[Breeze]

Long Course Time Trials – RESULTS


Brett
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Day 1

200 Free – 3:13.87 – Typical Brett in this race. Long consistent strokes, but no real sense of urgency or recognition that he was racing and the effort level needed to increase. He did post a much better time of 3:00.59, and that is attributable to the improved technique and better kicking (though the kicking still needs work)

50 Breast – 47.72 – Brett (and I) came into this one hoping he would get his state cut. He is a much better long course swimmer in this event because the dives, turns, and pullouts become much less of a factor. In using the short course to long course conversion tools Brett was just outside of the cut number so I felt he had a good shot. The dive and the initial pullout weren’t great, but then he started swimming down the kids around him. He finished with a time of 43.49, which beats the cut by half a second. He was also the third gold swimmer to finish. The first ages up this week, the second is also the best swimmer on the team in the 12 and under age group in all 3 other strokes. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out for the state relay teams.

100 Fly – NT – You may recall I said I felt Brett would probably be DQed in this event. I never said anything like that to him, but he must have felt the same way because he said something to his coach about it during the pre-race framing that they do (the coach didn’t like it, and I believe he was assigned extra pushups and Monday’s practice because he went into the race with the wrong attitude. It’s ok for Dad to think it silently, but not for kids to speak it publicly). Also, adding insult to injury – Bear was not only in the same heat at Brett, they were side by side in the race. Bear jumped out to an early lead, as his new form looked good early. Brett on the other hand really focused too much on his upper body and he wasn’t getting the good “wiggle” through the stroke. On the back half Bear’s form started to fall apart, and Brett started to close…FAST…Bear held him off and Brett finished, but as I guessed – he was DQed. Come to find out he was closing on Bear in the back 50 because his kick has a bit of a breaststroke motion in it. Hey the kid didn’t want to lose to his little brother and he’s faster with a breast style kick, plus when he gets tired, which he clearly was…the Breast kick rears its ugly head.

200 IM – 3:32.07 – Surprisingly, even after still being tired from the 100 Fly, Brett’s fly in the opening leg of the 200 IM was better than either of his 50s in the 100 Fly. Much more relaxed and patient with the stroke. Probably because he wasn’t racing Bear. Even though his fly was better, he was still last at the turn. He did pretty good in back, closing some ground on the field. On the Breast he not only passed a couple of kids on the outside lane at the other end of the pool, he tracked down the kid to his outside, Tommy, who is Gold coaches son, a teammate of Bears and a good Breaststroker (in fact, he finished 1 spot behind Brett in the 100 breast). Tommy had about a 4 body length lead on Brett and he caught and passed him, getting into the freestyle with about half a body length lead. Tommy’s turn was better and he is a bigger kid with a better freestyle so Brett couldn’t hold him off, but he did great. He finished with a time of 3:26.92
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Day 2

100 Free – 1:29.17 – Much better looking Free…just like the 200, had a bit more effort here and he improved significantly from last year with a 1:20.30. Would still like to see him “race” more in this stroke, but we’re getting there.

100 Breast – 1:44.22 – Another spot where I had hope he could get his state cut. If you remember from short course though, Brett was closing in on the 50 time but he had a long way to go in order to get his 100 cut. The conversion utility indicated he’d need to cut a couple of seconds at least to get the time required to swim at state, but with the long course being more about strokes in the middle of the pool, I was hopeful. Again his pullout left a lot to be desired (it’s better, but that 1 dolphin kick has got to get stronger). His stroke in the middle of the pool was really good, and the effort was definitely not lacking here. He finished with a 1:37.31. Good enough for the cut. He finished second this time, only behind the 12 year old that is aging up. The best 12 year old on the team didn’t swim this event. Tommy (referenced in the IM), who finished right behind Brett was 7.5 seconds back.

50 Back – 47.45 – Brett’s back is so smooth, but the pacing is always like he’s doing a 500. He actually was on pace to beat Bear’s time, but his finish was embarrassingly bad. In fact, one of the timers said something to him like, “what was that…” and he responded, “a complete screw up finish.” Even with the poor finish that probably cost him 2 full seconds he posted a 47.92

400 Free – 6:30.09 – Solid swim. Consistent, but lacking a bit in effort. Brett wasn’t willing to push on this yet, it was more of a feeling out of how hard he can work, how much to keep in reserve, etc. I really feel with his free he could be a great distance freestyler, but he’ll need to buy in. His splits…1:30.66, 1:38.49, 1:38.85, 1:35.58 – overall 6:23:58