[Breeze]

Georgia Senior Short Course State Championships - RESULTS

Bailey

# 3 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Medley (1:06.03Y) - This is an event that Bailey doesn't get to swim very often. She swam it 4 times this year, but before that we go all the way back to when she was 12. Coming in it felt like the lack of opportunity to swim this race might mean there was some time to be had. She opened with a fly leg that looked strong and the time was solid, the back was ok, the breast was much, much better than I expected and a spirited free to the wall resulted in a 1:03.89, a personal best and a drop of 2.14 seconds...a great way to start the meet.

# 9 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:01.09Y) - The time in this race has only dropped during taper swims at the event. All other 100 fly swims have been adds of 2 to 7 seconds. As a 13 year old her best was a 1:01.62. Then at 14 years old Bailey went 1:01.25, as a 15 year old she nudged it down to 1:01.09, this year she dropped it to a 1:00.21 for a personal best and a drop of close to a full second. This put her only .22 from the sectional cut.

# 17 (d2/s4): W Open 200 Fly (2:14.91Y) - After her strong 100 fly, we were optimistic about this race. We were hopeful not only for a time drop, but maybe a sectional cut (2:11.59). Her real personal best is a 2:13.79, from when she was 13. It doesn't show in the seed time because it was so old it was no longer viable for her. She opened with a 29.22, which is better than her typical 30+ second opening. The second split was a strong 33.02, followed by a 34.47, which put her in great shape heading into the final 50, unfortunately, she really hit a wall. It was obvious several of her strokes were slipping through the water as she was spinning her wheels a bit, but she fought home in 36.21 and posted a personal best time of 2:12.92. This was a huge drop from her seed time and a nice drop from her real personal best too. It was also good enough to bring her back for finals, as she moved up to 36th place with this swim.

# 17 W Open 200 Fly Final (2:12.92Y) - In finals, Bailey's goal was to get the sectional cut, which means she needed to drop about 1.3 more seconds. She opened with a 29.24, almost identical to the morning. Then posted a 33.05, also almost identical to the morning swim. In the 3rd 50 she made a bit of a move posting a 33.89 split, which was about a .7 improvement. Then in the final 50 she stayed strong and kept the stroke longer and finished in 34.88 a time really close to her 3rd split from the morning and a huge improvement posting a time of 2:11.06, and getting the sectional cut and a promotion to Gold's National Team! She also managed to beat 3 swimmers in the heat that came in with faster times from prelims, climbing to 33rd overall.

# 35 (d3/s7): W Open 200 Medley (2:16.63Y) - After 4 big swims, the hope for a clean sweep was high. Bailey swam her fly within .01 of the time posted during the fly leg of her personal best swim, the backstroke however was off over a full second. The breast, like the 100 was again much better than expected, over 3 seconds better than her usual split and almost a full second better than her split in this leg during her personal best swim. The free was a solid 31.75, but the total came to 2:16.84, and she came up just short of a best time.

# 9 W Open 100 Fly - Time Trial (1:00.21Y) - Given how close she was to the sectional time, and given how well she swam the 200 the night before, Bailey tried to get the cut in a time trial. She opened .03 off her opening on Friday, but she wasn't able to build on the back half and ended up adding a little, most of it was on a short arm finish - 1:00.72. Disappointing, but probably an indication of fatigue. The last day is hard and with Bailey being 5' 2" and change, it can really take a toll. The good news is, she was close to the PB time again, so it reinforces the fact that she's improved significantly this season.


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Bear

# 8 (d1/s1): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91Y) - Bear was really excited about this swim coming in. He was just over a second away from an NCSA cut here, and he trained hard this season, hoping to reach that time in this race. Unfortunately, it was obvious early, when he fell off the pace of the heat that he wasn't going to get the cut. He did manage to finish in 1:46.69, so he only added around .7 seconds, but it was a huge disappointment and blow to Bear.

# 12 (d1/s2): M Open 400 Medley (4:11.59Y) - This is a race I didn't have any confidence in, as Bear has really struggled in this one because of problems in his backstroke and continued on/off aspect of his breaststroke. As expected this one was no pretty, with the backstroke really being the major problem as the breast was very respectable, but unfortunately he ended up posting a time of 4:23.68. Much better than the 4:30 times he'd been swimming recently, but no where near where he needs to be.

# 18 (d2/s4): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01Y) - After two underwhelming swims on Friday, Bear was a bit bummed headed into this one. There was some hope that his Fly would be strong, but his swims leading into this event were well over 2 minutes, so it was probably wishful thinking. He swam pretty well, but again added about .7 seconds finishing in a time of 1:57.88. A decent swim, not where he wanted it, but good enough to make finals.

# 26 (d2/s5): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77Y) - It was obvious pretty early that this wasn't going to be Bear's best swim, as he pretty quickly feel into 58 high splits...he finished with a time of 4:47.92, again not where he wanted to be, but again good enough to make finals.


# 18 M Open 200 Fly Final - (1:57.88Y) - after the tough double from the morning Bear was looking at duplicating that double in the evening. It started off rough with this swim. He added a couple more seconds from the morning to finish at 1:59.78

# 26 M Open 500 Free Final (4:47.92Y) - the 500 started out much better than the morning. He actually had his splits a couple of seconds better at about the mid-point of the race. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to maintain that spread and he ended up finishing with a slight improvement from the morning but again no where close to his personal best - 4:47.25.


# 38 (d3/s8): X Open 1650 Free (16:47.81Y) - This was Bear's last chance at an improvement, and while he really hadn't given any indication that he was swimming well enough to drop time, especially given that he didn't drop in the 500s, this was an event that seemed to have some room to improve. The last two times Bear swam the 1650 he had pneumonia and he had the poor taper after trying to rush recovery from the flu. So I held out hope that he might be able to do something in this race. In addition, he came into this one seeded 4th, and I felt like he might be able to earn a medal with a good swim. The race started, Bear dove in...AND...his goggles rolled down his face and stopped over his mouth. He's got 66 laps to go, and his goggles are a problem. I was completely heartbroken at this point so much so I felt nauseous.

On the first wall Bear did an open turn so he could adjust his goggles. He got them in place, but they were extremely twisted so when he pushed off the wall they rolled back down. Making matters worse, he was way behind the other swimmers that flipped on the first wall. At the second wall, Bear flipped and while laying on his back underwater with his feet on the wall, he adjusted his goggles, got them in place, then finally pushed off. At this point Bear was about 7 seconds behind the leaders, and he still couldn't see because the goggles were filled with water. He managed to make it through the 3rd wall without being able to completely tell were the wall was, and before flipping on the 4th wall he quickly drained the goggle on his right eye. Now, he still has 62 laps to go, he has 1 eye clear and he's behind the entire field by well over half a lap. He was facing a long and depressing swim, but he didn't quit and he didn't panic and try to immediately catch up, rather he dropped into his pacing and started churning laps. In fact, he was churning laps at a 1:00 pace, and despite all the fidgeting with his goggles he managed to go 1:00 splits early in the race as well.

At the 400 yard mark, Bear passed one of his competitors and was no longer in last. At the 500 yard mark he passed 2 more competitors. At the 600 yard mark he jumped another spot and at the 800 yard mark he moved into 4th place, but while he had cut into the 3rd place swimmer's 11 second lead, he was still 7 seconds behind with half of the race gone. He continued to post strong splits and he kept slowly reeling in his competitor. At the bell lap, Bear out-touched the guy he had been stalking by .05, then he swam the last 50 almost 2 seconds faster and...HE FINISHED 3RD with a personal best time of 16:37.04 - an improvement of almost 11 seconds! What an incredible effort that was...it was truly one of the most impressive things I've ever personally witnessed in sports. This is something that I will never forget.