Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

Breeze · 03-20-2015, 11:04 AM

2015 ESSZ Age Group Sectionals - RESULTS

Day 4

#71 Girls 11-12 200 Fly
Bailey - 2:23.72 : Seeded 12 – This was the big race for Bailey…she was excited going in, knowing she had a chance to get top 10 and earn a medal. As I mentioned in the pre-race write up, I was concerned that Bailey wouldn’t have any competition in her heat and that might slow her down…well – the race started and Bailey was in first after the first 50, but only .22 seconds ahead of second place. After the second 50 she was second in the heat with a 1:04.04, .07 behind. At this point it became obvious Bailey and the other girl were going to battle the entire way. At the 3rd 50 Bailey was sitting on a 1:40.02 now .27 seconds back. Bailey tried to make a move on the next 25, and she actually pulled slightly ahead, but she lost the lead on the turn, when the other girl’s underwaters were much better. Bailey was unable to real her in and she ended up losing the heat by 1 second. She did manage to post a 2:17.54. This is obviously a personal best…it exceeds what I expected she’d be able to do, it would have been good enough to earn 3rd place at State had she been able to finish that race, and it is a Senior Cut…meaning she’s earned the minimum time to swim against the 15-18 year olds in their State Meets (by the way, it wasn’t mentioned earlier, but she also earned her Senior Cut in the 100 Fly). Unfortunately, she finished 2nd in her heat, which means her time will have to beat 2 people in the evenings fast heat in order for her to get into the top 10. That is a bit concerning…

#72 Boys 11-12 200 Fly
Bear – 2:24.08 : Seeded 17 – Bear, like Bailey didn’t get to run away with his heat. At least not early. He opened with a 30.49, and Conner (yes the same kid from the 1000 that Bear just barely beat) had a 30.63. At the 100 Bear’s lead over Conner was less than half a second. In the 3rd 50 Bear started to pull ahead and he finished strong opening up a several second lead over Conner, and winning his heat. He ended up adding less than a second from his true personal best time of 2:14.08, when he posted a time of 2:14.94. However, unlike the uncertainty I felt with Bailey’s swim, I was pretty confident Bear’s time would hold up and he’d end up with a top 10 finish and another medal. We’d just need to wait and see how high his finish would be.

#81 Girls 11-12 100 Back
Bailey – 1:07.32 : Seeded 72 – Bailey’s improvement in the 50 and big improvement in the 200 had me expecting more of the same in this race. And she didn’t disappoint, dropping to a personal best time of 1:06.84. I do believe she can go faster, with quicker arm rotation or not…but after the 200 fly and towards the end of a 4 day meet – this was a very nice effort. She ended up 67th.

#85 Girls 11-12 200 IM
Bailey 2:26.54 : Seeded 64 – With improved back and her breast starting to come around, I was hopeful for another strong swim…but it wasn’t to be. Bailey really appeared spent, opening with a 29.97 fly, followed by a poor 37.54 back. The ultimately finished the race in 2:27.21. Interestingly, Bailey wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of a long weekend. While she added about .75 seconds…she also moved up to 57th in the overall standings.

#88 Boys 11-14 1650 Free
Bear – 18:13.00 – Seeded 3 (52) – So even before this race started the Coach told him to not worry about the team record in the 1650, or the 1000 either. He wanted to take the pressure off and allow Bear to just swim his race. Prior to Bear swimming we watched the two top seeds go and we noted that they swam the following times 17:57.15, and 18:16.50. Coach and I felt Bear would be the 18:16 time for sure, and the coach said he felt the 17:57 was attainable and he was going to signal accordingly. Here are his splits:

Code:

100	-	1:10.64
200	-	2:07.04
300	-	3:12.13
400	-	4:17.23
500	-	5:22.80
600	-	6:28.64
700	-	7:33.98
800	-	8:39.39
900	-	9:44.64
1000	-	10:50.10 – at this point Bear is 4 seconds ahead of pace for 1st
1100	-	11:56.12 – holding 4 second lead
1200	-	13:01.52 – holding 4 second lead
1300	-	14:06.97 – holding
1400	-	15:12.81 – holding
1500	-	16.18.42 – holding
1600	-	17:23.42 – 3 second lead
1650	-	17:53.78 – closed in a 30.36 after swimming 1600 yards

For perspective – last year during Bear’s 11 year old short course season, his personal best for a 50 free was 30.11.

Obviously, this is a personal best and put Bear in first place. But Conner (yes the kid from the 1000) was still to swim. We were concerned based on how close he was to Bear in the 1000…and as soon as the race started we realized we were right to be concerned. Conner immediately started churning out 50s between 31 high and 32 low, which put him well ahead of Bear (who was turning 32 mids). We watched for signs of fatigue, but after the midway point he was still going 32 lows and an occasional 32 mid. We resigned ourselves to the fact Bear wasn’t going to get a Gold. His time did hold up for all the remaining 11/12 year olds and he took home the silver.

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

At this point we headed home, and we had to keep an eye out for the results of the 200 flys to see how the kids ended up. We were only watching the live result times, so we don’t have any information on how the racers looked, but here is how things turned out.

#71 Girls 11-12 200 Fly
Bailey’s time from earlier in the day was a 2:17.54, but she was also 2nd in the clubhouse. WE knewo there were at least 4 girls she absolutely wasn’t going to beat, because their times put them in the top 20 in the nation. So that left 6 swimmers that Bailey might beat in this heat, and 5 spots in the top 10 that she might fall into. As it turned out – comparing times, Bailey’s opening 50 put her ahead of all 6 of the other girls (in fact it put her ahead of 2 of the 4 with national times). In the second 50 she maintained her lead on the rest of the field, and 1 of the top 4 girls. After the 3rd 50, Bailey was still holding off the 5 non-elite girls, she was close to 1, only .25 back, but the 4 top swimmers were all separating from her time. In the end…Bailey’s time held on to beat 5 of the girls that were in the A final that weren’t national level swimmers, and she finished 7th overall. Earning her medal!!!

#72 Boys 11-12 200 Fly
As I said in the write up above, I felt Bear’s time was going to hold up. After seeing the results – I wish he had an opportunity to swim in the fast heat. The winner of the race swam a 2:08.21, and ran away from the field, but the next times were:

2:13.24
2:13.41
2:13.51

Given Bear’s heart and fight, I expect if he had been in this race (without the fatigue of the 1650), he’d have been challenging all of those times. As it was they were only about 1.5 seconds faster, and Bear had no-one close to him after the 100 turn in his heat. While seeing that race would have exciting, I was thrilled with how this turned out – Bear got second in the 1650, and 5th in the 200 fly, earning his 4th medal of the meet.

03-20-2015, 11:04 AM	#581
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	2015 ESSZ Age Group Sectionals - RESULTS Day 4 #71 Girls 11-12 200 Fly *Bailey - 2:23.72 : Seeded 12* – This was the big race for Bailey…she was excited going in, knowing she had a chance to get top 10 and earn a medal. As I mentioned in the pre-race write up, I was concerned that Bailey wouldn’t have any competition in her heat and that might slow her down…well – the race started and Bailey was in first after the first 50, but only .22 seconds ahead of second place. After the second 50 she was second in the heat with a 1:04.04, .07 behind. At this point it became obvious Bailey and the other girl were going to battle the entire way. At the 3rd 50 Bailey was sitting on a 1:40.02 now .27 seconds back. Bailey tried to make a move on the next 25, and she actually pulled slightly ahead, but she lost the lead on the turn, when the other girl’s underwaters were much better. Bailey was unable to real her in and she ended up losing the heat by 1 second. She did manage to post a 2:17.54. This is obviously a personal best…it exceeds what I expected she’d be able to do, it would have been good enough to earn 3rd place at State had she been able to finish that race, and it is a Senior Cut…meaning she’s earned the minimum time to swim against the 15-18 year olds in their State Meets (by the way, it wasn’t mentioned earlier, but she also earned her Senior Cut in the 100 Fly). Unfortunately, she finished 2nd in her heat, which means her time will have to beat 2 people in the evenings fast heat in order for her to get into the top 10. That is a bit concerning… #72 Boys 11-12 200 Fly *Bear – 2:24.08 : Seeded 17* – Bear, like Bailey didn’t get to run away with his heat. At least not early. He opened with a 30.49, and Conner (yes the same kid from the 1000 that Bear just barely beat) had a 30.63. At the 100 Bear’s lead over Conner was less than half a second. In the 3rd 50 Bear started to pull ahead and he finished strong opening up a several second lead over Conner, and winning his heat. He ended up adding less than a second from his true personal best time of 2:14.08, when he posted a time of 2:14.94. However, unlike the uncertainty I felt with Bailey’s swim, I was pretty confident Bear’s time would hold up and he’d end up with a top 10 finish and another medal. We’d just need to wait and see how high his finish would be. #81 Girls 11-12 100 Back *Bailey – 1:07.32 : Seeded 72* – Bailey’s improvement in the 50 and big improvement in the 200 had me expecting more of the same in this race. And she didn’t disappoint, dropping to a personal best time of 1:06.84. I do believe she can go faster, with quicker arm rotation or not…but after the 200 fly and towards the end of a 4 day meet – this was a very nice effort. She ended up 67th. #85 Girls 11-12 200 IM *Bailey 2:26.54 : Seeded 64* – With improved back and her breast starting to come around, I was hopeful for another strong swim…but it wasn’t to be. Bailey really appeared spent, opening with a 29.97 fly, followed by a poor 37.54 back. The ultimately finished the race in 2:27.21. Interestingly, Bailey wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of a long weekend. While she added about .75 seconds…she also moved up to 57th in the overall standings. #88 Boys 11-14 1650 Free *Bear – 18:13.00 – Seeded 3 (52)* – So even before this race started the Coach told him to not worry about the team record in the 1650, or the 1000 either. He wanted to take the pressure off and allow Bear to just swim his race. Prior to Bear swimming we watched the two top seeds go and we noted that they swam the following times 17:57.15, and 18:16.50. Coach and I felt Bear would be the 18:16 time for sure, and the coach said he felt the 17:57 was attainable and he was going to signal accordingly. Here are his splits: Code: 100 - 1:10.64 200 - 2:07.04 300 - 3:12.13 400 - 4:17.23 500 - 5:22.80 600 - 6:28.64 700 - 7:33.98 800 - 8:39.39 900 - 9:44.64 1000 - 10:50.10 – at this point Bear is 4 seconds ahead of pace for 1st 1100 - 11:56.12 – holding 4 second lead 1200 - 13:01.52 – holding 4 second lead 1300 - 14:06.97 – holding 1400 - 15:12.81 – holding 1500 - 16.18.42 – holding 1600 - 17:23.42 – 3 second lead 1650 - 17:53.78 – closed in a 30.36 after swimming 1600 yards For perspective – last year during Bear’s 11 year old short course season, his personal best for a 50 free was 30.11. Obviously, this is a personal best and put Bear in first place. But Conner (yes the kid from the 1000) was still to swim. We were concerned based on how close he was to Bear in the 1000…and as soon as the race started we realized we were right to be concerned. Conner immediately started churning out 50s between 31 high and 32 low, which put him well ahead of Bear (who was turning 32 mids). We watched for signs of fatigue, but after the midway point he was still going 32 lows and an occasional 32 mid. We resigned ourselves to the fact Bear wasn’t going to get a Gold. His time did hold up for all the remaining 11/12 year olds and he took home the silver. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At this point we headed home, and we had to keep an eye out for the results of the 200 flys to see how the kids ended up. We were only watching the live result times, so we don’t have any information on how the racers looked, but here is how things turned out. #71 Girls 11-12 200 Fly Bailey’s time from earlier in the day was a 2:17.54, but she was also 2nd in the clubhouse. WE knewo there were at least 4 girls she absolutely wasn’t going to beat, because their times put them in the top 20 in the nation. So that left 6 swimmers that Bailey might beat in this heat, and 5 spots in the top 10 that she might fall into. As it turned out – comparing times, Bailey’s opening 50 put her ahead of all 6 of the other girls (in fact it put her ahead of 2 of the 4 with national times). In the second 50 she maintained her lead on the rest of the field, and 1 of the top 4 girls. After the 3rd 50, Bailey was still holding off the 5 non-elite girls, she was close to 1, only .25 back, but the 4 top swimmers were all separating from her time. In the end…Bailey’s time held on to beat 5 of the girls that were in the A final that weren’t national level swimmers, and *she finished 7th overall. Earning her medal!!! #72 Boys 11-12 200 Fly* As I said in the write up above, I felt Bear’s time was going to hold up. After seeing the results – I wish he had an opportunity to swim in the fast heat. The winner of the race swam a 2:08.21, and ran away from the field, but the next times were: 2:13.24 2:13.41 2:13.51 Given Bear’s heart and fight, I expect if he had been in this race (without the fatigue of the 1650), he’d have been challenging all of those times. As it was they were only about 1.5 seconds faster, and Bear had no-one close to him after the 100 turn in his heat. While seeing that race would have exciting, I was thrilled with how this turned out – Bear got second in the 1650, and *5th in the 200 fly*, earning his 4th medal of the meet.