Swim Like A Champion (a real life journal)

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Bear College Update - Roanoke College

Bear got his financial package from Roanoke and it was far short of the offer from Berry. However, the coach said that he'll talk with the administration and get back to Bear with an updated offer. So now the negotiation begins....will be interested to see what he comes back with.

Roanoke requested that a parent be involved on the call, so I have gotten pretty good feedback from Cathy.

Basically, the coach really wants Bear bad, and he said he'd do everything in his power to match the package that Berry put together, including coming up with funds to offset the Hope/Zell Georgia based scholarship. Bear's next step is to send a copy of the Berry offer to Roanoke so they can determine what they'll need to do in order to match. Bear is also supposed to call his admissions adviser and let them know that he needs more money (which the coach will also state to the department, along with the information on Berry).

Some other tidbits of information:

- The coach stated that he was putting down roots, as his family and his wife's family are from that area, and he's very happy where he is. This is important because the primary reason Bear is interested is the coaching. He really likes the both of the coaches. They are super high energy, funny, and they relate well to the team (in fact, you can see them jumping around at the ODAC conference championships last year on the videos of Brett I posted). However, both are very young (late 20s probably), and they've done a phenomenal job building this program (it only started up 3 years ago). In fact, they've done so good they are already 2nd in conference and they are starting to challenge Washington & Lee who's won the conference for ~15 years. Honestly, I'm still not so sure he'll be there for 4 years, even if he's saying his plans are to stay...from the outside he looks to have a huge upside and it seems odd that he wouldn't want to pursue that - but could be wrong, or he could be doing what all college coaches do when asked this question - deflect.

- This year W&L is a bit vulnerable and Roanoke realizes it, but the coach doesn't think he has the horses yet to overtake them, but...

- He told Bear that if he could get him, along with a couple other kids he's currently recruiting that he'd beat them for sure (nice way to make Bear feel wanted).

- Bear's academic profile would put him in the top 10% of students on campus. Which is why his academic money is already maxed out in their offer

- They don't go on winter training trips...just train at their normal facility

- Kids are asked to help support the team by paying $100/season and by doing fund raising

- The coach really laid it on think, making sure Bear realized how much he wanted him to be part of the Maroons...

[Breeze]

South Forsyth vs Lambert & Pinecrest- RESULTS

The twins participated in their first high school meet of the season on Saturday. I didn't post a pre-write up on this meet, because I thought, with the State Meet scheduled for this weekend, the kids were going to wait until after State so they didn't risk wrecking their taper/training.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

#6 Women 200 IM - - 2:26.25 - given Bailey hasn't completely rounded into shape after her bought with mono, this time is pretty good. Anything over a 100 is tough for her right now.

#12 Women 100 Fly - managed to swim her typical time in this event at a high school meet - 1:04.52

#18 Women 200 Free Relay - Bailey led off the relay with a 28.04 split...which isn't too far off her personal best time...and was right in line with the other girls who got a rolling start.

#24 Women 400 Free Relay - swam the 3rd leg, and closed hard on the team that won the event, closing by more than a full second...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

#3 Men 200 Free - Bear posted a very poor 1:56.46, which was concerning with state just a week away, but we found out later that his goggles came off on the dive, and like the 1650 at state last year, he tried to fix them while he was swimming. Ultimately, he just ripped them off and threw them on the side of the pool while in the middle of a turn. This explained the slow time.

#11 Men 100 Fly - nearly posted a personal best with a 57.02. Just off by about half a second. He was bit disappointed in this time as he beat his personal best in practice earlier in the day.

#17 Men 200 Free Relay - Bear swam a solid 23.59 split, which is better than this personal best time on record. Of course, this isn't an official meet, so the record won't count.

#23 Men 400 Free Relay - Bear went 3rd, and the team had a huge lead by the time he hit the water...he costed home on the last half lap and finished his split around 54 seconds.

[Breeze]

Bailey College Update - Roanoke College

Interestingly, Roanoke College issued a preemptive strike...

Bailey is looking more and more like she's planning to hang up her goggles. She's still not applied to any of the schools she visited for swimming, even to the point of just seeing how much it would cost to attend the school. Roanoke, having not received an application, sent Bailey an acceptance letter offering her $100k over 4 years. The offer is apparently fully executable without ever seeing her transcripts. Also, given their willingness to negotiate with Bear, odds they would increase the offer to her, if she were to push the issue are high.

No idea what her thoughts on the letter are, because we didn't discuss it last night. My assumption is that she is flattered, but still not interested in the effort it would take to swim in college. I'll update the board, when I know more.

[Breeze]

2019 Georgia Short Course State Championship @ UGA Natatorium - 12/6 - 12/8

Bailey - Unfortunately, especially given this will probably be one of the last meets Bailey swims, I don't expect much from her in this meet. She's still not really in shape yet, so much so she's not even competing in her best event, the 200 fly, because she runs out of gas before she can complete a 200.

# 7 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:00.21) - She did managed to swim her typical 1:04 at the high school meet last weekend...but I'm guessing she'll be a 1:01, and under the circumstances that's actually really good.

# 17 (d2/s5): W Open 100 Medley (1:03.89) - No idea on this one...she doesn't swim it often so I have very little to go on. I do know she's been really pleased with her backstroke in practice, so if it's improved, and she can gut out even a decent breast leg, she can probably post a personal best.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear - It's been a long road for Bear, swimming for over a year with an over-training injury, then having to back off substantially on training for months while the injury healed. I still don't think he's where he wants to be with regards to getting back in shape, but he's starting to turn the corner. Hopefully, he's far enough around the corner to post some good times this weekend.

# 4 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - with his goggles coming off in his high school meet last weekend, I don't have s sense for where he is. My guess is, he'll be pretty close to a best here.

# 20 (d2/s6): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - broke his 100 fly PB in practice, if he's in good enough shape, this PB could be within reach. Will know for sure how in shape at about the 150 mark of the race.

# 28 (d2/s6): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - afraid to make a prediction on this one. He's really struggled in what was his best event for so long, I just don't have a feel for what he might be able to accomplish.

# 32 (d3/s10): M Open 200 Medley (2:03.39) - Breast is still ugly, in fact, when he posted his PB his Breast was pretty good...he was approaching Brett's times, but he's no longer anywhere close to that range, so I suspect this one will be a several second add.

# 42 (d3/s10): X Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - last time he swam this he was still dealing with the over-training issue, and he was screwing with his goggles because they came off on the dive. There is time available for a drop. In fact, there is a bunch of time available, if he's in shape. The messing with goggles last year probably cost him at least 15 seconds...so it'll all come down to how good he feels at the end of the meet. If he has the energy, he could do really well.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Breeze

2015 Georgia Age Group State Championship – Day 3 Prelims

#68 Boys 12&U 400 Free Relay

Gold A Team – 3:48.00 : Seeded T1 – The Gold A Team, came into this relay already having earned 3 bronze medals and 3 team records. They were seeded T1, and where hoping for a better result this time out, as the Gold Team was clearly better at 100s than at 50s. The coaches for Gold, after having watched Nate try and close in the last 3 relays, decided they needed to switch up the order so as to not put too much pressure on him. They elected to have him lead off instead. Then the discussion came down to Bear vs Nicklas as the anchor. Coach Andy told the rest of the coaches, Bear will swim his best race no matter where you put him, but Nicklas does better when he’s challenged – so decision made – Nicklas is the anchor. The order ended up being Nate, Bear, Andrew, and Nicklas, and the irony of this change is – Swim Atlanta also changed their order as well. They front loaded their relay with their 2 best swimmers, hoping to disconnect and get the Gold swimmer to think they wouldn’t be able to make up the ground. Here is how it went:
Nate and Quinn (same Quinn that beat Bear in 400 IM) immediately separated themselves from the field. At the turn for the 50, Nate was up by .3, and third was already a full second back. At the end of the 100 things here were the splits:

Nate – 53.32	Quinn – 54.15

Bear was next up, and he opened with a 26.75 in the first 50…but the Swim Atlanta swimmer posted a 25.92 0 so the teams were tied with a split of 1:20.07. On the back 50, Bear lost a bit more time Here are the splits and the overall times:

Bear – 56.49 (1:49.81)	Swim Atlanta – 54.85 (1:49.00)

Down by a little under a second, Andrew, the slowest of the 4 swimmers dove in. He’s more of a distance swimmer, so I was afraid that we might fall a good bit behind now. In the first 50 of the 3rd leg Andrew lost another .8 when he posted a 27.46 to SAs 26.75, but in the back half he closed some and the race was look like this:

Andrew – 57.66 (2:47.47)	Swim Atlanta – 57.29 (2:46.29)

Nicklas had a 1.18 second deficit to make up when he hit the water. He was clearly closing on the Swim Atlanta anchor, and at the 50 turn of the 4th leg the deficit was almost cut in half as it was down to .57 seconds. Nicklas opened with a 26.80 to Swim Atlanta’s 27.55. The question was could he make up another .59 or did he wear himself out on the opening leg chasing?

Nickas – 55.46 (3:42.93)		Swim Atlanta – 57.27 (3:43.56)

Gold wins Gold!!! And they not only broke the team record, they destroyed it by 8 full seconds.

I've got some really bad news to report, the Nate mentioned above lost his father to cancer today. This really hits close to home on so many levels. We really like the family, Nate and Bear were close. They both are looking to swim in college and often are looking at the same schools. And most jarring...he was diagnosed with oral cancer not long after I got my diagnosis...

I'm heartbroken right now...

[Breeze]

Quick follow up to the Nate story above. Nate gave up swimming this year so he could play football and be part of the "team" atmosphere that that sport provides during his senior year of high school. Well, his team won the state championship less than 24 hours before the visitation for his dad.

[Breeze]

2019 Georgia Short Course State Championship - RESULTS

Bailey

# 7 (d1/s1): W Open 100 Fly (1:00.21) - figured she'd be in the 1:01s...she swam a 1:01.80. Under the circumstances, it was a pretty good effort. Also her form looked really good - good enough that with good health, desire, and some more training to improve fitness she could get a personal best before the end of the season. The big problem with that is the desire is no longer there...

# 17 (d2/s5): W Open 100 Medley (1:03.89) - posted a disappointing 1:05.14.. She did manage to beat her friend and teammate Mary Gray, who was swimming right next to her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

# 4 (d1/s2): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - finished in 1:47.42, which is better than it's been, but also disappointing as we were hoping to challenge personal bests in this meet and we aren't close yet. The opening 100 was pretty much on target with his splits from his best times, but his back half was much slower. Probably an indication that he's really not in true race shape for longer events yet.

# 20 (d2/s6): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - similar to the 200 free he posted a better time than he has been, but it's still not close to a PB. He finished in 1:59.96. He did however, post a personal best time at the 100 split. Finishing that in 56.25, compared to his PB time on record of 56.40. I really wanted him to time trial this one so we could see how much lower he might be able to go, when he didn't have another 100 fly to swim after the touch at the 100 split...but he didn't.

# 28 (d2/s6): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - based on the results of the first two swims, I was concerned about this one. It was justified. he finished in 4:56.43...

# 32 (d3/s10): M Open 200 Medley (2:03.39) - Bear managed a personal best in this one, and a pretty good improvement. Finishing in 1:59.69. That's over a 3.5 second drop. It's unquestionable that the new SwimAtlanta training is helping him with his sprints, and it is helping him round out his strokes again, rather than being so freestyle focused. He split a 26.14 in the fly, which is ok. His back was a 29.42...this is much faster than he typically goes. Then the breast was a very respectable 36.88. Free was off from what he would normally go, but I would expect that, given his slower back half times in the other 200s.

# 42 (d3/s10): X Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - it was pretty obvious from earlier results that he really isn't ready for the distance stuff. He had to grind out a 17:08.93...extremely disappointing for him...

[Breeze]

Bear College Update - Roanoke College

Bear received Roanoke's reworked offer and they did increase the financial aid by about $6,000. In addition, they added in several low cost loans, but even with the increase and the loans considered, the total package is about $5000 higher than Berry even BEFORE loans are considered. I think he was disappointed by the offer, but not really surprised. He admitted over a week ago that he didn't think Roanoke would be able to come close to what Berry put on the table.

[Breeze]

Bear - General Update

Right before the start of SERIOUS winter training, Bear has suffered an ankle injury. The guys were playing Ultimate before practice today, and one of the other kids fell and rolled up on him. Based on the description of how it occurred, it sounds like a high ankle sprain. We will get him checked today. I hope it's nothing serious. He can't afford to be out of the pool, especially now, when the increased training level might be all he needs to round back into shape. Moreover, with his shoulder issues, he doesn't need to have pull only practices for an extended period of time waiting for the ankle to heal. That's just asking for problems to return.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Breeze

the total package is about $5000 higher than Berry even BEFORE loans are considered. I think he was disappointed by the offer, but not really surprised. He admitted over a week ago that he didn't think Roanoke would be able to come close to what Berry put on the table.

I'm not sure I'm reading this right, so ...

by "$5,000 higher" do you mean that the offer from Roanoke is better than Berry's now? Or that Roanoke's cost remains higher even with the improved offer?

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm not sure I'm reading this right, so ...

by "$5,000 higher" do you mean that the offer from Roanoke is better than Berry's now? Or that Roanoke's cost remains higher even with the improved offer?

Sorry, obviously my familiarity with the situation led to a less than detailed explanation.

The new Roanoke offer, even with extra loans applied is still $5000 short of what the Berry offer is, even before we consider loans on the Berry side. If we remove all the loans, for Bear to attend Roanoke, we would be looking at paying an additional 10k/year

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Sorry, obviously my familiarity with the situation led to a less than detailed explanation.

The new Roanoke offer, even with extra loans applied is still $5000 short of what the Berry offer is, even before we consider loans on the Berry side. If we remove all the loans, for Bear to attend Roanoke, we would be looking at paying an additional 10k/year

Got it. I had a feeling that you used "higher" the opposite way of how I initially read it .. but rather than wonder, I just came out & asked

[Breeze]

Bear - General Update

On Thursday at practice the team was playing Ultimate, and Bear got tangled with another swimmer trying to make a catch. That second swimmer came down on Bear's ankle. We took him to the doctor on Friday for X-Rays, and he has a break in one of the small bones on the outside of his ankle. We have to take him to see an orthopedic before he can swim again. This is terrible timing because he really need to be in the water to get back in shape, but it will probably prevent him from getting the increased winter training regimen.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth vs Forsyth Central @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 12/21

South swam a dual meet with Central on Saturday. With Bear's ankle injury, he obviously didn't compete. Bailey did, but she's been out of the pool for several days prepping for mid-terms, so she wasn't really in any shape to do well. In fact, she said she did terrible...unfortunately, I really can't elaborate. The wife and I had to run errands to get Christmas stuff finished so we didn't go, and the app that records the swim times shows the meet, but no-one uploaded the results. I can confirm, from Bailey's own admission that she did poorly. Of course they had her doing a 200 free, and if you recall the Gold coaches pretty much avoided anything over a 100 because they felt she wasn't in shape to race a 200.

In addition, this was supposed to be a fun, meet, so Bailey was listed a swimmer in the onesie relay. In this race each swimmer does a 50 while wearing a giant onesie. Then they get out, take it off, so the next swimmer can climb into it, then do their 50. Bailey said she nearly drowned...the onesie was huge, and she said when she dove it, it filled with water, especially the footies, which were about 18" past her feet, so it was like swimming with ankle weights on....

[Breeze]

Bear - College Swimming

Over the Christmas Break, Bear committed to Berry College. I think it was a big relief for him to commit, especially after the ankle injury. He seems more relaxed and happier. I believe the weight of this decision was weighing on him. The good news is that the school really does check all of his boxes:

- Good academically
- Great campus
- Good swim team
- And after the scholarships, very affordable

If Bear can return to pre-injury form, he will be one of the best on the team and in conference. However, he isn't going to be so much better than the rest of the team that he feels out of place.

I'm not sure what Bear is going to study, but it will almost certainly be on the STEM side of things given his strength in Science and Math.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth - Lambert Holiday Invite - @ Cumming Aquatic Center - 1/4

A huge high school meet with 18 teams. Bear still isn't competing, as he's still unable to kick.

Bailey - Bailey has basically quit swimming already. She only attended 1 practice during the holiday break, so we had no illusions about how she'd do.

#2 200 Yard Medley Relay - Bailey handled the fly leg on the A team and posted a respectable 28.9. The team finished 3rd overall.

#12 100 Yard Fly - Managed a 1:04.96, which is right on her typical time in a high school meet. Pretty impressive under the circumstances

#20 100 Yard Back - I think this was the first time she's ever done the 100 back in a high school meet. She requested it, because she isn't in shape for her typical events the 200 IM and the 200 Free. Posted a 1:07.26, which isn't bad, especially without any practice.

The 400 Free Relay Team withdrew because the team had another team building function off site and the meet was running late...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Over the Christmas Break, Bear committed to Berry College.

Congratulations Bear and family.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bailey

Given that Bailey has basically quit swimming, and her last competitive meet will be high school state at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, I've started printing her version of this journal. I'll have to figure out the best time to give it to her, and I'll have to be careful to do this without tipping off Bear.

Bailey's version of the journal, in case you were wondering is over 330 pages in Word.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth - Wolverine Winter Invite @ CAC - 1/11

Bear is still out with the ankle injury.

Bailey

#2 Girls 200 Medley B Relay - Bailey for some reason (read: coach makes dumb decisions) swam the free on B relay. She did fine, posting a 27.96, which is only about half a second off her personal best split from back when she was training regularly. What makes the decision dumb is...Bailey's been swimming fly in under 29 seconds, the girl that swam fly in this relay was over 31. The odds that the girl swimming fly would have been closer to Bailey 28 second free rather than the 29 second fly are high. The coach probably cost the relay 2 seconds minimum by not switching just these 2 swimmers.

#4 Girls 200 Free - Bailey managed a respectable 2:12.43. Given she's really not in shape to sprint a 200, this time is really impressive. Not sure why the coaches don't seem to get it.

#12 Girls 100 Fly - amazingly she continues to hit her 1:04 consistently, going a 1:04.97. I bet if I went back a looked at all her high school fly swims, over 90% would be in the 1:04 range. Originally, it was the fatigue coming directly from practice that put her at that pace. Now it's the fact that she isn't training regularly...but I find it interesting that she's been so solid and consistent in that event.

#24 Girls 400 Free Relay - swam the 3rd leg in 1:00.48. Good enough for the second fastest split in the relay (behind only the anchor, Jordan, who will get solid D1 offers next year). Bailey's split was several seconds faster than 2 other year rounders, even if you factor in the cold start for the lead off leg. She's really doing remarkably well this season with limited training coming into events.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth

The swim team had their senior dinner the other night. It was held at a local Italian chain restaurant, where we chose our food from a limited menu, and visited with other senior parents. As part of this dinner the kids are asked to talk about their swim experiences and most use the time as an opportunity to say thank you to their parents for the sacrifices made allowing them to swim.

Most of the kids scripted their talks and read them off their phones. Bailey and Bear didn't prepare anything and both spoke from the heart. Which I'd prefer even if it was brief. (Bear actually tried to convince Bailey to say, "Word's can't explain my feelings about this...so I'm not even going to try," and then have her sit down.)

Bear had a nice speech where the thanked us and he referenced the videos I used to make of his swims when he was younger, and hearing mom screaming for him. He also thanked me for counting "all those laps".

Bailey on the other hand went last and she went in a different direction, and I thought it was great. She thanked us, but at the same time she stated..."also thank you for helping me realize I don't want to swim anymore". Which was a complete flip of the script, as everyone else was lamenting the end of their swimming, where Bailey was honestly admitting, I've had enough and thanks for understanding and helping me realize that it's OK.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth vs Pinecrest & West Forsyth @ CAC - 1/18

Bear is still out with the ankle injury


Bailey

#2 Girls Medley Relay - The coach is trying extremely hard to get additional swimmers qualified for state through the relays. Basically, any kids that swim on a relay that qualifies for state receive a state patch. So the coach is spitting the talent on her relays to try and reach the goal time as often as possible. Bailey ended up on the B relay in the fly leg, and she posted a mediocre 29.95, but that time was still over 3.5 seconds faster than the girl that swam on the A relay.

#8 Girls 50 Free - managed a high school best time of 28.21, which is almost exactly 1 second off her personal best time.

#12 Girls 100 Fly - Bailey was racing hard to win this event against a girl that trains on Bear's team at Swim Atlanta. Bailey let at the 50 turn, but the lack of training really impacted her down the stretch and she came in at 1:05.66, losing by about 1.5 seconds. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that we are going to start to see her times creep higher as the lack of training becomes more of a factor. But there is only the county championship and the state meet left, so the maximum number of swims Bailey could have remaining is 8 and it all honestly, I expect she'll only swim 5 or 6 of those...

#18 Girls 200 Free Relay - Bailey swam on the D relay in this event (see comment above about spreading talent). However, out of the 16 girls that swam the event, Bailey had the 3rd best split. Moreover, she came from behind in the anchor leg to have her relay beat the C team.

Bailey has really swum well this season despite the lack of training. In fact, I truly believe that had things gone differently last year, and her health/luck had held up, she'd be looking at some really strong personal best times to close out her career.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth - County Championship @ CAC - 1/25

The twins have the county championship this weekend. It's a prelim/final meet and it will take ALL DAY, as they also pause to honor the seniors for all the county high schools during the last regular season meet of the year.

Bear - will return to action in this meet. No idea what to expect. He's been grinding through practices, but I don't expect he's in peek shape or form given he's been mostly pulling for a while. He's scheduled to swim the 200 IM and the 500 Free. He'll also start out on B relays, but if his splits are good the coach is expected to move him to the A relay for finals (though I must admit, I'm not sure she's allowed to do that at this event - but we'll see how it plays out. It'll be interesting regardless)

Bailey - her career is winding down rapidly. Given she's really not practiced much in the past few weeks, I have no expectations for her in this event. I haven't gotten confirmation on what she'll be swimming, but I'm pretty certain the 100 fly will be one of the events. My guess would be the 100 back for the other, but it could be anything from the 200 IM, to the 200 free, or the 100 or 50 frees as well. Also not sure what relays she'll be on...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Breeze

Also not sure what relays she'll be on...

That's okay, the coach probably isn't either.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth - County Championship - RESULTS


Bear - coming into this meet, the boys from Swim Atlanta started talking and they decided that they were going to win every event except the 200 IM, which they knew Daniel Gallagher (Dynamo & committed to Dartmouth) would win. They also thought they'd go 1-2 in all the other event, except the 100 Back, which was Gallagher's second event. As it turns out they were close. Gallagher did win the 200 IM, but he also won the 100 back by .05 seconds.

PRELIMS

#1 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - as I expected, the relays were locked at the prelim, so if Bear had swum on the B, he wouldn't be allowed to move to the A relay. So the coach made the switch and Bear swam the Free leg. When he dove in, he was trailing in his heat, but he came from behind to out-touch the Denmark High School's A squad. According to the results he split a 23.20, which seemed slow, but given he'd been out with the ankle, who knows. The team finished the prelims in second place.

#5 200 Yard IM (2:06.39) - Bear came into this event seeded with his high school best time...and the race was pretty pedestrian. He only managed to pose a 2:10.78, which for me was a cause for concern. I felt that he was struggling because he hadn't been able to practice effectively for the past few weeks and he wasn't in shape to race, and my real fear was the 500 was going to be a struggle. His performance was good enough to make the A final heat as the 8th seed.

#15 500 Yard Freestyle (4:51.40)- unlike the rest of the races on the day, the 500 was a timed final, so Bear would only have to swim it one time. He was going to need a good swim in order to uphold his part of the Swim Atlanta plan to finish 1-2. He wasn't going to challenge South and Swim Atlanta teammate Jake for the win, but if he didn't swim well, he could easily lose to 3 or 4 of the other swimmers who were coming in with times just over 5 minutes. Bear opened with a strong 55.69, which is a typical start time for him when he's tapered. He followed that up with a sub 60 split followed by one fractionally over 60. Then another fractionally over 60, and it was obvious that barring a major collapse he was going to finish 2nd. He closed with just under a 1:02, which could have been because of fatigue, or it could also have been partially because he was going to finish second regardless of his time so there was no reason to push any harder than that. Bear finished in a 4:58.76, which was a great swim under the circumstances. It far exceeded his performance during his taper meet at State back in December. In fact, this swim gives me hope that he may be about to turn the corner on his rebuilt stroke. It also made me reconsider the swim in the 200 IM. Given his strong race here, at this point I assumed he took it easy in the first race to save himself for this one.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Freestyle - B team - no idea why the coach left Bear on the B relay here. I don't have a problem with him not being on the A in the 400 free, the 4 swimmers in that relay performed well, and arguably all swam as well or better than Bear. My frustration is that she didn't move him to the A team on the 200 Free Relay, where Bear could have improved the team's time by around 1.5 seconds. Anyway, Bear's group finished 4th overall and was the fastest B relay in the race, but only the top relay for each school makes it back to finals, and that was South's A team, which was 2nd after prelims. Bear apparently split a 52.10.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FINALS

#1 200 Yard Medley Relay - A Team - one of the teams that came into finals swimming slower than South clearly sandbagged the prelims, as they posted a much faster time, and the Denmark team that Bear caught from behind in prelims was too far out front this time around so South settled for 4th. Bear's split was clearly recorded incorrectly as it was listed around 20.7...Bear believes it was around a 22.1...

#5 200 Yard IM (2:10.78) - it became obvious pretty early that Bear had been conserving his energy in the prelims. His fly leg was almost a second faster, and the back was about 2 seconds faster. His only weak leg, based on his really peak performances was the free, which probably indicates some fatigue from the day and the ankle recovery. He managed to improve to 5th overall and he posted a high school best time of 2:05.60, beating his seed time from prelims by about a second.

[Breeze]

South Forsyth - County Championships - RESULTS

Bailey - Bailey's career is winding down, and she's absolutely read for it to end. She really hasn't practiced at all in the last month, so I had not expectations coming into this event. In fact, I was just watching intently knowing that it would be one of the last times I get to see her race.


PRELIMS

#2 Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay - B Team - Out of the 7 teams that were present, South's B relay was the second B to finish and 6th overall in prelims, so not bad. Bailey's split was a 29.21, which is a bit slower than she was swimming earlier in the season, but given the lack of practice mentioned above that wasn't surprising.

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM - This is where Bailey's history hurts her. She was a very good 200 IM swimmer for South for 3 years so the coach continues to put her in this event despite Bailey requesting the 100 back and despite the fact her results indicate that she tends to run out of gas in 200 yard swims. She had a decent swim under the circumstances finishing in 2:27.86, and making the A final as the 10th seed. I was extremely impressed that she managed to make the A final, given the lack of pool time.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Fly - Earlier in the year Bailey had been able to maintain her typical 1:04 mid swims in this event, but recently she posted a 1:05, so that's what I was expecting, and it was a good projection as she logged a 1:05.57. This was good enough for 14th seed a spot in the B final.

#18 Girls 200 Yard Free Relay - B Team - In prior meets, when several of the year round girls are missing due to swimming in other meets, I've noted that the coach had Bailey in the wrong relays. However, with everyone present, she had Bailey exactly where she belonged. She anchored the B and managed a 28.31 split. The 5th fastest time for all South relays, behind the 4 girls swimming in the A group, and honestly, even Bailey's PB wouldn't have been as fast as the 4 other girls.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FINALS

#6 Girls 200 Yard IM (2:27.86) - Bailey came into finals seeded 10th. The race started and her fly was about .3 slower than the morning, but then things changed. She was much faster in the back, a little faster in the breast, and slightly faster in the free as well. She ended up improving on the time from the morning by going 2:26.22, and she moved up to 9th place. This was on heck of an effort, and it showed how competitive she is, as she picked up the effort in finals and battled the girls around her.

#12 Girls 100 Yard Fly (1:05.57) - In finals, like in the 200 IM, Bailey picked it up...she raced the girl next to her and brought it home in 1:04.59. I was sitting next to her former coach Andy during the race, and he was absolutely blow away with her form and effort. He flat out stated that had she been training, with that form, she'd be looking at posting some extremely fast times. That was bittersweet to hear, because it's been my feeling all season. I really felt that after her strong finish to 2018 that she was headed for a big 2019, but circumstances stole that from her.

Bailey now has just 1 swim left before she hangs up her goggles, and to be honest, I'm struggling a bit. It's really odd, I didn't have this same feeling about my athletic career coming to an end, and no one else I knew did either. However, the one big difference is - we all bounced from sport to sport as the seasons changed, so stopping was expected at the end of every season. I was never dedicated to a single purpose the way she has been to swimming, and watching that come to an end is tough. It's also, I guess, a sign that she's growing up and moving on and that one, though inevitable, is tough to swallow as well. In Bailey's final swim, she'll represent South in the 100 Fly at the high school state meet.

[Breeze]

High School State Championships @ GaTech - 2/8-9

The state meet is coming up this weekend and while I'd love to provide some insight, unfortunately, things are a bit messy. I know I've mentioned many times previously that the coach is lazy and doesn't put much effort into this (heck, she forgot to invite one of the senior swimmers to the senior banquet). I've commented how she's had the wrong people in the wrong events consistently over the last couple of years, and it was worse this year. Things were so screwed up that she actually had Bear scheduled to swim the 200 free at state, which would be fine, except for the fact that Bear only participated in 2 meets during the season and he didn't get the 200 free cut, so he was ineligible to compete in that event. We weren't going to say anything about it, until another swim mom mentioned that swimming in an event where you aren't eligible could impact your NCAA eligibility, at which point we got the event updated to the 200 IM. Also, because she continually screwed around with the boys relays, she never had her top swimmers compete in all of them, so now Bear isn't even allowed to compete in the 200 Free Relay at state because he didn't swim it during the season. That would be fine, but 3 of the other top swimmers on the team didn't swim in the 200 free relay either, so she has too many kids qualified in the 400 free relay and not enough good swimmers in the 200 free. It's a disaster, but it's out last one, so I'll just grin and bear it.

Bailey is down to her last swim, and it was touch and go as to if she was going to be one of the 4 swimming. As it turns out, she's the last representative for the team in that event. Honestly, I don't think she would have cared if she was removed. She's definitely over swimming. In fact, she's still not practicing. In fact, rather than try to get in a little bit of shape heading into her last swim, she's decided to increase her hours at work to make more money. I wonder if it will impact her at all when she knows she's finished, and if so when?

[Breeze]

Georgia High School State Championships @ GaTech - 2/7-8

The psych sheet has been released, so I now have some answers...here is a breakdown of what will be happening this weekend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Fly (1:02.40) - This is Bailey's last competitive swim , and she comes in seeded 45th with her high school best time of 1:02.40. That time was swum last year at state and was before all the problems with concussions, mono, etc., and was right when she was really swimming well. Unfortunately, this year she's been disinterested most of the season, and completely absent from the pool over the last month or so, which means she won't come anywhere close to her seed time. In fact, she might struggle to actually make the state cut time of 1:05.00. Honestly, if she can beat the cut time, she will have done a nice job.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (4) - Bear will be on the 200 Medley Relay for the team, in the free leg. The rest of the team consists of Riley in Back, Sree in Breast, and Jake in Fly. This is undoubtedly the strongest line up she can field, but it's really irrelevant because they are seeded 34th in the state and even with great swims across the board, they aren't likely to move up into the top 30, and they'll be no where near a scoring spot.

#5 Boys 200 IM - (2:07.36) - Bear comes into this event seeded 60th, but I have no idea where this seed time comes from. His high school best in this stroke was during finals a few weeks back at the county championship where he swam a 2:05:60. His best prior to that was a 2:06.39, which was his seed time for this event at the county meet. Where 2:07+ comes from is anyone's guess and a perfect illustration of my frustrations with the coach. Very little effort would have turned up the correct times. In fact, the computer system should have the times in the database, and if it doesn't it's because the coach screwed something up. Bear's real personal best is 1:59.69 from earlier this year swimming with SwimAtlanta. I don't expect him to hit that time in this event, but for point of reference, that would be good enough to seed him 21st.

#15 Boys 500 Free - (4:51.40) - Not sure where this time comes from either, but it currently has him seeded 19th. It's not his high school best time, that would be last year's State meet swim of 4:48.84. In fact, it looks like the entry seed time from the 2018 state meet, which he beat that year with a swim of 4:51.17. So again, I'm scratching my head over where the coach gets the seed times from. Given that I posted his times from 2019 and 2018, I figured I'd post his freshman time as well...he swam a 5:03.10 back in 2017. Most recently, he posted a 4:58.76 at the county meet, and he said it nearly killed him. He's got a little taper going right now, so hopefully he'll post a high school best time to wrap up his individual swims for South. His true personal best time of 4:41 would be good enough to get around 6th...but that's a tough ask.

#23 Boys 400 Free Relay - Bear, Sree, Jake, and Ben will combine to swim the South 400 Free Relay. The team is seeded 28th, and they will need good times from all 4 to hold on to that spot.

[Breeze]

General Update

The ODAC Conference Championships was this past weekend. I kept an eye on the results out of curiosity. Turns out Brett's times held up quite well (in fact his team record 400 IM time wasn't broken). I'm still disappointed (for him as much as for me) that he wasn't able to go back and continue his strong run in the pool.

[Breeze]

Georgia High School State Championships - RESULTS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bailey

#12 Girls 100 Fly (1:02:40) - Bailey came into this swim seeded with a 1:02.40 time, but I'm not sure where that time came from. Originally, I though it was her best high school time, but a little research during some down time at the meet indicated I was way off on that. Her personal best high school time is a 1:00.78 from last year's state meet, when she posted her 3rd fastest time ever, despite missing several weeks just prior with a concussion. The truth of the matter was, because Bailey had pretty much stopped swimming at the end of December, her times in this event for the season were actually, in order: 1:04.52, 1:04.96, 1:04.97, 1:05.66, 1:05.57 (county prelims), 1:04.59 (county finals). With a couple of extra weeks out of the pool, the wife and I weren't expecting much. In fact, we debated on if she'd actually beat the state cut time of 1:06.00. The race started and Bailey opened with a strong 28.88. So strong she was only around .4 slower than last year. She closed out the second half of the race with a 33.93, and posted a time of 1:02.81. I was completely blown away with this effort. This is so much faster than she had gone all season, even in year round swims she never beat a 1:04 high, and yet in her last race ever she steps up and beats her season best time by almost 2 seconds. I was happy she went out with a good swim, and given the strength of this performance, I'll always wonder what might have been...if not for mono and back pain.

[Breeze]

Georgia High School State Championships - PRELIM RESULTS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (34) (1:45.65) - The meet started with the 200 Medley Relay, and Bear combined with Riley (back), Sree (Breast), & Jake (Fly) to swim a 1:41.94, which was a big improvement over the seed time, and it was better than the 1:42.53 time they posted at county (why that wasn't the seed time is beyond me). The improvement was good enough for the team to move up from 34th seed to a tie for 23rd and to make it back in the C finals. Bear split a 22.8, which he wasn't happy about...

#3 Boys 200 IM (2:07.36) - Bear swam 4 strong legs, the fly was 26 low, the back was 31 low, the breast was much better than what he had been swimming at 36 high and he closed with a 28 low free. He not only improved on the seed time (which again, I'm not sure where it came from), but he also improved on his 2:05.60 high school best time from county finishing in 2:02.83. This is his 3rd best time ever in this event, and even a personal best time might not have been good enough to make it back to finals.

#15 Boys 500 Free (4:51.40) - This was an extremely disappointing swim for Bear. He was able to slightly better his county time, but he didn't come close to his high school best time of 4:48...he finished in 4:57.45. His form looks so much better, I'm pretty confident that he's starting to turn the corner on the distance swims. I strongly believe his struggle here was due to missing time with the ankle injury. He basically missed all of winter training, then had several weeks of modified practice, which means he was far from peak shape. I'll be interested to see how he does in these events in long course. Fingers crossed my assessment is accurate. I really want to see him start dropping in these events again.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Free Relay (28) (3:28.69) - The team's seed time was close to their actual time at county, only off by .2 seconds, so at least this one made some sort of sense. The team was seeded 28th, so they'd need a good swim to make it back to finals. Bear combined with Jake and Sree from the Medley and Ben to post a 3:19.38, which moved them up to 16th heading into finals. Bear split a 50.6, which was pretty good...he wanted to go sub 50. This time not only got the team into the B final, it moved them to within .54 seconds of the South Forsyth High School team record in this event.

[Breeze]

Georgia High School State Championships - FINALS RESULTS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We awoke Saturday to snow...and not just a little snow. In fact, before it was finished the snow was piled over 4" on top of the cars in the driveway. Interestingly though, it wasn't really snowing down at Tech where the meet was scheduled to take place. This created some serious problems and a good bit of doubt about how/if the meet was going to take place. Pretty early on, Forsyth County schools announce that they would not be providing buses. In addition, they stated that if the meet was going to take place, and students were planning to attend, they needed to have a parent drive them (not exactly sure how they expected to enforce this...). For a while there was apparently some discussion by the meet organizers about rescheduling the finals, but I'm pretty sure there were very few days available given the time of the season, so they elected to proceed. Ironically, South's coach lined up her own bus, but Bear wasn't thrilled with the prospect of riding in a bus on icy roads without any seat belt. I wasn't overly comfortable with that arrangement either, so I took him. Ultimately, as is often the case around here (until it's not of course) the roads were no problem and the whole thing ended up being much ado about nothing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bear

#1 Boys 200 Medley Relay (1:41.94) - In finals the South team was able to better their time from prelims a day earlier. They posted a 1:41.36. A majority of this improvement was Riley in the back leg. He went .7 seconds faster at finals...Sree was about .1 slower, Jake was about .3 slower, and Bear was about .3 faster posting a 22.59 split. Better but again, not as fast as he wanted to go. He was hoping to be in the 22 low range. Ultimately the team finished 16th in the 7A classification.

#23 Boys 400 Yard Free Relay (28) (3:19.78) - While making the B final and qualifying 16th in prelims was a nice accomplishment, they weren't going to move into the top 3 to receive a medal, and any points they earned weren't really going to impact the overall standings for South...the real important aspect of this swim was the team record. The race started with Jake going slower than he did in prelims, adding almost .6 seconds. Bear followed him by more than erasing the deficit Jake created, dropping .65 seconds and finishing at a split of 50.01 (he was frustrated he didn't break 50...). Ben went 3rd again and he absolutely blitzed his swim, dropping almost an entire second. Sree, the anchor posted a strong 48.64 in prelims so the team needed him to at least be close to that in order to get the record. He ended up posting an amazing 47.49 - so the team not only got the record - they crushed it - finishing in 3:17.16, which was also good enough for 10th in 7A.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OVERALL STANDINGS

South Forsyth Girls - 11th
South Forsyth Boys - 17th

[Breeze]

General Update - High School Swimming

We have an interesting situation developing for the high school swim banquet. We got an email from the coach regarding lettering, and she included the requirements for a swimmer to achieve the goal. There are a number of things swimmers must do, including: practice minimums, attending meets, and some performance based minimums. Here is why things are interesting:

Bear - with Bear's ankle injury he was unable to meet the practice requirements, which given the injury is probably excusable. However, because he wasn't able to compete he didn't go to several of the meets, which the coach may view as unexcused, and thus she could decide he doesn't meet the standard for a letter.

Bailey - in Bailey's case the problem is more fundamental. Bailey missed several meets with year round swims, and also with sickness (again probably excused). However, due to her limited number of meets, and quitting the year round practices she only managed to get 1 year round time. So she fails to meet the 2 cut minimum.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm not really sure how the kids will take it if they aren't granted their letters. Neither of them wear their letterman jackets, but they both understand the achievement aspect of getting the letter and they both want to be 4 year lettermen. We will see what happens...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Breeze

We will see what happens...

Given the apparent administrative acumen of the current coaching, I'd be a little surprised if 2019-20 letters weren't awarded to three non-swimmers, two alumni, and a person who happened to drive by during the banquet.

[Breeze]

Bear - College Swimming

If you'll recall, Bear really enjoyed Berry College when he visited, giving the team / school high score across the board. The one area where he was a bit hesitant was with the coach. He really didn't connect with Coach Flinchbaugh the way he did with the Roanoke, or even the Centre coaches.

Well, the Southern Athletic Association Championship Meet was this past weekend, and Coach Finchbauh won his second men's coach of the year award. He previously won for men in 2015-16, and he won for the women in 2017-18. I thought that was pretty cool and forwarded it to Bear, hoping it would alleviate any concerns he might have. He saw it, said it was pretty cool, and he admitted that during the visit, the other swimmers on the team all said he was a really good coach. Hopefully, this will just reinforce his feeling that he made a good decision.

[Breeze]

General Update - High School Swimming

The team banquet is tonight, and Bailey reminded us the other day that the email we received about lettering requirements was incorrect. Swimmers didn't need 2 state cuts times, but rather 2 lettering times, which she easily achieved. There are still the reservations around attendance that exist, but I'd be shocked if Bailey or Bear lost their letter over that.

[Breeze]

General Update - High School Swimming

The banquet was surprisingly well run last night. After the debacle of a banquet the previous year, the head of the booster club helped the coach design the presentations and the flow, which was a significant help.

The twins both received their letters (chevrons). Bailey got her state qualifier patch, and Bear got his State finalist patch. In addition, Bear was honored with Sree, Jake, and Ben for their record breaking 400 Free Relay.

After the presentation of the awards, the kids were asked to talk about their favorite memory from the last 4 years. Bailey's was clearly not her favorite memory, but was probably her most vivid one. She mentioned last year during the county championships when South won, one of her friends plowed into her and knocked her brand new cell phone (a Christmas present less than 2 months old) into the pool. Bear mentioned going out to eat with the team following the state meet last year.

The coaches then created some funny awards that they handed out to all the swimmers (except for the booster club president's daughter who was somehow overlooked). Bear's award was "Swimmer most likely to take the saying 'Break a Leg' too seriously", and Bailey got "Swimmer most likely not to go to graduation". I thought both were pretty clever and funny.

The kids also got a framed team photo that was signed by team members. It was a nice touch.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bailey

And with the completion of the banquet Bailey's career has almost certainly come to an end. Bailey is currently scheduled to attend South Carolina in the fall, where she'll be studying Cardiovascular Technologies. Given you've been following her for about 10 years now, I will try to remember to periodically post life updates so you'll know what she's up to.

[Breeze]

General Update

The twins got their copy of the journal. Bailey was surprised, but reserved. She wasn't feeling well when I gave it to her, and she retreated to her room, but later she came down to talk about it after Bear got his, and it was obvious she had read some of hers while she was laying down.

I wanted to wait to give Bear his when he finished swimming in college, but the wife pointed out that with Brett and Bailey both having their's, it was unlikely that Bear wouldn't find out about it before he finished swimming, at which point the surprise would be lost. With that in mind I gave it him and he was completely shocked...and he like Brett, started reading his page by page immediately. He had some good laughs almost immediately, and he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

By the way, Both of them quickly realized that you guys were following along, and they were flattered that you were interested enough to read about their efforts.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Only time in my life I've ever looked up swim meet results in my life - both HS and college -- which kinda sums it up I think.

It has been, sincerely, a privilege to follow along.

[rjolley]

I have enjoyed following along and feel like they are kids I coached or have interacted with personally. Thank you for sharing them with us.

[thealmighty]

Ditto to the above. This is, without question, my favorite thread. Sometimes I would check the Dynasty forum looking for any update and not even bother looking in the main forum. Thanks to you, and your kids, for lifting my mood each and every time an update was posted.

[Breeze]

2020 Speedo Southern Premier Meet @ GaTech - 3/6 - 3-8

This is a new meet for us, and it takes the place of the Sectional Meet that Gold attends. This is another southern limited field meet that requires strong times in order to compete.

Bear
Not really sure what to expect from Bear in this event. He's swimming much better than he has for quite a while, but the results are reflected more in his sprints than his longer events. My assumption is that the ankle injury that forced him to miss winter training is the underlying cause for the lackluster results in longer swims, but the sprints, being shorter, aren't as impacted by the missed training. Unfortunately, as you can see below, Bear has no sprint events in this meet - thus - not sure what to expect.

# 10 (d1/s2): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - I don't think he's going to touch his personal best. That's a really fast time and despite the better sprinting, I don't think he can match his 54.54 back half split from the PB swim. This year at state he posted a 55.90 back half...that's significantly slower and again, given the missed winter training, it's asking a lot.

# 36 (d1/s2): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59) - haven't seen him swim this in a while. After he posted this time, he became so focused on the freestyle swims that this race really took a hit. He struggled with backstroke form for probably over a year, and because he didn't race this, his breaststroke really fell off as well. When he's been swimming well he's still in the 4:23 range. I expect he'll beat that because back and breast are better, but I don't think it'll be good enough to go 4:11.

# 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - This is one he might be able to beat. It seems odd, given I don't think he can beat the 200 Free, but I believe there was more room for improvement here, and he's been much closer to his PB in his race recently. He posted a 1:59 & 1:58 in December which are his 2nd and 4th fastest swims in this event.

# 66 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Medley (1:59.69) - Got his personal best in this event in December, and swam a pretty strong 2:02 at the High School State Meet about a month ago, so he could post another PB here.

# 74 (d2/s5): B Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - I have to admit, I hate the fact the 500 Free ends Saturday and the 1650 is on Sunday...that's a lot of freestyle in a short turnaround period. The lack of winter training will probably hinder his performance here as he's not in peak shape, but he's definitely trending in the right direction. He was posting swims about 5 minutes at the start of the season, but his most recent were around 4:57...I think he'll beat that time, maybe even getting back into the 4:40s...but not low 4:40s.

# 82 (d3/s8): B Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - This one is another tough one to project. His personal best time was from a swim where his goggles came off on the dive and it took him several laps to get them re-seated and purged of water. That cost him a considerable amount of time, so clearly there is meat on that bone. However, with his lack of training over the Summer he struggled in this event in December posting a 17:08, and given the missed Winter training, I'm not sure we aren't headed for a similar result here.

[Breeze]

2020 Speedo Southern Premier Meet - RESULTS

Bear
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 1

# 10 (d1/s2): B Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - opened with a personal best 100 free time of 50.99, but the back half was way off his typical time coming in at a 58.37. So he posted a 1:49.36, which is disappointing considering he was in the 1:47s at State in December, but it also illustrated his improved sprints with the PB in the first 100.

# 36 (d1/s2): B Open 400 Medley (4:11.59) - it was over 2 years since Bear swam this event. He opened this race, like the last one with a personal best. This time in the 100 fly. he managed to go 55.08, which was almost 1 full second faster than his best 100 fly on record. The breast and back were ok, a little off his best, but still very solid, unfortunately, the free at the end was extremely weak. He only managed a 1:03. In his personal best swim he closed in a 54...That 9 seconds alone explain most of the gap between his PB and the 4:23.50 he ended up posting. Which ironically is within .18 of the time he posted the last time he swam this race.

At the end of the first day, Bear had a long chat with Coach Landon about his struggles. I still believe he's not ever gotten back into peak condition following the limited work Summer and the missed Winter training due to the ankle injury, however, he said he felt he was ready for this meet and he doesn't want to use injuries as an excuse any more. Coach thought some of it might be mental. That the struggles have created doubt, and that he could be much too tense which is causing him to burn through energy way to fast. I told him regardless of the cause, he needs to get back to having fun racing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 2

# 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - Given his strong fly to open the 400 IM, I felt my prediction that he might get a PB in this event was still in play. In the first 100, he bettered the 100 fly time he posted in the IM by going 54.71. He was a little off coming home but still managed to finish with a PB time of 1:56.45. I think he can cut another second or two when he's able to finish stronger. This swim was good enough to qualify for finals - so he was swimming it again later that evening.

# 66 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Medley (1:59.69) - Like the even above, his strong racing in the shorter events gave me hope that he might be able to get another PB. Strong swims all around, his fly was much stronger than his previous personal best over .6 faster. The back was exactly equally slower than than his previous PB...so at the half way point he was exactly on the same split. He was almost a full second faster in the breast this time, and while he was about .7 slower in the free it was still good enough to post a PB with a time of 1:59.41.

# 74 (d2/s5): B Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - Based on the 200 free, this one was going to be tough. He swam much better than he did at High School State a month earlier, but he still didn't approach his personal best. At one point I thought he'd get into the 4:40 high range as I mentioned as a possibility in the pre-race write up, but he came up short finishing in 4:51.30. This feels like a step in the right direction. It's 6 seconds better than his best high school swim, and 5 seconds better than his time from Short Course State in December.

FINALS # 50 (d2/s5): B Open 200 Fly (1:56.45) - In finals it was obvious early that he wasn't going to challenge his swim from the morning. It really wasn't all that surprising given his work-load, 200 fly, 200 IM, 500 free. His fatigue hampered him as he came home in 1:58.92. That's not a great time, but even tired it is better than he did at Short Course State, so hopefully, another indication he is moving in the right direction. During the meet, the wife and I were sitting with Bear's old coach Andy, and this brought up a discussion from him where me mentioned how Bear used to be able to swim the 1000 at the beginning of a meet, the 1650 at the end, and all the hard stuff in the middle with little impact. He said getting older and building more muscles makes that next to impossible anymore...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 3

# 82 (d3/s8): B Open 1650 Free (16:37.04) - After some discussion, Bear approached Coach Landon about changing his schedule for this day. Typically, Landon doesn't like to allow adjustments after the fact, but he said, given Bear's struggles with the longer frees, that it might be a good idea. So Bear scratched this one...

#98 (d3/s7): B Open 100 Free (51.04) - With Bear's strong free split to open the 200, and his relay splits in high school meets, I was pretty confident that he would get a PB. I was thinking a 50 low, maybe he might get a 49.9...I was wrong, he got a 49.29. This was a huge improvement, and like he mentioned, there were a bunch of mistakes in his turns that if he cleaned them up could drop him a good bit more.

#114 (d3/s7): B Open 100 Fly (56.40) - again, early 100 fly swims to open other events made the likelihood of a PB almost guaranteed, and he didn't disappoint. He swam a 53.33, over 3 second improvement on his previous PB time. And along with the 100 Free sprint, provided more confirmation that things are trending in the right direction.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following the meet, Bear was feeling much better about his swimming. He even approached Landon and said he wants to get this distance stuff fixed and that he wants Landon to coach him much harder. To really crack down on him until he works through whatever is holding him back.

[Breeze]

I know I mentioned it way back at the beginning of this thread, but swimming does have a way of creating blissful highs and crushing lows. Here is another example, courtesy of Corona, in case you didn't see it:

https://www.si.com/college/2020/03/1...ollege-seniors

[Breeze]

General Update - Covid 19

Figured I'd post this so it was on record.

The City of Cumming closed the aquatic center on Sunday (3/15), which forced the Gold swim club to stop training.

SwimAtlanta closed their facilities on 3/16, so Bear is currently not swimming. It will be interesting to see how he elects to try to stay in shape.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear is working out on his own in an attempt to say in shape. It's nearly impossible to replicate a swimming workout, but generally staying in good shape is going to be the key right now. Bear has some workout guidelines from the coach, but he's far exceeded those requirements. He's been doing some light weight/high rep lifting, tons of ab work, rowing machine, some stationary recumbent biking (though he hates this, feels it doesn't provide enough of a workout), and running. He's taken some time to figure out how he wants to work his running schedule, he's been taking it slowly to try and prevent getting shin splints. However, he now seems to have an idea of what he's going to do - he'll alternate long runs (was up to around 10.5 miles on 3/25) with shorter higher pace runs (4 miles today about 2 min/mile faster). He's contemplating some sprint work so he can run on grass to save his joints some. He's also planning to build to a half marathon. Will let you know if he accomplishes that.

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear had a rough senior year swimming for High School, as he missed all but around 2 meets due to the broken ankle injury he suffered with SwimAtlanta. However, he still received some pretty cool news. He was named to the Forsyth County News' All County Team. He was one of 16 boys chosen for the team...

https://www.forsythnews.com/sports/o...im-dive-teams/

We rarely check the local paper, so this got me wondering if he made the All County Team last year, given his results were pretty similar. Unfortunately, to see that article requires a subscription, and i don't think i'm going to do that. Plus Bear swam 3 relays last year so it's likely, given his only individual result was a 3rd place finish in the 500, it wasn't going to be enough to move the needle for recognition.

[rjolley]

Congrats, Bear!

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear did a half marathon yesterday (4/1) for training. Actually he ran 13.4 miles. He's a bit sore this morning, but he is currently in the process of getting today's workout in (albeit with no running).

[Breeze]

General Update - Bear

Bear's signing day was supposed to be Friday (4/10). At this point I expect there won't be one at all, and I'm going to be interested to see if he even get's the opportunity to compete this winter.