[Breeze]

Georgia 14U Long Course Championships - @GaTech – 7/16 – 7/19

Bear

1500 Free : 19.26.00 – Seeded 3/14 – Day 1 – This will only be the second time Bear has ever swum this event. The first time was in the Long Course State Championships last year. His seed time is a calculated one based on his “churn rate” in the 800. Bear wants to win a medal in this meet, and this is his best shot. It won’t be easy though (not that a 1500 is ever easy…)

200 Free : 2:29.73 – Seeded 26/30 – Day 2 – Bear hasn’t done this one since the very beginning of long course…I expect he’ll drop a bunch of time.

400 IM : 5:51.08 - Seeded 10/22 – Day 2 – Bear just missed getting in the fast heat (yes he’s seeded 10, but there is an 11 year old ahead of him, so that pushes Bear down to the second fastest heat). Given that Bear seems to be at his best when he has someone to chase, this will probably impact his final result. There are also some very good swimmers entered with short course times, that could ultimately beat him in the final results.

100 Fly : 1:11.71Y – Seeded 33/33 – Day 3 – Entered with a short course time, because Bear hasn’t done this event since the beginning of the season either. I expect a nice improvement over his real long course time of 1:25.91…

200 Back : 2:31.95Y – Seeded 29/30 – Day 3 – Again a short course seed time…Real time is a 2:54.92…but he swam this race at Stu Hixon, so I don’t expect much of an improvement here.

400 Free : 5:13.61 – Seeded 15/26 – Day 3 – Bear has been stuck on this time for quite a while. He should drop based on his times in the 800…in fact he should be closer to a 5:00…but we’ll see…

200 Fly : 2:46.48 – Seeded 5/17 – Day 4 – Like Bailey, Bear will swim this event in the evening. As high as Bear is seeded, he realistically doesn’t have a shot at a medal here. While he’s great at pushing himself and chasing down swimmers, he’d have to drop another 10 seconds or so to be in range for a medal, and I don’t think he has that in him right now.