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Breeze · 02-27-2014, 10:09 AM

2014 Georgia 14&Under Short Course Championships - RESULTS

Day 3

After 2 good days, the kids’ confidence was really high. Bailey announced she was going for a sectional cut in the 200 fly, and Bear told me he was going to get 2 more medals today.
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Bailey

100 IM : 31/11 – 1:11.79 (1:11.71/10) (1:08.33/3) : (1:13.15) – I don’t think Bailey has a legitimate shot at top 3, her breaststroke simply isn’t good enough yet. I only put the time down to illustrate how tight this one is. I’m hoping she can get in the top 10…making finals would be a big boost to her confidence.

This was a surprise…given how well Bailey swam her Fly and her improved Breast up to this point, I felt certain that she would get into the top 10, make finals, and earn points…but she didn’t. The fly leg was good, not great, and the back seemed overly deliberate. Breast/Free were fine, but seemed to lack urgency. She ended up posting a time .03 slower than her seed and finished twelfth with a time of 1:11.83. I believe Bailey was so focused on, and probably a bit concerned about the 200 fly, that she didn’t get prepared for this race.

200 Fly : 21/5 – 2:40.33 (2:36.83/4) (2:28.16/3) : (2:40.94) – Not going to get in the medals here…as the top 3 swimmers are clearly on another level, but Bailey should earn a good number of points for the team.

Bailey opened with a 34.60…and I was shocked. I was starting to worry that maybe she was out of gas, given her poor 100 IM followed by her slow start in the 200 fly. At the first 25 turn she was around eighth, and but the first 50 turn she was seventh…but the coach had instructed Bailey to take it out slow and then build on the back. Every other swimmer took it out fast, and opened a lead on Bailey. But she, after the 75 turn, quickly began to real in the other kids. By the 125 turn she had passed everyone, but the one girl in lane 1 (way out to the side). Bailey continued to close on that girl and out touched her at the wall with a time improvement of 8.26 seconds. She finished with a 2:32.07 and earned a sectional cut. She also held on to her fifth place spot. One interesting side note…the girl next to Bailey is a SwimAtlanta swimmer that is a fellow CRC Summer League team swimmer. She is 12 so how she and Bailey finished really was irrelevant, but she finished about 2 seconds back. The funny thing is we still get to hear how great a swimmer she is, every time we see the CRC Swimmer families that are still at SwimAtlanta.

50 Back : 45/23 – 33.63 (33.02/10) : (33.65) – Only about a half a second out of the top 10, but just too many swimmers between Bailey’s seed and the top 10 to figure she’ll get into the finals.

Bailey got a great start on the 50 Back, and I thought that would lead to a second or so drop in time, but like the back in the 100 IM, she seemed pretty deliberate. She did manage to drop a fraction of a second (.15) and ended up with a 33.48 and a nineteenth place finish…
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Bear

4x100 Free Relay – Bear was a last minute insert into the 4x100 Free Relay. We aren’t sure why the change…but my guess is because Bear had been swimming so well up to this point, they wanted to reward him some, but that may be a father’s glorified view of it. It could have been as simple as the forth boy just didn’t make it that day…anyway he swam a 1:03.75, which was the slowest of the 4, as you would expect, and the team overall dropped almost 2 seconds from the seed time and climbed from 14 seed to eighth.

100 Free : 46/15 – 1:04.28 (1:01.98/10) : (1:04.33) – This and the breaststroke from day 2 are probably the only races I believe Bear has no shot of earning points. I believe he is capable of a 1:02 low, but I don’t think he can go a 1:01 low or 1:00 high, which it will take to get into finals.

Good opening 30.65…only about a half a second off his personal best. Held on in the back half to post a personal best 1:03.95…and finish seventeenth.

200 Fly : 20/2 – 2:44.47 (2:34.36/1) : (2:44.70) – This one amazed me when the psych sheet was released. I remember the swim when Bear posted this time, it was the December meet, and he blew the field away. It was impressive, but I never realized it was the second fasted 200 Fly swum in the state for the year. It was the only time he swam the race, and typically with long races we find the kids go faster the second time, because they are more comfortable with what is required, but Fly is such a technical stroke, and if anything is off the slightest bit, he could add significant amounts of time. I’m really hoping he has a swim equal to or better than his seed time. Then whatever happens – happens. I just don’t want him to back up…

This is the swim I’ve been worried about since the 100 fly on day 1. He opened the race with a 1:14.60 split and that concerned me, but similar to Bailey, the coach told him to be conservative out of the gate. While the form still seemed a little off, he was getting strong pulls and was getting good hip lift indicating a strong kick, the stroke was just a bit slow, start to finish. However, he was able to maintain strong splits, and he came from behind to beat a teammate from another pool, that had bested him in the 1000. He ended up winning his heat and dropping 10.03 seconds to finish with a 2:34.44 time, which was good enough for second place and it was a sectional cut.

500 Free : 26/5 – 6:00.00 (5:54.12/3) : (6:00.07) – Another top 5 seed time for Bear. Brett swam this just two weeks ago in a 5:55.14…and with Bear and Brett pretty equal in times in this event throughout the season, I’m guessing he’ll finish somewhere in that range. If I can keep him from circle swimming, he might cut an additional 15 seconds from that time, which would allow him to challenge for a medal.

Bear had his heart set on a medal here…but it was going to be tough sledding…not that the 6 seconds from third indicated in the seeding would be the problem, but the names in third and fourth were kids that had dominated the meet, and therefore you would expect that they would drop a significant amount of time. As I indicated in the 1000…there was no way for Bear to know exactly who he was racing, so again he needed to set a time to achieve and hope it was fast enough. The time Bear set was a 5:45, which would be the sectional cut, but would require splits of 1:09. The race started and the first 100 was ok, but the second 100 was already almost 3 seconds off his goal. Pumping the numbers got his attention and he dropped back to his goal time 1:08.91, followed by a 1:08.94. He closed with a 1:09.07, which means he never got the 3 seconds he lost early back. Fortunately, it didn’t matter. His time of 5:48.14, almost a 12 second drop, was good enough to finish third, but just barely…the top point getter for the 11 year old age group, who was seeded ahead of Bear finished .24 seconds behind him.

02-27-2014, 10:09 AM	#385
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	2014 Georgia 14&Under Short Course Championships - RESULTS Day 3 After 2 good days, the kids’ confidence was really high. Bailey announced she was going for a sectional cut in the 200 fly, and Bear told me he was going to get 2 more medals today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Bailey* 100 IM : 31/11 – 1:11.79 (1:11.71/10) (1:08.33/3) : (1:13.15) – I don’t think Bailey has a legitimate shot at top 3, her breaststroke simply isn’t good enough yet. I only put the time down to illustrate how tight this one is. I’m hoping she can get in the top 10…making finals would be a big boost to her confidence. This was a surprise…given how well Bailey swam her Fly and her improved Breast up to this point, I felt certain that she would get into the top 10, make finals, and earn points…but she didn’t. The fly leg was good, not great, and the back seemed overly deliberate. Breast/Free were fine, but seemed to lack urgency. She ended up posting a time .03 slower than her seed and finished twelfth with a time of 1:11.83. I believe Bailey was so focused on, and probably a bit concerned about the 200 fly, that she didn’t get prepared for this race. 200 Fly : 21/5 – 2:40.33 (2:36.83/4) (2:28.16/3) : (2:40.94) – Not going to get in the medals here…as the top 3 swimmers are clearly on another level, but Bailey should earn a good number of points for the team. Bailey opened with a 34.60…and I was shocked. I was starting to worry that maybe she was out of gas, given her poor 100 IM followed by her slow start in the 200 fly. At the first 25 turn she was around eighth, and but the first 50 turn she was seventh…but the coach had instructed Bailey to take it out slow and then build on the back. Every other swimmer took it out fast, and opened a lead on Bailey. But she, after the 75 turn, quickly began to real in the other kids. By the 125 turn she had passed everyone, but the one girl in lane 1 (way out to the side). Bailey continued to close on that girl and out touched her at the wall with a time improvement of 8.26 seconds. She finished with a 2:32.07 and earned a sectional cut. She also held on to her fifth place spot. One interesting side note…the girl next to Bailey is a SwimAtlanta swimmer that is a fellow CRC Summer League team swimmer. She is 12 so how she and Bailey finished really was irrelevant, but she finished about 2 seconds back. The funny thing is we still get to hear how great a swimmer she is, every time we see the CRC Swimmer families that are still at SwimAtlanta. 50 Back : 45/23 – 33.63 (33.02/10) : (33.65) – Only about a half a second out of the top 10, but just too many swimmers between Bailey’s seed and the top 10 to figure she’ll get into the finals. Bailey got a great start on the 50 Back, and I thought that would lead to a second or so drop in time, but like the back in the 100 IM, she seemed pretty deliberate. She did manage to drop a fraction of a second (.15) and ended up with a 33.48 and a nineteenth place finish… ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Bear* 4x100 Free Relay – Bear was a last minute insert into the 4x100 Free Relay. We aren’t sure why the change…but my guess is because Bear had been swimming so well up to this point, they wanted to reward him some, but that may be a father’s glorified view of it. It could have been as simple as the forth boy just didn’t make it that day…anyway he swam a 1:03.75, which was the slowest of the 4, as you would expect, and the team overall dropped almost 2 seconds from the seed time and climbed from 14 seed to eighth. 100 Free : 46/15 – 1:04.28 (1:01.98/10) : (1:04.33) – This and the breaststroke from day 2 are probably the only races I believe Bear has no shot of earning points. I believe he is capable of a 1:02 low, but I don’t think he can go a 1:01 low or 1:00 high, which it will take to get into finals. Good opening 30.65…only about a half a second off his personal best. Held on in the back half to post a personal best 1:03.95…and finish seventeenth. 200 Fly : 20/2 – 2:44.47 (2:34.36/1) : (2:44.70) – This one amazed me when the psych sheet was released. I remember the swim when Bear posted this time, it was the December meet, and he blew the field away. It was impressive, but I never realized it was the second fasted 200 Fly swum in the state for the year. It was the only time he swam the race, and typically with long races we find the kids go faster the second time, because they are more comfortable with what is required, but Fly is such a technical stroke, and if anything is off the slightest bit, he could add significant amounts of time. I’m really hoping he has a swim equal to or better than his seed time. Then whatever happens – happens. I just don’t want him to back up… This is the swim I’ve been worried about since the 100 fly on day 1. He opened the race with a 1:14.60 split and that concerned me, but similar to Bailey, the coach told him to be conservative out of the gate. While the form still seemed a little off, he was getting strong pulls and was getting good hip lift indicating a strong kick, the stroke was just a bit slow, start to finish. However, he was able to maintain strong splits, and he came from behind to beat a teammate from another pool, that had bested him in the 1000. He ended up winning his heat and dropping 10.03 seconds to finish with a 2:34.44 time, which was good enough for second place and it was a sectional cut. 500 Free : 26/5 – 6:00.00 (5:54.12/3) : (6:00.07) – Another top 5 seed time for Bear. Brett swam this just two weeks ago in a 5:55.14…and with Bear and Brett pretty equal in times in this event throughout the season, I’m guessing he’ll finish somewhere in that range. If I can keep him from circle swimming, he might cut an additional 15 seconds from that time, which would allow him to challenge for a medal. Bear had his heart set on a medal here…but it was going to be tough sledding…not that the 6 seconds from third indicated in the seeding would be the problem, but the names in third and fourth were kids that had dominated the meet, and therefore you would expect that they would drop a significant amount of time. As I indicated in the 1000…there was no way for Bear to know exactly who he was racing, so again he needed to set a time to achieve and hope it was fast enough. The time Bear set was a 5:45, which would be the sectional cut, but would require splits of 1:09. The race started and the first 100 was ok, but the second 100 was already almost 3 seconds off his goal. Pumping the numbers got his attention and he dropped back to his goal time 1:08.91, followed by a 1:08.94. He closed with a 1:09.07, which means he never got the 3 seconds he lost early back. Fortunately, it didn’t matter. His time of 5:48.14, almost a 12 second drop, was good enough to finish third, but just barely…the top point getter for the 11 year old age group, who was seeded ahead of Bear finished .24 seconds behind him.