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Old 10-21-2014, 11:02 AM   #486
Breeze
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
Gold Invite - RESULTS

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Bailey Breeze

#1 (d1/s1): G Open 200 Medley (2:32.49Y) – Bailey started out this race extremely strong, swimming her fly leg in 30.76. At this point she was in first in her heat, which may not sound that impressive, until you remember she was swimming in an open event, meaning some of the girls were 3 or 4 years older than her. Her back and free were both good, but the Breast was as bad as it had ever been. In fact, it took her 48 seconds to do the 50…that is 4 seconds slower than her breast from last year in this same event, and a full 8 seconds off her personal best in a 50 breast (which I don’t expect to swim as the third leg of a 200 IM, but it is a point of reference). Eventually she did finish with a personal best of 2:31.23.

#5 (d1/s1): G Open 400 Medley (5:13.12Y) – This was extremely similar to the 200 IM…an early lead because of a strong Fly leg, good back, terrible Breast and a strong free. This time though she didn’t get a PB, settling for a 5:13.79.

#43 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Free (2:25.43Y) – In the pre-swim write up I said “Her free is better, so I expect a drop” I had no idea…dropped 14.16 seconds, finishing with a 2:11.17 and another state cut.

#49 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Back (1:08.58Y) – While my expectation of a drop in the 200 free was understated, I missed the drops on both IMs and I missed this one as well. Bailey looked fine in the back, but failed to drop time…adding just over half a second…1:09.18

#55 (d2/s3): G Open 200 Breast (3:20.06Y) – The coach told her after the first day that her Breast was terrible…(in a funny way)…but he reinforced some technique items with her during warm ups the second day, and again before racing and it paid off. She dropped around 14.5 seconds finishing with a 3:05.42…this bodes well for her IMs moving forward (assuming she can maintain the form).

#61 (d2/s3): G Open 100 Fly (1:06.57Y) – Again my predictions were way off. I thought she’d add time here. She didn’t, she dropped just over a second, and managed to beat the 17 year old daughter (who was right next to her in the heat) of a families we are friends with. 1:05.52

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Bear Breeze


#2 (d1/s1): B Open 200 Medley (2:38.98Y) – Knees held up fine, though his breast leg, like Bailey’s is going to need some work. But my prediction of a 5 second drop was a bit low…considering he dropped 13.07 seconds to finish with a 2:25.91, giving him not only a state cut, but a sectional one as well.

#4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (28.58Y) – Dropped another half second 28.07

#8 (d1/s1): B Open 500 Free (5:39.41Y) – talked to the coach before the race about pacing, and coach said he wanted him under 35s…as Bear was walking away, he told me that…then stopped…calculated the time of 35seconds /50 and determined that was WAY too slow. He told me that he wanted to be under 33s – which would put him at a time of 5:30. His splits went like this…

30.18
33.42
33.70 (I signaled that he needed to pick it up a little)
33.51 (again I signaled to pick it up a bit)
33.16
33.58 (at this point the coach signaled me to signal him to go hard – I figured he felt Bear had a lot left)
32.32 (continued to signal him from here on out to go hard, as he was in the final 150)
32.90
33.40
31.59

5:27.76

This is less than .2 seconds from a 13 year old cut.

#44 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Free (2:09.62Y) - The improvement Bear is showing is remarkable. After he swam the 500 with most 200 splits being sub 2:10, my thoughts on a drop here were changed to extremely likely. Even with that I didn’t expect a drop of almost 4.5 seconds... 2:05.16, a state and sectional cut again.

#50 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Back (1:11.06Y) – Did drop, but only half a second. 1:10.56

#56 (d2/s3): B Open 200 Breast (3:03.93Y) - Bear ended up receiving a very similar response to his Breast in the IM that Bailey did, and he ended up getting very similar instructions before warm up and before his race. He also improved 3:01.57 – this could mean good things in the IMs moving forward as well.

#62 (d2/s3): B Open 100 Fly (1:09.25Y) –Only needed a quarter of a second drop, he dropped over 2 seconds - 1:07.17 – he got his sectional cut, but more importantly, he looked much smoother and stronger in this one than he has recently with his fly….


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Brett Breeze

#4 (d1/s1): B Open 50 Free (30.33Y) – He didn’t disappoint here dropping a good bit of time and even out performing my 28 high prediction…28.34

#6 (d1/s1): B Open 400 Medley (5:12.60Y) – He not only limited his breathing, he was getting his hips up and out of the water on the first 35 yards of the 100 yard Fly leg…his opening 50 was a 35.90. It has been a while since Brett was young enough to swim a 50 fly, but his best on record is a 38.41…and I don’t think I recall a fly swim where he ever had a 50 split (IM or 100 / 200 Fly) where he was faster. The back half his hips didn’t clear the surface and he definitely tired, but he still managed to go a 1:18.93…almost 3 full seconds faster than his personal best in the 100 fly, and he still had 300 yards to swim. The fly leg propelled him to an almost 6 second improvement - 5:06.83

#42 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Free (2:13.29Y) – Kick looks SOOOOO MUCH better…plus his underwaters, while not great were much better than they have been. Definitely, put some effort into them. He dropped almost 6 seconds here as well…2:08.68

#48 (d2/s3): B 13-14 100 Back (1:12.87Y) – Still not quite getting the new back form. Did try hard to do better underwaters on the back, but his streamline in back isn’t real good. He tends to look at this feet, which creates a lot of drag. If he figures that out he’ll drop a couple seconds here with that change alone…as it turns out it was a PB, but just barely - 1:12.79

#54 (d2/s3): B 13-14 200 Breast (2:42.45Y) – Ended up swimming next to his buddy (and coach’s son Tommy)…Brett took the early lead with a quick dive and great pullout. Brett’s effort was phenomenal in this one, and his pullouts were so much better than normal. Unfortunately though, his pullouts got a little shorter each turn, and Tommy’s remained extremely log (of course Tommy is a very good flyer so that helps). Here are the splits for Brett and Tommy…

Code:
Brett Tommy 34.84 36.68 1:14.51 1:16.06 1:55.28 1:56.12 2:37.34 2:36.27

Brett was passed in the last 25 coming off the wall and couldn’t quite swim Tommy down. He did however improve his 50 breast personal best by almost a full second (from GRPA State in July), and his 100 breast time by 1.3 seconds from just back on 9/28…

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This meet had quite a few WOW moment. Literally, moments where when the race was over I actually stated, "Wow". I'm sure you can probably guess what they are from the times but I'll list them anyway...

Bailey's - 200 Free and 100 Fly
Bear's - 200 IM, 500 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly
Brett's - 400 IM, 200 Free, 200 Breast

It has been a while since I walked away from a meet so pleased. Every one of the kids did extremely well. Sure Bailey was disappointed with her IMs (and believe me I heard about it a great deal), but the foundation for good swims are there as soon as the breaststroke starts working well again. Bear needs to clean up his breast as well, but his Free is looking extremely strong right now. Finally, Brett - this was a huge meet for him and his self esteem. I don't think I can put into words how much impact his performance seems to have had. Combine that with High School swimming and he seems much more energized and focused than I've ever seen him. Hopefully, this continues because fatigue swims will crop up again in the future.

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Couple of interesting tidbits from races...

- Bailey beat the 17 year old mentioned above. She also almost beat another girl who's family we eat with in a group occasionally. This time it was in the back and the 15 year old had to bust it to beat Bailey. After the race they were talking and the girl (Rachel) said, that was a nice swim, you're what 15? To which Bailey replied, "No I'm 12." Leading Rachel to respond, "That's just not fair..."

- Bear beat a 17 year old with a full beard twice...

Last edited by Breeze : 10-21-2014 at 11:09 AM.
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