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Breeze · 07-31-2012, 09:45 AM

Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship

Every year this event is exhausting…physically, with the overwhelming heat, mentally, trying to coordinate all the items that need to be accomplished before and during the event, and emotionally with the highs and lows of a tough competition…and this year was no different.

We arrived in Carrollton, Georgia Thursday night around 5, checked into the hotel, and almost immediately headed out for dinner reservations with 30+ other people in swim families. I was concerned the meal was going to turn into a nightmare of waiting and hyperactive kids, but it actually worked out well. The kids ate well, and carbed up for the next day, which came really early…

We got up at 5:45, dressed, grabbed the swim bags and went down to eat breakfast before heading to the pool. It was a little difficult to get Bailey to eat (she has problems eating first thing in the morning), but she finally choked down enough to sustain her. We headed out to the ball field where we would set up our chairs and sit under a big tent for the rest of the day.

Warm-ups started at 7…the meet started at 9…

Now, unlike most of the events that I write about here…the GRPA state meet is run more like a major event, in that the swimmers don’t do timed finals, they qualify for finals through a preliminary swim. Similar to what you are currently watching in the Olympics. In order to make the finals at GRPA the swimmer has to have one of the top 8 times in the preliminaries (RPI-Fan…I believe I failed to explain this in my answer to your questions above…), and if a swimmer can get a top 8 time, assuming they aren’t DQed in the finals, they will receive a medal regardless of what place they end up in…with the overall winners getting the typical Gold, Silver, Bronze awards.

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PREDICTIONS
While most of our success in this meet has been team driven, this is still one of the few meets where my kids actually have a chance to earn a medal, and thus it makes this meet special. I had intended to give you guys some insight into how I felt we would perform here…but apparently I failed to do the post with how our seed times match up with past years results. Here is what I meant to say about our chances coming in…Unfortunately, this meet doesn't release Psych Sheets or Heat Sheet ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect when we got there...here were my pre-event predictions...

9/10 Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Prediction 3rd
Bailey's Medley team was very strong coming in. In fact, it is the 3rd fastest combined time the county has sent to the state meet since 2007, only falling behind a team that had 2 multiple event state champions competing on it (they were together for 2 years). My initial reaction was they would be hard to beat at state, until I found results from other county meets and noticed quite a few swimmers as fast or faster than our group. I did feel the team would have a shot to win it all, but ultimately I felt 3rd was going to be the spot.

9/10 Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly ) – Prediction – not in the finals
Bear’s B relay was solid, but not spectacular and I felt they’d have a chance to get to the finals, but I expected they’d be an alternate in the 10th or 11th spot…

9/10 Girls Fly – Bailey – Prediction – not in the finals
Based on Bailey’s time I felt she’d be close to getting into the finals…her 16.22 was recorded without the benefit of diving off of blocks, which would make her faster…but she’d need to get sub 16 to really have a change to get into finals, and I felt it would be close. I felt an alternate spot of 9th or 10th was likely.

9/10 Boys Fly – Bear – Prediction – not in the finals
Bear was going to be hard pressed to make finals. If he swam around his personal best of 16.2 he might slip in, but most likely he’d be mid 16s and finish 12th or so…

9/10 Girls Free Relay – Bailey – Prediction – Not in finals
Bailey’s relay team with combined times averaged out to around 64 seconds, to make the finals she’d need to be sub 60…relay starts allow for some improvement, typically around 2 seconds, but to drop 4 and still beat all the other teams isn’t very likely…

9/10 Boys Free Relay – Bear – Prediction – Not in finals
Bear swam poorly at county because of a slip on the dive. Another boy based on his seed time at county swam poorly as well. If both swim close to personal bests in this meet, they could beat the B team and make the finals…of course they probably won’t both swim well, and there is no guarantee the B team will even make the finals…

07-31-2012, 09:45 AM	#127
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	Summer Swim League – GRPA State Championship Every year this event is exhausting…physically, with the overwhelming heat, mentally, trying to coordinate all the items that need to be accomplished before and during the event, and emotionally with the highs and lows of a tough competition…and this year was no different. We arrived in Carrollton, Georgia Thursday night around 5, checked into the hotel, and almost immediately headed out for dinner reservations with 30+ other people in swim families. I was concerned the meal was going to turn into a nightmare of waiting and hyperactive kids, but it actually worked out well. The kids ate well, and carbed up for the next day, which came really early… We got up at 5:45, dressed, grabbed the swim bags and went down to eat breakfast before heading to the pool. It was a little difficult to get Bailey to eat (she has problems eating first thing in the morning), but she finally choked down enough to sustain her. We headed out to the ball field where we would set up our chairs and sit under a big tent for the rest of the day. Warm-ups started at 7…the meet started at 9… Now, unlike most of the events that I write about here…the GRPA state meet is run more like a major event, in that the swimmers don’t do timed finals, they qualify for finals through a preliminary swim. Similar to what you are currently watching in the Olympics. In order to make the finals at GRPA the swimmer has to have one of the top 8 times in the preliminaries (RPI-Fan…I believe I failed to explain this in my answer to your questions above…), and if a swimmer can get a top 8 time, assuming they aren’t DQed in the finals, they will receive a medal regardless of what place they end up in…with the overall winners getting the typical Gold, Silver, Bronze awards. ------------------------------------------------------- PREDICTIONS While most of our success in this meet has been team driven, this is still one of the few meets where my kids actually have a chance to earn a medal, and thus it makes this meet special. I had intended to give you guys some insight into how I felt we would perform here…but apparently I failed to do the post with how our seed times match up with past years results. Here is what I meant to say about our chances coming in…Unfortunately, this meet doesn't release Psych Sheets or Heat Sheet ahead of time, so I had no idea what to expect when we got there...here were my pre-event predictions... 9/10 Girls Medley Relay, A Team – Bailey (Fly) – Prediction 3rd Bailey's Medley team was very strong coming in. In fact, it is the 3rd fastest combined time the county has sent to the state meet since 2007, only falling behind a team that had 2 multiple event state champions competing on it (they were together for 2 years). My initial reaction was they would be hard to beat at state, until I found results from other county meets and noticed quite a few swimmers as fast or faster than our group. I did feel the team would have a shot to win it all, but ultimately I felt 3rd was going to be the spot. 9/10 Boys Medley Relay, B Team – Bear (Fly ) – Prediction – not in the finals Bear’s B relay was solid, but not spectacular and I felt they’d have a chance to get to the finals, but I expected they’d be an alternate in the 10th or 11th spot… 9/10 Girls Fly – Bailey – Prediction – not in the finals Based on Bailey’s time I felt she’d be close to getting into the finals…her 16.22 was recorded without the benefit of diving off of blocks, which would make her faster…but she’d need to get sub 16 to really have a change to get into finals, and I felt it would be close. I felt an alternate spot of 9th or 10th was likely. 9/10 Boys Fly – Bear – Prediction – not in the finals Bear was going to be hard pressed to make finals. If he swam around his personal best of 16.2 he might slip in, but most likely he’d be mid 16s and finish 12th or so… 9/10 Girls Free Relay – Bailey – Prediction – Not in finals Bailey’s relay team with combined times averaged out to around 64 seconds, to make the finals she’d need to be sub 60…relay starts allow for some improvement, typically around 2 seconds, but to drop 4 and still beat all the other teams isn’t very likely… 9/10 Boys Free Relay – Bear – Prediction – Not in finals Bear swam poorly at county because of a slip on the dive. Another boy based on his seed time at county swam poorly as well. If both swim close to personal bests in this meet, they could beat the B team and make the finals…of course they probably won’t both swim well, and there is no guarantee the B team will even make the finals… Last edited by Breeze : 07-31-2012 at 10:09 AM.