December 22, 2011

 

Thanks to all those who attended our Bloomington weekend.  I thought it was another wonderful weekend.  The majority of team swam exceptionally well and all of the extracurricular things the team did sure made for an enjoyable out-of-town weekend.  A special thanks to Stephanie Sutphin for setting up our Zagreb’s dinner and happy hour.  It would be very hard to replace this meet on our schedule; the pool is so nice, the meet is run very efficiently, there was good competition for practically all of our swimmers, and Bloomington is a nice town – other than their basketball team. 

 

With the progress from each of our first two meets, in October and November, it’s also hard to not be thrilled with our results from this weekend.  A meet like this, with so many faster swims, makes it difficult for a few who didn’t fare too well, but this usually happens in any given weekend.  H.A. had five swimmers who had perfect weekends, with personal best times in each of their events: Haley Ramsey, Emily Peck, Michael Peck, Isaac Rowe, and Emma Stephens.  We also had 10 swimmers who had all lifetime bests in each event except one, and often this one event barely missed: Clay Caneer, Jackie Bullock, Shelby Wells, Tucker Carr, Holly Smith, Annelise Espinosa, Anna Smiley (missed by only .02 in a measly 50 Free), Mikala Flaugher, Trent Mattingly, and Noah Hall.  And, to give you a better idea of why this was such a successful weekend, here’s a list of swimmers who had all lifetime bests except for two swims.  When most of these participated in both of our first two meets, this is pretty good to have this many more best times.  Meredith Aker, Sydney Wells, Gavin Carr, Jenna Wells, Audra Ferrier, Harrison Webb, Carly Fugmann, Sydney Stephens, Maggie Patterson, Megan Goldthorpe, Chase Mattingly, and Claire Griffin. 

 

From these lists, my vote for “Swimmer of the Meet” would go to Emily Peck.  Emily did very well in our previous two meets and still had all lifetime bests.  But Emily truly has an exceptional attitude before and after her races.  Her upbeat spirit is rare, but I think a big reason why she practices and competes so well.  Two other noteworthy things to mention:  First, Trent Mattingly and Maggie Patterson each won high point awards and brought home some nice hardware from their exceptional weekends.  And, I was also so pleased with the performances of H.A.’s seniors in high school.  All four who attended this meet had lifetime bests – Trent, Haley Ramsey, Reid Allen, and Elliott Ferrier.  Elliott deserves a special ‘shout-out’ because of his tremendous team spirit and assistance/role model characteristics for the younger swimmers on the team – sure wish I had more with this type of spirit.    

 

Coach Chris is writing things down.  Here’s my Top 10:

 

#1) Harrison Webb – 200 Free.  Most of you understand my feelings about when a swimmer breaks a 1:00 for the first time in a 100 Free.  Breaking 2:00 in a 200 Free, of course, goes one step further.  Some swimmers practice well, some swimmers compete well, but a great swim is a great swim, regardless of the differences between swimmers.  In the last two years or so, it seems, Harrison has been named quite often in my post-meet newsletters.  His progress has been extraordinary.  This is another reason why this swim deserved to be #1.  It was the very last swim of the weekend, literally the last heat of the Sunday morning session, and Harrison still drops 4.48 seconds, from a 2:03.48 down to a 1:59.00.  ‘Unbelievable’ is the best description for this race.  Harrison’s 4.19-second drop in a 100 Fly, down to an amazing 1:01.42, would make this Top 10 list, as well.

 

#2) Maggie Patterson – 400 IM.  Those who were in the afternoon sessions got to see a tremendous athlete in the works.  But many of you missed her Friday night event, which happened to be my favorite of hers.  Maggie tossed in a 57.78 100 Fly, wow, breaking her own team record, and a 2.72-second drop in the 200 Breast, which broke an 11-year old team record (I called Kerr Carter in South Carolina to tell her this news).  Maggie also broke the team record in the 50 Free (Jenna Ballinger, last year).  But Friday night’s 11.72-second drop in a 400 I.M., I thought, was her most impressive race.  Trent Mattingly and Reid Allen also should be mentioned here, as they dropped 5.50 and 5.56 seconds respectively, too.    

 

#3) Claire Griffin – 50 Back.  Great results this weekend came from some who’ve been in many meets and others who’ve just started.  Although Claire is a new swimmer, her 9.11-second drop in her 50 Back, was pretty neat to see.  It’s nice to see younger swimmers make progress like this early on and Claire had another good weekend. 

 

#4) Jackie Bullock – 100 Breast.  This was a jaw-dropper swim.  Jackie is a 12 yr. old newcomer and you might expect her to show some nice progress.  But an 11-second drop in this 100 Breast was over the top.  As I’ve said in previous newsletters, I’m very happy with the new swimmers and families that H.A. picked up this fall.  Jackie is one of them, but I don’t remember her mom and aunts, uncles, and grandparents quite having a breaststroke like this!

 

#5) Tie between Mikala Flaugher and Chase Mattingly – 100 Free.  I really hope that most of you print out and save these newsletters and time charts.  If you do, go back and look at the chart that I e-mailed all of you and look at Mikala’s history of her 100 Frees.  She did it again and dropped another 1.26 seconds, down to a 1:01.76.  But Mikala ages up to the 13-14 age group in February and this time makes the 13-14 Girls State ‘A’ cut already.  Chase did the same thing.  Chase nearly had a perfect weekend and dropped 2.68 seconds in his 100 Free, down to a 1:00.80, which makes a 13-14 Boys cut when he ages up in late Jan.  These are pretty impressive results from both.

 

#6 Meredith Aker – 500 Free.  This is what we call a 3 in 1 best time.  Meredith dropped 19.21 seconds in this 500 Free, but also had a lifetime best in the 100 and 200 Free along the way.  This shows great improvement, of course.  Meredith’s good weekend was well-deserved.

 

#7) Clay Caneer – 50 Fly.  Clay, too, had a great weekend and, from previous meets and practice, I’ve been so impressed with his backstroke.  But Clay, having done the 50 Fly many times in the past couple of years, decides to drop 4.61 seconds in this one.  It was a great race and a beautiful stroke.  Now, on to the breaststroke…

 

#8) Sydney Wells – 200 IM.  I have always enjoyed watching a swimmer make progress in all strokes, especially when they start off pretty well with one stroke.  Sydney Well’s one stroke was the breaststroke, but this IM says that she’s not just a breaststroker anymore.  Sydney drops 6.26 seconds in this event and it looked very, very good.

 

#9) Drew Sutphin – 200 Breast.  As some swimmers practice more, and learn from previous meets, it’s so nice to see how they accept advice and swim a race a little differently.  Splits don’t lie; they give great data to work with.  Drew, who dropped a nice 4.44 seconds in this 200 Breast, split it perfectly.  Out in a 35., then the next three 50’s were 40.3, 40.7, and 40.4.  Based on the way Drew practices, and how often he practices, these results are perfect.

 

*The individual meet results will not accompany this newsletter just yet.  But when you get them, study them.  I tell the swimmers over and over again:  those who know their times, and especially the older swimmers who know their splits, make more progress than those who don’t.  Just do it.

 

#10) Michael Peck – 100 Fly.  Michael was one of those who had a perfect weekend, but I didn’t think it was too hard to pick out his best race.  A 4.64-second drop in a 100 Fly is pretty exceptional for a well-experienced 13 yr. old boy.  There was a 4 race/day limit at this meet and I left Michael out of the 200 I.M. in order to swim some of the others.  It’s a shame because he’s obviously becoming very balanced in all strokes and may become a tremendous IM’er.  Great meet!

 

Other swims “boxed” on my heat sheet – honorable mentions for the Top 10 would include:

Emily Davis – 200 Fly – 2:14.28.  Breaks a 16 yr. old team record!!!!  (Lyndsay Barnes, 2:14.79 – 1995)

Ania Lewis – 25 Free.  Wow, nice to have this newcomer look like this in her very first meet!

Gavin Carr – 25 Free.  Gavin breaks :20 and looked awesome here.

Reagan Carr – 25 Free.  Yes, H.A. is developing a very nice 8 & under division – says a lot for our future.

Nicky Rowe – 200 Free.  Drops 14.63 in the last event.

Emily DeLetter – 200 Free.  Drops 11.27 seconds.  Not bad for a breaststroker – see #8 above.

Courtney Younger – 500 Free.  Best 500 Free from the entire team this weekend!

Annelise Espinosa – 100 Free.  Drops 13.03 seconds.  Annelise has sure come a long way since her 1st USS meet back in late Feb. of this year!

Haley Ramsey – 100 Fly.  Made Haley lead off the 400 Free Relay doing fly and she breaks 1:00 for the 1st time ever!

Reid Allen – 100 Fly.  Breaks 1:00 in the 100 Fly for the 1st time, but skipped the 59’s, down to a 58.72.

Noah Hall – pick any one of his, but I’ll go with a 2.36-second drop in his 100 Back.

 

I’d also like to thank all of you for a wonderful Christmas party last night.  The food was plentiful and very good, the music was special, as always, and it was another special event in the life of our little team.  I’ve heard this comment from others I will whole-heartedly agree:  Bloomington and our Christmas party last night sure make me feel like we’ve got a great group of people.  I’m sure that my Christmas season would not be the same without last night’s party.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

 

Merry Christmas!