[Breeze]

Georgia Age Group State Championships - RESULTS

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

Bailey

#15 Girls 100 Yard Butterfly – 1:01.25 : 20th Seed – After diving in it became pretty obvious pretty early that Bailey hadn't figured out what the problem with the stroke was...after about 5 strokes she was already off the pace of the field. She struggled home with a time of 1:03.62. This swim was basically what she had been swimming non-tapered, and it was so bad we expected her to be pulled from the relay.

#47 Girls 400 Yard IM – 4:55.19 : 34th Seed – Fly leg here hurt her again, this time only managing a 1:06.85, over 2 seconds off her time in this leg during her personal best swim. He backstroke was better, and her freestyle was better as well...it allowed her to at least come close to her personal best, finishing with a time of 4:56.64

#77 Girls 200 Yard Butterfly – 2:13.79 : 13th Seed – The last day of the meet, and the coach really worked with her one on one during warm ups to try and figure out what was going on. He thought at the time it might be related to pressure and tightening up, so he had her work on relaxing through the stroke, especially early in the race. All this led to was a slow swim...she ultimately finished with a time of 2:20.45

RELAYS

#25 Girls 13-14, 400 Yard Free : B Relay – Managed a 57 mid split, which means she was on pace for a personal best even if you remove the rolling start.

#63 Girls 13-14, 400 Yard Medley : A Relay – demoted to the B relay...basically duplicated her 100 fly swim as an individual 1:03.40

#69 Girls 13-14, 200 Yard Medley : A Relay – removed entirely from this relay.

Note: This is an extremely hard time for Bailey right now. She basically didn't improve at all in 2015-16 except during the state meet. This year was not different during the regular season, only this time she also didn't improve at the state meet. She's now gone almost 2 years without an improvement, and she's struggling with her best stroke. It is a very delicate situation. Her personal best times could be expiring which means she may not even have a single senior state cut for next year if she can't get this worked out. The coach is very frustrated because he knows how hard she's been working and he feels there is no reason for her swimming as slowly as she is. He worked with her, including video, on Monday at practice trying to determine what is going wrong. Hopefully he finds the solution soon...




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


Bear

#4 Boys 200 Yard IM – 2:09.57 : 27th Seed – Right out of the gate it was obvious Bear was feeling good. His fly leg registered in under a 27 and his back, which has been hovering around 34 seconds came in under 32. Then the breaststroke - and he put down a very strong 37 low. His free was solid and he posted a personal best time of 2:04.88. Good enough for the senior cut, good enough to finish 13th and make the B final that night.

#16 Boys 100 Yard Butterfly – 58.39 : 19th Seed – SCRATCHED - Bear was disappointed to scratch this race. He really felt he could go a 56 low...but given he was going to shoot for the team record in the 1000 and the turnaround from the 100 fly to the 1000 was really short, the coach felt this was the right move.

#20 Boys 1000 Yard Freestyle – 10:09.27 : 1st Seed – Bear was shooting to go below a 9:58.31. That has been his goal for 2 years, when he missed the team record in the 1000 by .04 seconds as a 12 year old in this event. The race started out fast, as the other 2 boys with times similar to Bear's attacked early. Bear also took it out abnormally fast posting an opening 100 in 55.54...that bought him a few seconds to play with in going for the record. He followed that up with:

1:00.10
1:00.36
1:00.55
1:00.41 (signaled to pick it up a little)
59:83
59.74
1:00.17
1:00.42
58:53

Total time: 9:55.65 good for 3rd, a senior sectional cut, AND A NEW TEAM RECORD!!!


#4 Boys 200 Yard IM FINAL – 2:04.88 : 13th Seed – in finals he opened with a faster fly by a couple of tenths. Then his back stroke was basically the same. The breast was a couple of tenths slower so when he started on the freestyle he was actually .03 slower than the morning swim. His freestyle however was almost exactly a full second faster, giving him another personal best time of 2:03.83

#36 Boys 200 Yard Free – 1:52.15 : 9th Seed – After the strong Friday the goal of 1:49.49 became a real possibility. And he nearly hit it in the prelims, posting a 1:50.20. Good enough for 12th and a spot in the B finals.

#48 Boys 400 Yard IM – 4:28.79 : 8th Seed – Bear felt really good going into this one...and it showed. He had a really strong heat, which helped to push him. He posted a 58.59 fly (which is fractions of a second from a personal best), the he followed it up with a 1:06.27 back. Again, like the 200 much better than he had been doing during the regular season. His breast was unbelievably strong, as he managed to go a 1:16.77 split, and he finished up with a 57.35 free, after 300 grueling previous yards. Overall he posted a 4:18.99, which was good enough for 6th overall, and it is a senior sectional cut.

#36 Boys 200 Yard Free FINAL – 1:50.20 : 12th Seed - The race started and Bear pretty quickly lost contact with the leaders...his first split was right on his first 50 from the morning, but the rest of the splits started showing his fatigue. He slowly slipped back and only managed a 1:53.42

#78 Boys 200 Yard Butterfly – 2:06.56 : 5th Seed – Bear had two goals here...get under 2 minutes and to finish in the top 3 to earn another medal. Both are very tough asks given the field, the amount of swimming he had already done and the amount of time he needed to drop. His fly looked really good though from the start of this race. He went out in a 59.2 and came home in a 1:02.8 to post a 2:02.13... it placed him 6th going into finals But before that, Bear had another swim...

#88 Boys 500 Yard Freestyle – 4:59.71 : 6th Seed – Bear went under 10 minutes in the 1000, so he was hoping he might be able to go 4:50 in this. Again a tough goal, but a good one. Opened with a 55.54, Exactly what he opened the 1000 in...Then he followed that with 59.73, 59.46, 59.71, and 58.31. A total time of 4:52.75. A great swim that placed him 4th overall, and just off of the senior sectional cut...undoubtedly his next goal when he swims the 500 again.

#78 Boys 200 Yard Butterfly FINAL – 2:02.13 : 6th Seed - This was an extremely fast race...and Bear did an excellent job from the start staying with the leaders in the middle of the pool. He road the hip of the swimmer to his inside, who took it out really fast. That kept Bear within striking distance. His opening 100 was a 57.83 (that would be a personal best). He had one bad turn. Right after chasing down the swimmer to his inside and placing himself in a 3 way battle for 3rd, he had a poor breakout after the turn and found himself back about an arms length again. He once again swim down the swimmer to his inside, and this time he passed him. Driving hard for the wall in a race for 3rd with a swimmer on the other end of the pool. Bear posted a time of 2:00.22, another 2 second drop. Unfortunately, he missed 3rd by .19 seconds. However, he did earn a senior sectional cut with this swim. To give you an idea of how fast this race was. Bear's buddy Tommy finished 2nd last year with a time of 2:01.6...Bear's 2:00.2 earned him 4th...


RELAYS

#26 Boys 13-14, 400 Free : A Relay – Bear swam the anchor on the free relay. They rearranged the order to get their fast 2 out front. The third swimmer posted a slow 52.43 split that caused them to slide back into 5th with 6th closing. Bear hit the water and began to eat up space on the 4th and 3rd place teams. He managed to catch the 4th place swimmer in the last 25 and out touched him. Bear's spit was a 51.16...

#32 Boys 13-14, 200 Free : B Relay – swam this to start the night session...right before the 200 freestyle final. Bear managed to swim really well posting the fastest time of the 4 in his relay with a 23.67...he also posted a faster time than one of the boys on the A relay. However...it cost him some (see 200 Free Final)

#64 Boys 13-14, 400 Medley : B Relay – Bear was pulled from this relay. Another boy was forced to do a swim off in the 100 fly. During the swim off that boy posted a 55 low, which moved him into the fly leg on the medley relay. Then the flyer was moved to the free leg, knocking Bear off...no big deal. It was probably better for Bear because he didn't expend that energy.

#70 Boys 13-14, 200 Medley : B Relay – Just like the 400 medley, Bear was pulled on this one as well.