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Northern Divisional Meet
Bear
Day 1
100 IM – 5TH : 1:22.29 – Bear’s fly is starting to come together, and in fact, I think he can swim it pretty well for 25 yards, so his recent struggles with that stroke shouldn’t adversely impact him to much this weekend. His backstroke has improved, but turns are still going to be a problem. Good clean turns and a solid fly and he could drop a couple of seconds…maybe even slip into the top 3 and earn a medal…
50 Free – 7TH : 32.46 – I’d really like to see Bear get some traction here. He’s been passed by several kids on the Gold team in this event, and I’d really like to see him make an improvement like they have recently and drop time. Yes, I’m probably jealous a bit, but Bear works SOOOO much harder in practice than the kids that have passed him, that it really does irritate me a bit that he isn’t still beating them. Plus a good swim here, could put him on the A Free Relay, a poor swim and he’ll be on the B team at best.
100 Breast– 6TH: 1:37.02 – I have no idea what will happen here. It has been a long time since Bear raced this. His form looks much better, but he still isn’t real fast with it. I do believe the speed is coming, but it will take a while.
50 Back – 9TH : 38.27 – Another stroke that Bear has been struggling with, but most of his struggles here are around the turns. He isn’t carrying his speed into the turns and his flips are very slow. The actual stroke isn’t bad. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s cleaned this up enough to have an improvement.
Day 2
50 Breast – 11TH : 47:21 – See the 100 Breast – just don’t know, because he hasn’t raced it in a long time.
100 Back – 8TH : 1:22.00 – Just like the 50, this will probably all come down to turns. In fact, my guess is – if he swims a good 50 and improves, he’ll improve here. If he doesn’t swim a good 50, he won’t swim well here either, due to a combination of technique and confidence.
50 Fly – 9TH : 39.66 – The extra work he’s put in on this stroke is making a difference. His form is much prettier than it has ever been (at least in the first 25 to 35 yards). However, he tends to fatigue which causes the form to fall apart badly at the end. Also, because he is focusing on form, he isn’t racing the stroke as well, so some of the speed is missing. However, he could post a personal best here…and MAN I HOPE HE DOES, cause it would be huge for his confidence. Unfortunately, it will late on the second day, so I don’t know how much steam he’ll have left in the tank…
100 Free – 8TH : 1:11.32 – If he has anything left, he’ll give this all he’s got, but even if he can improve, my bet is it will only be fractionally better…
Like Brett, there will be at least 3 relays in both the Free and Medley…
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