[Breeze]

Tara Classic Results

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Brett
This was another good meet for Brett. While he didn't place well in mos to the events, he did have a number of improvements...

200 Free
Brett came into this race with a seed time of 3:17.41. He looked pretty good during this race, with solid form throughout. He'll need to learn to push himself a little harder as, to me, it appeared he was holding back a bit to make sure he didn't overexert himself early. He finished with a good improvment though...3:13.87 - so a drop in time of around 3.5 seconds. PB

100 Breast
Next came the 100 Breast, and Brett started out strong, he was in an outside lane and he was keeping up with the swimmers to his inside, but about midway through the opening lap he momentarily stopped, thinking their might have been a false start. He was distracted by one of the coaches whistling (and as he was on the side of the pool where the coaches were - the whistling was pretty loud). He restarted and swam
an exact match of his personal best 1:44.22 - he clearly would have beaten this if he didn't hesitate in the race...PB (tie)

100 Back
Brett was feeling pretty good by the time this one rolled around...he was determined to do better in back and so he went out the first 50 much harder than he normally does...and he made the turn at a pretty good split, but unfortunately, this new form of his didn't stand up to the fatigue on the back half and he posted a slower time by about 2 seconds...1:47.24 - but there were some good signs in the early part of this race.

100 Free
to end the first day Brett had the 100 Free...It's been a while since Brett swam this event, he hasn't done it at all this year, and last year his best time was around a 1:39.xx (I believe). He looked real strong in this one, actually racing the kids to both sides of him. He finished with a personal best time of 1:29.17 - Even given a year off...the 10 seconds is a huge improvement and earlier this year he would not have been close to this time. PB

200 IM
Brett started the second day with his dreaded 200 IM. It ended up being a really cool race. He started in Fly and was behind early on the dive. The boy next to him was easily twice his size (height and weight), but Brett caught and passed him before the leg was over. In the back, the big kid swam by him and left him far beind, but in the breast Brett caught him again and passed him before he got to the end of the 3rd 50. The big kids free was much stronger than Brett's and he fell a good ways back before the finish, but it was fun to see him swim someone down and push himself. He gets credit for a personal best with a time of 3:32.07 (I'm not sure if this is slightly better or slightly worse than the DQ time from his last meet, but it's a good effort regardless) - PB

50 Breast
Brett had a good swim here. He finished a bit short armed and it cost him a personal best. His seed time was 47.72 he swam a 47.75...

50 Back
Brett was listed with a no time in the 50 back according to the event, but he did swim the 50 back in time trials for SA, and his best time was around a 51.50. In this race he took it out hard again, like he did in the 100 and it paid off. Official time was 47.45, a huge improvement...PB

50 Free
Brett's 50 free officially from his first race with Gold had to be dropped because of a timer issue. I know it was in the upper 39s but I'm not sure the exact time. So he entered here with his seed time from the long course time trials at the beginning of the Summer...41.93. He swam a 38.68...an huge improvement from May and a good improvement from even the first Gold meet. PB

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Bailey

200 Free
Started with the 200 free and improved over last time, but her swim still seemed labored to me...she is still missing the relaxed gliding form that works so well in the longer freestyles, and with her naturally strong kick this shouldn't be the issue. I think her body posture is wrong and I'm a little upset that SA hasn't done more to address the issue of why her Freesytle is so much slower than many of her teammates when she is by far the fastest on kick sets. Regardless...it was a 1.5 second improvement 3:12.95 - PB

100 Breast
Bailey had no time in this long course and she like Brett stopped in the middle of the pool because she thought there was a false start. In her defense, because she came in with a no time she was swimming in the slower heat, and when she stopped to look around she was already over 2 body lengths ahead of the entire field...I'm sure she was wondering where everybody was. Had she not stopped she would have probably finished in the top 5. As it was, she finished 7th with a good time of 1:50.88 - PB

100 Back
Bailey improved on this stroke, but she wasn't terribly happy with her swim. She wanted to go faster. Official time was 1:40.71 about a 1.25 second improvement...PB

NOTE: at the end of the first day, Bailey was very upset. She is feeling that she isn't measuring up to her friends Maddie, Haley, Lexi and others. She is stating she is the worst of the bunch...While this isn't true - her back and free are slower and in some cases considerably slower. I think once she figured out what his holder her back from a speed persepctive she'll catch right back up...but right now it is severly impacting her confidence.

50 Breast
Day 2 started with the 50 breast, and Bailey improved by just over a second 50.42...PB

50 Back
Bailey swam the 50 back and went through spirts of real fast swimming followed by slow swimming with the head up to make sure where she was. But in the end, she put her head back and charged into the wall to post a 45.85, which is a personal best and the state cut (finally)...PB

50 Free
In the 50 free, I suggested bailey drop her hips a bit to get a better leverage point for her kick, she didn't, but she did try to increase her reach on both arms. And it helped. She posted a personal bset 38.78, but she missed the state cut by less than .5 seconds - PB

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Bear

200 Free
Bear swam hard in this race, and actually probably a little too hard early, as he faded a bit on the 3rd 50, but he only added 2.7 seconds to his time, and given we were out of the pool for several days it isn't overly surprising his time suffered in this event. 2:59.38

50 fly
This was an exciting race. There was 1 kid that jumped out to a big lead, but then the rest of the pool was battling for second most of the rest of the race. Bear was slighly trailing coming into the final 10 meters, but he put his head down, charged into the wall and outtouched th rest of the field to finish 2nd and post a personal best time of 42.69 (an improvement of 2.4 seconds) - PB

100 Breast
Bear swam a great 100 breast, in fact, he won his heat going away and his time held up to be 3rd overall. He posted a 1:57.27 and earned a state cut - PB

50 Breast
Bear started out this race real well. He was actually leading coming into the mid-point, but then his form started to suffer and he ended up 9th...and he missed a personal best by .4 seconds. Official time 54:67

50 Back
Awesome start for Bear, he was the last to surface, which sometimes is a problem because he isn't going fast enough underwater and he finds himself way back when he does come up, but this time he was even with the rest of the leaders and he had good momentum out of the hole, which he carried to an early lead. He ended up losing ground but charged to the wall for a 4th place finish a personal best time of 44.30 and a state cut - PB

50 Free
This was another race like the fly, only this time no one pulled away from the field. Bear was in the middle of the pack and he worked hard, coming in 4th again and posting a time of 37.57 wich is a .4 second improvement on his best time and another state cut...PB
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