainly be on the STEM side of things given his strength in Science and Math.

Breeze

01-07-2020, 06:09 AM

South Forsyth - Lambert Holiday Invite - @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 1/4

A huge high school meet with 18 teams. Bear still isn't competing, as he's still unable to kick.

Bailey - Bailey has basically quit swimming already. She only attended 1 practice during the holiday break, so we had no illusions about how she'd do.

#2 200 Yard Medley Relay - Bailey handled the fly leg on the A team and posted a respectable 28.9. The team finished 3rd overall.

#12 100 Yard Fly - Managed a 1:04.96, which is right on her typical time in a high school meet. Pretty impressive under the circumstances

#20 100 Yard Back - I think this was the first time she's ever done the 100 back in a high school meet. She requested it, because she isn't in shape for her typical events the 200 IM and the 200 Free. Posted a 1:07.26, which isn't bad, especially without any practice.

The 400 Free Relay Team withdrew because the team had another team building function off site and the meet was running late...

JonInMiddleGA

01-07-2020, 11:46 PM

Over the Christmas Break, Bear committed to Berry College.

Congratulations Bear and family.

Breeze

01-09-2020, 10:30 AM

General Update - Bailey

Given that Bailey has basically quit swimming, and her last competitive meet will be high school state at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, I've started printing her version of this journal. I'll have to figure out the best time to give it to her, and I'll have to be careful to do this without tipping off Bear.

Bailey's version of the journal, in case you were wondering is over 330 pages in Word.

Breeze

01-14-2020, 01:43 PM

South Forsyth - Wolverine Winter Invite @ CAC - 1/11

Bear is still out with the ankle injury.

Bailey

#2 Girls 200 Medley B Relay - Bailey for some reason (read: coach makes dumb decisions) swam the free on B relay. She did fine, posting a 27.96, which is only about half a second off her personal best split from back when she was training regularly. What makes the decision dumb is...Bailey's been swimming fly in under 29 seconds, the girl that swam fly in this relay was over 31. The odds that the girl swimming fly would have been closer to Bailey 28 second free rather than the 29 second fly are high. The coach probably cost the relay 2 seconds minimum by not switching just these 2 swimmers.

#4 Girls 200 Free - Bailey managed a respectable 2:12.43. Given she's really not in shape to sprint a 200, this time is really impressive. Not sure why the coaches don't seem to get it.

#12 Girls 100 Fly - amazingly she continues to hit her 1:04 consistently, going a 1:04.97. I bet if I went back a looked at all her high school fly swims, over 90% would be in the 1:04 range. Originally, it was the fatigue coming directly from practice that put her at that pace. Now it's the fact that she isn't training regularly...but I find it interesting that she's been so solid and consistent in that event.

#24 Girls 400 Free Relay - swam the 3rd leg in 1:00.48. Good enough for the second fastest split in the relay (behind only the anchor, Jordan, who will get solid D1 offers next year). Bailey's split was several seconds faster than 2 other year rounders, even if you factor in the cold start for the lead off leg. She's really doing remarkably well this season with limited training coming into events.

Breeze

01-16-2020, 08:12 AM

South Forsyth

The swim team had their senior dinner the other night. It was held at a local Italian chain restaurant, where we chose our food from a limited menu, and visited with other senior parents. As part of this dinner the kids are asked to talk about their swim experiences and most use the time as an opportunity to say thank you to their parents for the sacrifices made allowing them to swim.

Most of the kids scripted their talks and read them off their phones. Bailey and Bear didn't prepare anything and both spoke from the heart. Which I'd prefer even if it was brief. (Bear actually tried to convince Bailey to say, "Word's can't explain my feelings about this...so I'm not even going to try," and then have her sit down.)

Bear had a nice speech where the thanked us and he referenced the videos I used to make of his swims when he was younger, and hearing mom screaming for him. He also thanked me for counting "all those laps".

Bailey on the other hand went last and she went in a different direction, and I thought it was great. She thanked us, but at the same time she stated..."also thank you for helping me realize I don't want to swim anymore". Which was a complete flip of the script, as everyone else was lamenting the end of their swimming, where Bailey was honestly admitting, I've had enough and thanks for understanding and helping me realize that it's OK.

Breeze

01-21-2020, 08:09 AM

South Forsyth vs Pinecrest & West Forsyth @ CAC - 1/18

Bear is still out with the ankle injury

Bailey

#2 Girls Medley Relay - The coach is trying extremely hard to get additional swimmers qualified for state through the relays. Basically, any kids that swim on a relay that qualifies for state receive a state patch. So the coach is spitting the talent on her relays to try and reach the goal time as often as possible. Bailey ended up on the B relay in the fly leg, and she posted a mediocre 29.95, but that time was still over 3.5 seconds faster than the girl that swam on the A relay.

#8 Girls 50 Free - managed a high school best time of 28.21, which is almost exactly 1 second off her personal best time.

#12 Girls 100 Fly - Bailey was racing hard to win this event against a girl that trains on Bear's team at Swim Atlanta. Bailey let at the 50 turn, but the lack of training really impacted her down the stretch and she came in at 1:05.66, losing by about 1.5 seconds. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that we are going to start to see her times creep higher as the lack of training becomes more of a factor. But there is only the county championship and the state meet left, so the maximum number of swims Bailey could have remaining is 8 and it all honestly, I expect she'll only swim 5 or 6 of those...

#18 Girls 200 Free Relay - Bailey swam on the D relay in this event (see comment above about spreading talent). However, out of the 16 girls that swam the event, Bailey had the 3rd best split. Moreover, she came from behind in the anchor leg to have her relay beat the C team.

Bailey has really swum well this season despite the lack of training. In fact, I truly believe that had things gone differently last year, and her health/luck had held up, she'd be looking at some really strong personal best times to close out her career.

Breeze

01-24-2020, 11:18 AM

South Forsyth - County Championship @ CAC - 1/25

The twins have the county championship this weekend. It's a prelim/final meet and it will take ALL DAY, as they also pause to honor the seniors for all the county high schools during the last regular season meet of the year.

Bear - will return to action in this meet. No idea what to expect. He's been grinding through practices, but I don't expect he's in peek shape or form given he's been mostly pulling for a while. He's scheduled to swim the 200 IM and the 500 Free. He'll also start out on B relays, but if his splits are good the coach is expected to move him to the A relay for finals (though I must admit, I'm not sure she's allowed to do that at this event - but we'll see how it plays out. It'll be interesting regardless)

Bailey - her career is winding down rapidly. Given she's really not practiced much in the past few weeks, I have no expectations for her in this event. I haven't gotten confirmation on what she'll be swimming, but I'm pretty certain the 100 fly will be one of the events. My guess would be the 100 back for the other, but it could be anything from the 200 IM, to the 200 free, or the 100 or 50 frees as well. Also not sure what relays she'll be on...

JonInMiddleGA

01-24-2020, 12:42 PM

Also not sure what relays she'll be on...

That's okay, the coach probably isn't either.

Breeze

01-28-2020, 08:44 AM

South Forsyth - County Championship - RESULTS

Bear - coming into this meet, the boys from Swim Atlanta started talking and they decided that they were going to win every event except the 200 IM, which they knew Daniel Gallagher (Dynamo & committed to Dartmouth) would win. They also thought they'd go 1-2 in all the other event, except the 100 Back, which was Gallagher's second event. As it turns out they were close. Gallagher did win the 200 IM, but he also won the 100 back by .05 seconds.

PRELIMS

#1 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - as I expected, the relays were locked at the prelim, so if Bear had swum on the B, he wouldn't be allowed to move to the A relay. So the coach made the switch and Bear swam the Free leg. When he dove in, he was trailing in his heat, but he came from behind to out-touch the Denmark High School's A squad. According to the results he split a 23.20, which seemed slow, but given he'd been out with the ankle, who knows. The team finished the prelims in second place.

#5 200 Yard IM (2:06.39) - Bear came into this event seeded with his high school best time...and the race was pretty pedestrian. He only managed to pose a 2:10.78, which for me was a cause for concern. I felt that he was struggling because he hadn't been able to practice effectively for the past few weeks and he wasn't in shape to race, and my real fear was the 500 was going to be a struggle. His performance was good enough to make the A final heat as the 8th seed.

#15 500 Yard Freestyle (4:51.40)- unlike the rest of the races on the day, the 500 was a timed final, so Bear would only have to swim it one time. He was going to need a good swim in order to uphold his part of the Swim Atlanta plan to finish 1-2. He wasn't going to challenge South and Swim Atlanta teammate Jake for the win, but if he didn't swim well, he could easily lose to 3 or 4 of the other swimmers who were coming in with times just over 5 minutes. Bear opened with a strong 55.69, which is a typical start time for him when he's tapered. He followed that up with a sub 60 split followed by one fractionally over 60. Then another fractionally over 60, and it was obvious that barring a major collapse he was going to finish 2nd. He closed with just under a 1:02, which could have been because of fatigue, or it could also have been partially because he was going to finish second regardless of his time so there was no reason to push any harder than that. Bear finished in a 4:58.76, which was a great swim under the circumstances. It far exceeded his performance during his taper meet at State back in December. In fact, this swim gives me hope that he may be about to turn the corner on his rebuilt stroke. It also made me reconsider the swim in the 200 IM. Given his strong race here, at this point I assumed he took it easy in the first race to save himself for this one.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Freestyle - B team - no idea why the coach left Bear on the B relay here. I don't have a problem with him not being on the A in the 400 free, the 4 swimmers in that relay performed well, and arguably all swam as well or better than Bear. My frustration is that she didn't move him to the A team on the 200 Free Relay, where Bear could have improved the team's time by around 1.5 seconds. Anyway, Bear's group finished 4th overall and was the fastest B relay in the race, but only the top relay for each school makes it back to finals, and that was South's A team, which was 2nd after prelims. Bear apparently split a 52.10.

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FINALS

#1 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - one of the teams that came into finals swimming slower than South clearly sandbagged the prelims, as they posted a much faster time, and the Denmark team that Bear caught from behind in prelims was too far out front this time around so South settled for 4th. Bear's split was clearly recorded incorrectly as it was listed around 20.7...Bear believes it was around a 22.1...

#5 200 Yard IM (2:10.78) - it became obvious pretty early that Bear had been conserving his energy in the prelims. His fly leg was almost a second faster, and the back was about 2 seconds faster. His only weak leg, based on his really peak performances was the free, which probably indicates some fatigue from the day and the ankle recovery. He managed to improve to 5th overall and he posted a high school best time of 2:05.60, beating his seed time from prelims by about a second.

Breeze

01-29-2020, 08:17 AM

South Forsyth - County Championships - RESULTS

Bailey - Bailey's career is winding down, and she's absolutely read for it to end. She really hasn't practiced at all in the last month, so I had not expectations coming into this event. In fact, I was just watching intently knowing that it would be one of the last times I get to see her race.

PRELIMS

#2 Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - B Team - Out of the 7 teams that were present, South's B relay was the second B to finish and 6th overall in prelims, so not bad. Bailey's split was a 29.21, which is a bit slower than she was swimming earlier in the season, but given the lack of practice mentioned above that wasn't surprising.

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM - This is where Bailey's history hurts her. She was a very good 200 IM swimmer for South for 3 years so the coach continues to put her in this event despite Bailey requesting the 100 back and despite the fact her results indicate that she tends to run out of gas in 200 yard swims. She had a decent swim under the circumstances finishing in 2:27.86, and making the A final as the 10th seed. I was extremely impressed that she managed to make the A final, given the lack of pool time.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Fly - Earlier in the year Bailey had been able to maintain her typical 1:04 mid swims in this event, but recently she posted a 1:05, so that's what I was expecting, and it was a good projection as she logged a 1:05.57. This was good enough for 14th seed a spot in the B final.

#18 Girls 200 Yard Free Relay - B Team - In prior meets, when several of the year round girls are missing due to swimming in other meets, I've noted that the coach had Bailey in the wrong relays. However, with everyone present, she had Bailey exactly where she belonged. She anchored the B and managed a 28.31 split. The 5th fastest time for all South relays, behind the 4 girls swimming in the A group, and honestly, even Bailey's PB wouldn't have been as fast as the 4 other girls.

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FINALS

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM (2:27.86) - Bailey came into finals seeded 10th. The race started and her fly was about .3 slower than the morning, but then things changed. She was much faster in the back, a little faster in the breast, and slightly faster in the free as well. She ended up improving on the time from the morning by going 2:26.22, and she moved up to 9th place. This was on heck of an effort, and it showed how competitive she is, as she picked up the effort in finals and battled the girls around her.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Fly (1:05.57) - In finals, like in the 200 IM, Bailey picked it up...she raced the girl next to her and brought it home in 1:04.59. I was sitting next to her former coach Andy during the race, and he was absolutely blow away with her form and effort. He flat out stated that had she been training, with that form, she'd be looking at posting some extremely fast times. That was bittersweet to hear, because it's been my feeling all season. I really felt that after her strong finish to 2018 that she was headed for a big 2019, but circumstances stole that from her.

Bailey now has just 1 swim left before she hangs up her goggles, and to be honest, I'm struggling a bit. It's really odd, I didn't have this same feeling about my athletic career coming to an end, and no one else I knew did either. However, the one big difference is - we all bounced from sport to sport as the seasons changed, so stopping was expected at the end of every season. I was never dedicated to a single purpose the way she has been to swimming, and watching that come to an end is tough. It's also, I guess, a sign that she's growing up and moving on and that one, though inevitable, is tough to swallow as well. In Bailey's final swim, she'll represent South in the 100 Fly at the high school state meet.

Breeze

02-05-2020, 06:00 AM

High School State Championships @ GaTech - 2/8-9

The state meet is coming up this weekend and while I'd love to provide some insight, unfortunately, things are a bit messy. I know I've mentioned many times previously that the coach is lazy and doesn't put much effort into this (heck, she forgot to invite one of the senior swimmers to the senior banquet). I've commented how she's had the wrong people in the wrong events consistently over the last couple of years, and it was worse this year. Things were so screwed up that she actually had Bear scheduled to swim the 200 free at state, which would be fine, except for the fact that Bear only participated in 2 meets during the season and he didn't get the 200 free cut, so he was ineligible to compete in that event. We weren't going to say anything about it, until another swim mom mentioned that swimming in an event where you aren't eligible could impact your NCAA eligibility, at which point we got the event updated to the 200 IM. Also, because she continually screwed around with the boys relays, she never had her top swimmers compete in all of them, so now Bear isn't even allowed to compete in the 200 Free Relay at state because he didn't swim it during the season. That would be fine, but 3 of the other top swimmers on the team didn't swim in the 200 free relay either, so she has too many kids qualified in the 400 free relay and not enough good swimmers in the 200 free. It's a disaster, but it's out last one, so I'll just grin and bear it.

Bailey is down to her last swim, and it was touch and go as to if she was going to be one of the 4 swimming. As it turns out, she's the last representative for the team in that event. Honestly, I don't think she would have cared if she was removed. She's definitely over swimming. In fact, she's still not practicing. In fact, rather than try to get in a little bit of shape heading into her last swim, she's decided to increase her hours at work to make more money. I wonder if it will impact her at all when she knows she's finished, and if so when?

Breeze

02-06-2020, 08:47 AM

Georgia High School State Championships @ GaTech - 2/7-8

The psych sheet has been released, so I now have some answers...here is a breakdown of what will be happening this weekend.

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Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Fly (1:02.40) - This is Bailey's last competitive swim :(, and she comes in seeded 45th with her high school best time of 1:02.40. That time was swum last year at state and was before all the problems with concussions, mono, etc., and was right when she was really swimming well. Unfortunately, this year she's been disinterested most of the season, and completely absent from the pool over the last month or so, which means she won't come anywhere close to her seed time. In fact, she might struggle to actually make the state cut time of 1:05.00. Honestly, if she can beat the cut time, she will have done a nice job.

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (4) - Bear will be on the 200 Medley Relay for the team, in the free leg. The rest of the team consists of Riley in Back, Sree in Breast, and Jake in Fly. This is undoubtedly the strongest line up she can field, but it's really irrelevant because they are seeded 34th in the state and even with great swims across the board, they aren't likely to move up into the top 30, and they'll be no where near a scoring spot.

#5 Boys 200 IM - (2:07.36) - Bear comes into this event seeded 60th, but I have no idea where this seed time comes from. His high school best in this stroke was during finals a few weeks back at the county championship where he swam a 2:05:60. His best prior to that was a 2:06.39, which was his seed time for this event at the county meet. Where 2:07+ comes from is anyone's guess and a perfect illustration of my frustrations with the coach. Very little effort would have turned up the correct times. In fact, the computer system should have the times in the database, and if it doesn't it's because the coach screwed something up. Bear's real personal best is 1:59.69 from earlier this year swimming with SwimAtlanta. I don't expect him to hit that time in this event, but for point of reference, that would be good enough to seed him 21st.

#15 Boys 500 Free - (4:51.40) - Not sure where this time comes from either, but it currently has him seeded 19th. It's not his high school best time, that would be last year's State meet swim of 4:48.84. In fact, it looks like the entry seed time from the 2018 state meet, which he beat that year with a swim of 4:51.17. So again, I'm scratching my head over where the coach gets the seed times from. Given that I posted his times from 2019 and 2018, I figured I'd post his freshman time as well...he swam a 5:03.10 back in 2017. Most recently, he posted a 4:58.76 at the county meet, and he said it nearly killed him. He's got a little taper going right now, so hopefully he'll post a high school best time to wrap up his individual swims for South. His true personal best time of 4:41 would be good enough to get around 6th...but that's a tough ask.

#23 Boys 400 Free Relay - Bear, Sree, Jake, and Ben will combine to swim the South 400 Free Relay. The team is seeded 28th, and they will need good times from all 4 to hold on to that spot.

Breeze

02-10-2020, 10:06 AM

General Update

The ODAC Conference Championships was this past weekend. I kept an eye on the results out of curiosity. Turns out Brett's times held up quite well (in fact his team record 400 IM time wasn't broken). I'm still disappointed (for him as much as for me) that he wasn't able to go back and continue his strong run in the pool.

Breeze

02-11-2020, 07:06 AM

Georgia High School State Championships - RESULTS

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Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Fly (1:02:40) - Bailey came into this swim seeded with a 1:02.40 time, but I'm not sure where that time came from. Originally, I though it was her best high school time, but a little research during some down time at the meet indicated I was way off on that. Her personal best high school time is a 1:00.78 from last year's state meet, when she posted her 3rd fastest time ever, despite missing several weeks just prior with a concussion. The truth of the matter was, because Bailey had pretty much stopped swimming at the end of December, her times in this event for the season were actually, in order: 1:04.52, 1:04.96, 1:04.97, 1:05.66, 1:05.57 (county prelims), 1:04.59 (county finals). With a couple of extra weeks out of the pool, the wife and I weren't expecting much. In fact, we debated on if she'd actually beat the state cut time of 1:06.00. The race started and Bailey opened with a strong 28.88. So strong she was only around .4 slower than last year. She closed out the second half of the race with a 33.93, and posted a time of 1:02.81. I was completely blown away with this effort. This is so much faster than she had gone all season, even in year round swims she never beat a 1:04 high, and yet in her last race ever she steps up and beats her season best time by almost 2 seconds. I was happy she went out with a good swim, and given the strength of this performance, I'll always wonder what might have been...if not for mono and back pain.

Breeze

02-12-2020, 07:31 AM

Georgia High School State Championships - PRELIM RESULTS

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (34) (1:45.65) - The meet started with the 200 Medley Relay, and Bear combined with Riley (back), Sree (Breast), & Jake (Fly) to swim a 1:41.94, which was a big improvement over the seed time, and it was better than the 1:42.53 time they posted at county (why that wasn't the seed time is beyond me). The improvement was good enough for the team to move up from 34th seed to a tie for 23rd and to make it back in the C finals. Bear split a 22.8, which he wasn't happy about...

#3 Boys 200 IM (2:07.36) - Bear swam 4 strong legs, the fly was 26 low, the back was 31 low, the breast was much better than what he had been swimming at 36 high and he closed with a 28 low free. He not only improved on the seed time (which again, I'm not sure where it came from), but he also improved on his 2:05.60 high school best time from county finishing in 2:02.83. This is his 3rd best time ever in this event, and even a personal best time might not have been good enough to make it back to finals.

#15 Boys 500 Free (4:51.40) - This was an extremely disappointing swim for Bear. He was able to slightly better his county time, but he didn't come close to his high school best time of 4:48...he finished in 4:57.45. His form looks so much better, I'm pretty confident that he's starting to turn the corner on the distance swims. I strongly believe his struggle here was due to missing time with the ankle injury. He basically missed all of winter training, then had several weeks of modified practice, which means he was far from peak shape. I'll be interested to see how he does in these events in long course. Fingers crossed my assessment is accurate. I really want to see him start dropping in these events again.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Free Relay (28) (3:28.69) - The team's seed time was close to their actual time at county, only off by .2 seconds, so at least this one made some sort of sense. The team was seeded 28th, so they'd need a good swim to make it back to finals. Bear combined with Jake and Sree from the Medley and Ben to post a 3:19.38, which moved them up to 16th heading into finals. Bear split a 50.6, which was pretty good...he wanted to go sub 50. This time not only got the team into the B final, it moved them to within .54 seconds of the South Forsyth High School team record in this event.

Breeze

02-13-2020, 07:47 AM

Georgia High School State Championships - FINALS RESULTS

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We awoke Saturday to snow...and not just a little snow. In fact, before it was finished the snow was piled over 4" on top of the cars in the driveway. Interestingly though, it wasn't really snowing down at Tech where the meet was scheduled to take place. This created some serious problems and a good bit of doubt about how/if the meet was going to take place. Pretty early on, Forsyth County schools announce that they would not be providing buses. In addition, they stated that if the meet was going to take place, and students were planning to attend, they needed to have a parent drive them (not exactly sure how they expected to enforce this...). For a while there was apparently some discussion by the meet organizers about rescheduling the finals, but I'm pretty sure there were very few days available given the time of the season, so they elected to proceed. Ironically, South's coach lined up her own bus, but Bear wasn't thrilled with the prospect of riding in a bus on icy roads without any seat belt. I wasn't overly comfortable with that arrangement either, so I took him. Ultimately, as is often the case around here (until it's not of course) the roads were no problem and the whole thing ended up being much ado about nothing.

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Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (1:41.94) - In finals the South team was able to better their time from prelims a day earlier. They posted a 1:41.36. A majority of this improvement was Riley in the back leg. He went .7 seconds faster at finals...Sree was about .1 slower, Jake was about .3 slower, and Bear was about .3 faster posting a 22.59 split. Better but again, not as fast as he wanted to go. He was hoping to be in the 22 low range. Ultimately the team finished 16th in the 7A classification.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Free Relay (28) (3:19.78) - While making the B final and qualifying 16th in prelims was a nice accomplishment, they weren't going to move into the top 3 to receive a medal, and any points they earned weren't really going to impact the overall standings for South...the real important aspect of this swim was the team record. The race started with Jake going slower than he did in prelims, adding almost .6 seconds. Bear followed him by more than erasing the deficit Jake created, dropping .65 seconds and finishing at a split of 50.01 (he was frustrated he didn't break 50...). Ben went 3rd again and he absolutely blitzed his swim, dropping almost an entire second. Sree, the anchor posted a strong 48.64 in prelims so the team needed him to at least be close to that in order to get the record. He ended up posting an amazing 47.49 - so the team not only got the record - they crushed it - finishing in 3:17.16, which was also good enough for 10th in 7A.

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OVERALL STANDINGS

South Forsyth Girls - 11th
South Forsyth Boys - 17th

Breeze

02-14-2020, 07:17 AM

General Update - High School Swimming

We have an interesting situation developing for the high school swim banquet. We got an email from the coach regarding lettering, and she included the requirements for a swimmer to achieve the goal. There are a number of things swimmers must do, including: practice minimums, attending meets, and some performance based minimums. Here is why things are interesting:

Bear - with Bear's ankle injury he was unable to meet the practice requirements, which given the injury is probably excusable. However, because he wasn't able to compete he didn't go to several of the meets, which the coach may view as unexcused, and thus she could decide he doesn't meet the standard for a letter.

Bailey - in Bailey's case the problem is more fundamental. Bailey missed several meets with year round swims, and also with sickness (again probably excused). However, due to her limited number of meets, and quitting the year round practices she only managed to get 1 year round time. So she fails to meet the 2 cut minimum.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm not really sure how the kids will take it if they aren't granted their letters. Neither of them wear their letterman jackets, but they both understand the achievement aspect of getting the letter and they both want to be 4 year lettermen. We will see what happens...

JonInMiddleGA

02-14-2020, 03:41 PM

We will see what happens...

Given the apparent administrative acumen of the current coaching, I'd be a little surprised if 2019-20 letters weren't awarded to three non-swimmers, two alumni, and a person who happened to drive by during the banquet.

Breeze

02-17-2020, 11:28 AM

Bear - College Swimming

If you'll recall, Bear really enjoyed Berry College when he visited, giving the team / school high score across the board. The one area where he was a bit hesitant was with the coach. He really didn't connect with Coach Flinchbaugh the way he did with the Roanoke, or even the Centre coaches.

Well, the Southern Athletic Association Championship Meet was this past weekend, and Coach Finchbauh won his second men's coach of the year award. He previously won for men in 2015-16, and he won for the women in 2017-18. I thought that was pretty cool and forwarded it to Bear, hoping it would alleviate any concerns he might have. He saw it, said it was pretty cool, and he admitted that during the visit, the other swimmers on the team all said he was a really good coach. Hopefully, this will just reinforce his feeling that he made a good decision.

Breeze

02-26-2020, 08:24 AM

General Update - High School Swimming

The team banquet is tonight, and Bailey reminded us the other day that the email we received about lettering requirements was incorrect. Swimmers didn't need 2 state cuts times, but rather 2 lettering times, which she easily achieved. There are still the reservations around attendance that exist, but I'd be shocked if Bailey or Bear lost their letter over that.

Breeze

02-27-2020, 06:25 AM

General Update - High School Swimming

The banquet was surprisingly well run last night. After the debacle of a banquet the previous year, the head of the booster club helped the coach design the presentations and the flow, which was a significant help.

The twins both received their letters (chevrons). Bailey got her state qualifier patch, and Bear got his State finalist patch. In addition, Bear was honored with Sree, Jake, and Ben for their record breaking 400 Free Relay.

After the presentation of the awards, the kids were asked to talk about their favorite memory from the last 4 years. Bailey's was clearly not her favorite memory, but was probably her most vivid one. She mentioned last year during the county championships when South won, one of her friends plowed into her and knocked her brand new cell phone (a Christmas present less than 2 months old) into the pool. Bear mentioned going out to eat with the team following the state meet last year.

The coaches then created some funny awards that they handed out to all the swimmers (except for the booster club president's daughter who was somehow overlooked). Bear's award was "Swimmer most likely to take the saying 'Break a Leg' too seriously", and Bailey got "Swimmer most likely not to go to graduation". I thought both were pretty clever and funny.

The kids also got a framed team photo that was signed by team members. It was a nice touch.

Breeze

02-27-2020, 06:59 AM

General Update - Bailey

And with the completion of the banquet Bailey's career has almost certainly come to an end. Bailey is currently scheduled to attend South Carolina in the fall, where she'll be studying Cardiovascular Technologies. Given you've been following her for about 10 years now, I will try to remember to periodically post life updates so you'll know what she's up to.

Breeze

03-02-2020, 09:03 AM

General Update

The twins got their copy of the journal. Bailey was surprised, but reserved. She wasn't feeling well when I gave it to her, and she retreated to her room, but later she came down to talk about it after Bear got his, and it was obvious she had read some of hers while she was laying down.

I wanted to wait to give Bear his when he finished swimming in college, but the wife pointed out that with Brett and Bailey both having their's, it was unlikely that Bear wouldn't find out about it before he finished swimming, at which point the surprise would be lost. With that in mind I gave it him and he was completely shocked...and he like Brett, started reading his page by page immediately. He had some good laughs almost immediately, and he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

By the way, Both of them quickly realized that you guys were following along, and they were flattered that you were interested enough to read about their efforts.

JonInMiddleGA

03-02-2020, 05:02 PM

Only time in my life I've ever looked up swim meet results in my life - both HS and college -- which kinda sums it up I think.

It has been, sincerely, a privilege to follow along.

rjolley

03-02-2020, 10:47 PM

I have enjoyed following along and feel like they are kids I coached or have interacted with personally. Thank you for sharing them with us.

thealmighty

03-04-2020, 06:23 PM

Ditto to the above. This is, without question, my favorite thread. Sometimes I would check the Dynasty forum looking for any update and not even bother looking in the main forum. Thanks to you, and your kids, for lifting my mood each and every time an update was posted.

Breeze

03-05-2020, 07:55 AM

2020 Speedo Southern Premier Meet @ GaTech - 3/6 - 3-8

This is a new meet for us, and it takes the place of the Sectional Meet that Gold attends. This is another southern limited field meet that requires strong times in order to compete.

Bear
Not really sure what to expect from Bear in this event. He's swimming much better than he has for quite a while, but the results are reflected more in his sprints than his longer events. My assumption is that the ankle injury that forced him to miss winter training is the underlying cause for the lackluster results in longer swims, but the sprints, being shorter, aren't as impacted by the missed training. Unfortunately, as you can see below, Bear has no sprint events in this meet - thus - not sure what to expect.

# 10 (d1/s2): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - I don't think he's going to touch his personal best. That's a really fast time and despite the better sprinting, I don't think he can match his 54.54 back half split from the PB swim. This year at state he posted a 55.90 back half...that's significantly slower and again, given the missed winter training, it's asking a lot.

# 36 (d1/s2): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59) - haven't seen him swim this in a while. After he posted this time, he became so focused on the freestyle swims that this race really took a hit. He struggled with backstroke form for probably over a year, and because he didn't race this, his breaststroke really fell off as well. When he's been swimming well he's still in the 4:23 range. I expect he'll beat that because back and breast are better, but I don't think it'll be good enough to go 4:11.

# 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - This is one he might be able to beat. It seems odd, given I don't think he can beat the 200 Free, but I believe there was more room for improvement here, and he's been much closer to his PB in his race recently. He posted a 1:59 & 1:58 in December which are his 2nd and 4th fastest swims in this event.

# 66 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Medley (1:59.69) - Got his personal best in this event in December, and swam a pretty strong 2:02 at the High School State Meet about a month ago, so he could post another PB here.

# 74 (d2/s5): B Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - I have to admit, I hate the fact the 500 Free ends Saturday and the 1650 is on Sunday...that's a lot of freestyle in a short turnaround period. The lack of winter training will probably hinder his performance here as he's not in peak shape, but he's definitely trending in the right direction. He was posting swims about 5 minutes at the start of the season, but his most recent were around 4:57...I think he'll beat that time, maybe even getting back into the 4:40s...but not low 4:40s.

# 82 (d3/s8): B Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - This one is another tough one to project. His personal best time was from a swim where his goggles came off on the dive and it took him several laps to get them re-seated and purged of water. That cost him a considerable amount of time, so clearly there is meat on that bone. However, with his lack of training over the Summer he struggled in this event in December posting a 17:08, and given the missed Winter training, I'm not sure we aren't headed for a similar result here.

Breeze

03-10-2020, 10:38 AM

2020 Speedo Southern Premier Meet - RESULTS

Bear
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Day 1

# 10 (d1/s2): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - opened with a personal best 100 free time of 50.99, but the back half was way off his typical time coming in at a 58.37. So he posted a 1:49.36, which is disappointing considering he was in the 1:47s at State in December, but it also illustrated his improved sprints with the PB in the first 100.

# 36 (d1/s2): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59) - it was over 2 years since Bear swam this event. He opened this race, like the last one with a personal best. This time in the 100 fly. he managed to go 55.08, which was almost 1 full second faster than his best 100 fly on record. The breast and back were ok, a little off his best, but still very solid, unfortunately, the free at the end was extremely weak. He only managed a 1:03. In his personal best swim he closed in a 54...That 9 seconds alone explain most of the gap between his PB and the 4:23.50 he ended up posting. Which ironically is within .18 of the time he posted the last time he swam this race.

At the end of the first day, Bear had a long chat with Coach Landon about his struggles. I still believe he's not ever gotten back into peak condition following the limited work Summer and the missed Winter training due to the ankle injury, however, he said he felt he was ready for this meet and he doesn't want to use injuries as an excuse any more. Coach thought some of it might be mental. That the struggles have created doubt, and that he could be much too tense which is causing him to burn through energy way to fast. I told him regardless of the cause, he needs to get back to having fun racing.

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Day 2

# 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - Given his strong fly to open the 400 IM, I felt my prediction that he might get a PB in this event was still in play. In the first 100, he bettered the 100 fly time he posted in the IM by going 54.71. He was a little off coming home but still managed to finish with a PB time of 1:56.45. I think he can cut another second or two when he's able to finish stronger. This swim was good enough to qualify for finals - so he was swimming it again later that evening.

# 66 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Medley (1:59.69) - Like the even above, his strong racing in the shorter events gave me hope that he might be able to get another PB. Strong swims all around, his fly was much stronger than his previous personal best over .6 faster. The back was exactly equally slower than than his previous PB...so at the half way point he was exactly on the same split. He was almost a full second faster in the breast this time, and while he was about .7 slower in the free it was still good enough to post a PB with a time of 1:59.41.

# 74 (d2/s5): B Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - Based on the 200 free, this one was going to be tough. He swam much better than he did at High School State a month earlier, but he still didn't approach his personal best. At one point I thought he'd get into the 4:40 high range as I mentioned as a possibility in the pre-race write up, but he came up short finishing in 4:51.30. This feels like a step in the right direction. It's 6 seconds better than his best high school swim, and 5 seconds better than his time from Short Course State in December.

FINALS # 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:56.45) - In finals it was obvious early that he wasn't going to challenge his swim from the morning. It really wasn't all that surprising given his work-load, 200 fly, 200 IM, 500 free. His fatigue hampered him as he came home in 1:58.92. That's not a great time, but even tired it is better than he did at Short Course State, so hopefully, another indication he is moving in the right direction. During the meet, the wife and I were sitting with Bear's old coach Andy, and this brought up a discussion from him where me mentioned how Bear used to be able to swim the 1000 at the beginning of a meet, the 1650 at the end, and all the hard stuff in the middle with little impact. He said getting older and building more muscles makes that next to impossible anymore...

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Day 3

# 82 (d3/s8): B Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - After some discussion, Bear approached Coach Landon about changing his schedule for this day. Typically, Landon doesn't like to allow adjustments after the fact, but he said, given Bear's struggles with the longer frees, that it might be a good idea. So Bear scratched this one...

#98 (d3/s7): B Open 100 Free (51.04) - With Bear's strong free split to open the 200, and his relay splits in high school meets, I was pretty confident that he would get a PB. I was thinking a 50 low, maybe he might get a 49.9...I was wrong, he got a 49.29. This was a huge improvement, and like he mentioned, there were a bunch of mistakes in his turns that if he cleaned them up could drop him a good bit more.

#114 (d3/s7): B Open 100 Fly (56.40) - again, early 100 fly swims to open other events made the likelihood of a PB almost guaranteed, and he didn't disappoint. He swam a 53.33, over 3 second improvement on his previous PB time. And along with the 100 Free sprint, provided more confirmation that things are trending in the right direction.

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Following the meet, Bear was feeling much better about his swimming. He even approached Landon and said he wants to get this distance stuff fixed and that he wants Landon to coach him much harder. To really crack down on him until he works through whatever is holding him back.