Bear
100 Free - Seeded 7th - 1:14.03 - Bear was very strong in this race, got out with a 34.87 came home with a 37.03...finished with a personal best
1:11.90 and an improvement of 2.13 seconds. He also finished 4th overall and beat the top Gold 100 yard swimmer in his age group.
50 Breast - Seeded 11th - 49.46 - The new stroke is starting to come around. He posted an improved time of
47.21 and finished 7th overall. 46.70 is actually his personal best, but this was his 2nd fastest time every, and an improvement of a couple of seconds over what he had been swimming with Chattahoochee Gold.
100 Back - Seeded 11th - 1:25.23 - I talked to him a little before this race and told him he had to be more aggressive going into the walls. I told him by slowing down inside the flags it was taking him too many strokes to get back to full speed and it was killing his times. As expected Bear sucked it up, and went hard in and out of the walls...and it paid off. Personal best time of
1:24.42, finished 7th overall
200 Free - Seeded 9th - 2:40.47 - Again Bear swam well in the longer freestyle event. He got out with a 36.04 opening 50, then coasted to a 40.68 2nd, and a 40:48 3rd, closing with a good 38.95. Ending with a personal best
2:36.11 and improving by 4.36 seconds. He finished 5th overall and again just edged out the top freestyler on the team. As good as this swim was, his coach wants more effort in the middle 100. She want all splits to be below 40 seconds (and will push to sub 39 by the state meet in February). Bear did earn a Southeastern state cut here, but it appears to be only Tennessee related so he won't be able to take advantage of it...
200 IM - Seeded 6th - 3:06.64 - This was probably the most exciting race of the weekend for me. Bear was right next to the top dog (same one he beat in both the freestyles listed above) and the two of them flat raced each other the entire way...best way to illustrate this is to show you the splits...
50 Fly
Bear - 39.57
Jack - 39.80
50 Back
Bear - 1:22.44 (42.87) - note Bear has a poor back to breast turn which hurt his time
Jack - 1:22.49 (42.69)
50 Breast
Bear - 2:14.98 (52.54)
Jack - 2:15.93 (53.44)
50 Free
Bear -
2:52.71 (37.73)
Jack - 2:52.40 (36.47)
Bear finished 5th overall...and his time was a personal best and an improvement of 14+ seconds...
Bear earned a Southeasten Cut time here too...
50 Back - Seeded 12th - 39.23 - The more aggressive walls helped out here again. Posted a personal best time of
38.64, finished 11th overall.
100 Breast - Seeded 11th - 1:46.29 - The improved breaststroke really showed up here...he swam th e opening 50 in 48.35 and closed with a 49.99, overall it was a personal best time of
1:38.34, and he was able to finish 7th.
50 Fly - seeded 12th - 39.66 - finally all the effort of the weekend catches up to Bear and he isn't able to post a personal best. He gets a time of
40.83...not significantly off his typical time. He still has a hitch at the bottom of his stroke that needs to get worked out. The coach is planning to work with him in an extra practice on Tuesday (11/20)...
Note: For his efforts, Bear was named the Chattahoochee Gold, Gold Level Team's Swimmer of the Meet Award Winner...