|
This meet was a great experience. It was really our first team travel meet that had the emphasis on competition as a reason for going.
The pool was very nice - two 8 lane courses with full scoreboards for both and a separate warm-up pool. One course was used for the age group meet, while the other was for the senior meet. It was an extremely well run meet, much like Far Westerns. The competition was really strong at both meets, perhaps a little stronger than I anticipated. There were many shaved and tapered swimmers competing that were making this one of their big meets of the year. After watching it all I can now see why.
Our hotel was a couple of blocks away - very convenient as well as being a nice place to stay. There were many restaurants in the area, along with plenty of shopping opportunities. The weather started out downright cold. The first morning of competition it was way too cold to swim fast. But by that afternoon it was nice and just kept getting better. It was shorts and sunburns by the last day.
In terms of results, we had sort of a mixed bag. While no one is coming home with their best meet ever, our racing was still solid. Highlights included Sally Bellinger making 3 finals including getting into one via a swim off (always exciting). Lexie Jordan continued her comeback by making a final. Stephanie Christofferson made 5 finals including a 2nd place finish in the 100 breast which was a new board swim. Stephanie also broke 1:00 for the 100 free for the first time, a notable achievement. Devon DeMont came home with 4 best times out of 8 swims.
Looking back on it (hindsight is such a wonderful thing), I would have prepared our swimmers more for what was in store for them. Normally you either practice hard through a meet or fully rest for it. We sort of split the difference and ended up in no mans land and a good reminder on what not to do. That being said, our swimmers competed hard and showed the toughness that I want to see from them. Mike and I were talking about how many great racers we have on our team. Very rarely do we see a swimmer not put 100% effort into a swim. When our swimmers do shave and taper for their big meet (along with those swimmers who didn't go but are training just as hard), I believe we will have some very fast swims. This meet was a great motivation for the Tuna coaching staff -- our expectations have once again been raised to a higher level.
Thank you to my pioneers who went this year. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
I look forward to taking a bigger and better prepared team to this meet next year.
Ken
|
