This meet seemed to have it all from a few breakout swims, to another entry on the record board, to some not-so-glamorous moments.  Hopefully we can iron out the latter in the coming weeks so we are running on all cylinders for the championship meet at Holton-Arms on January 26th.

 

Both medley relay teams opened up the meet strongly for the Saints, with both teams beating their seed times by several seconds.  The A team took 3rd and the B team was the highest finishing B team of any school in 6th place.  Jake Kuhlen's breaststroke split on the A relay, along with Ethan Smith's backstroke and Alex Hatfield's freestyle splits on the B relay, were all breakout swims.  Jake broke 35 for the first time in the breast and Ethan dropped 2 seconds in his backstroke, while Alex dropped a whopping 2.5 seconds off his freestyle, crushing that 30-second barrier.

 

We took 4 of the top 7 spots in the 100 IM with everyone about a half second off of their personal bests.  Robbie Joyner was our highest finisher in 2nd.  Carter Perkins also took a 2nd place, as he had a close battle in the 50 Free.  His time of 25.03 now puts him as the owner of the fastest (24.58) and 2nd fastest middle school times ever.  That means another entry on the record board for him.  We had 2 more in the top 10 with Ethan in 8th and Alex in 10th, once again breaking 30.  Bennett Long almost broke 30 and Bowen Hall had over a 2-second personal best, making it a strong 50 Free for the Saints.  Our last event before the break was the 50 Fly, and Jack Nystrom was our only finisher, just a half second from his best time.

 

Following the break, the 100 Free brought some more breakout performances.  Bennett dropped 4 seconds from 1:12 to 1:08.  Alex and Bowen each swam their first ever 100 Free and both crushed their seed times.  Bowen, who swam a 1:34 during time trials in November, clocked a 1:17.98, obliterating that seed time and swimming a "negative split" (his 2nd 50 was faster than his first 50).  Alex also crushed his seed time of 1:20 with a 1:08 in a very evenly swum race (.16 difference between splits).

 

Much like the 100 IM, we filled up a lot of the top spots with Saints in the 50 Back (4 in the top 10).  All 5 swimmers dropped time with Aaron Mansfield and Jack Nystrom dropping a little bit while Ethan, Teddy Price, and John Wishnack each dropped about 2 seconds.  The 50 Breast brought our only win of the day as Jake once again dropped some substantial time in the event (over a second) in a very tight race with two Cougars.  We took 3rd and 5th in the 200 Free Relay to end the night, with a lot of excitement from the B team as it was their goal to break 2:00.  Thanks to personal bests by basically everyone (including a first ever sub-30 from Nathan Parker), they clocked 1:59.35.  The C team took 10th with John earning a personal best split and Aaron anchoring in a huge 3-second personal best!

 

As you can see, there were plenty of positives at this meet.  However, there was a lot that could have been executed a bit better.  We had 2 DNFs (did not finish), which has never happened in my 13 years of coaching this team.  We always need to find a way to keep going, no matter the challenge, so I hope we can get through the last few meets without a DNF.  On top of those, we had a DQ and a few almost DQs (based on what I saw).  In addition, we could use some turn and finish work in our 50 Free and 50 Back swims.  I hope to focus on these aspects in the coming weeks of practice so we can work out these kinks before our championship meet.

 

When it was all said and done, the Collegiate boys emerged victorious 321 to our 297.  We were well ahead of Veritas and St. Edward's who tied with 205 and we still earned a 9-1 record on the day, pushing us to 20-1 on the season.  Believe it or not, we have not lost a meet since the Candy Cane Meet in December 2016 (a meet we were missing our two best swimmers).  Sure, having those DNFs and DQs back (not to mention avoiding the bad luck of JAC Borich's hand injury at school on Thursday) may have made the difference, but that should not be our concern.  I did not make that lineup to try and win the meet.  I made that lineup to try and get boys in events I wanted to see them in one more time before the championship meet.  That meant new events for some and events that boys haven't swum since the intrasquad meet in November.  Bottom line, we could have won, but we didn't, so let's move on and focus on the only meet we do care about winning during the season!  I said back in December that Collegiate would be tough to beat at Champs, and I still think that is going to be the case in two weeks.  My hope is that we can outwork them the next few weeks and earn a ton of personal bests up at Holton-Arms.  If we do that, I think we can win, and if we don't, we will certainly be pumped about all the personal bests!