It was a very successful meet for us.  I love the team atmosphere produced by an all-relay meet.  The support from the boys for each other was certainly at an all-time high.  There was barely anyone over in the team area because they were either swimming or cheering.  After winning the inaugural relay meet last year over St. Edward's, 96-66, we blew them out of the water this year, 177-92.  Part of that was the addition of one event, the 100 Medley Relay, and also the addition of one extra event per swimmer (max of 4 this year compared to 3 last year).  However, the other part of that is the depth of this year's team.  We missed Aaron the meet before and he also had an injury during the week, but was able to go on Friday night.  And, even though we see Brandon going to Varsity practice every day when we finish middle school practice, it was great to see him back swimming with his fellow 8th grade classmates.  We look forward to him joining us again on January 26th for the championship meet up at Holton-Arms.

 

In addition to the big points record, the boys broke six meet records.  Sure, the meet is only two years old and one event was added and one was changed from last year, but six records out of ten events is pretty good no matter how you slice it.  The 200 medley relay team of Robbie Joyner, Jake Kuhlen, Brandon Moore, and Carter Perkins crushed the meet record by five seconds, logging the 4th fastest St. Chris middle school time ever.  This will be our medley relay team again up at Holton-Arms, so we look to shave off a little more time the next time this quartet gets together.  As one swimmer pointed out, Collegiate went two seconds slower than us at the Candy Cane meet.  Even so, it should be a great race with them up at Holton-Arms.  Jake had a great breast split, dropping over a second from his best time.  Carter dropped .01 off his free and Robbie and Brandon were right on their best splits in their respective strokes.  The B 200 medley relay also picked up 3rd place points for us as Bowen Hall led off breaking 40 in the 50 Back for the first time ever.  JAC Borich also had a personal best split on his breast leg.

The 400 Crescendo was dropped down from a 500 Crescendo in 2017.  The 150 was replaced with a second 50.  Alex Hatfield led off with a .7 second personal best in the 50 Free and somehow, after very minimal rest and a 50 Back personal best under his belt, Bowen also shaved .7 seconds off his best 50 Free time.  Teddy Price dropped .7 from his 100 Free and Ethan Smith was just a second off his best 200 Free time as he anchored the relay to a new meet record time, with no other team in sight.  The 400 IM relay was the only event we did not win on the day.  This year featured 9 wins out of 10 events, versus last year that featured only 2 wins out of 9 events.  Even so, this 400 IM team took 2nd place and it was a close battle, 5:06 to 5:15.  Splits were not in the results, so I will dig those up on Monday.

 

After the break, the 200 Free Relay team won by 6 seconds and broke 2:00 in the process.  We were only 3 seconds off the meet record too.  Alex, Jack Nystrom, and Robbie all had personal-best splits in this relay.  Then came the 200 Fly relay, an event that no boys team entered last year.  This year was close to that as we were the only boys team entered, which meant that we automatically got the win and the meet record just for swimming.  Despite those guarantees, John Wishnack and JAC each had personal best splits and Bennett Long and Nathan Parker were both just several tenths over their best times in the 50 Fly.  The final event before the second break was the 400 Free Relay, an event we dominated last year with a 3:58 clocking.  We once again gave the 4:00 mark a run, but just came up short by a few seconds.  Even so, we won by 28 seconds.  Brandon Moore anchored this relay in a blistering 54.94, a big personal best for him.  I liked seeing him swim aggressive in the first 50, basically swimming a personal best in the 50 Free, to open up his 100, and then hanging on well in the second 50 to earn that fast time.

 

We broke three meet records after the second break, dropping 3 seconds off of the 200 Back record, 10 seconds off of the 200 Breast record, and setting the record in the 100 Medley relay in its first year as an event at this meet.  That backstroke relay is always fun to watch as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th swimmers dive in on their stomach and have to rotate underwater onto their backs.  Obviously they all had best times thanks to that start, but we can't really count that for best time purposes.  That breaststroke relay was also a huge win, almost a full 50 ahead (28 seconds) of the next team.  And, although we missed the 100 Free Relay record by 5 seconds, we dominated those 100s taking 1st and 2nd in both the 100 medley and 100 free relays.  A shout out to Aaron Mansfield and JAC Borich for swimming in both the 100 Medley and 100 Free relays.  I know it is one length in each of this, but that was a quick turnaround.

And, another shout out to Bennett Long for having to swim a 50 Fly, 100 IM, and 50 Fly all within the first 8 events of the day, and then a 25 Fly at the end of the meet.  I would say he and his shoulders have earned a 50 Free/100 Free day at our next meet!