I want to thank the boys for handling themselves better today than last Saturday.  Our team area was used sparingly as the boys were either behind the block getting ready to swim or at the shallow end cheering.  The cell phone use was almost zero, so thank you again for putting that away for a few hours.  There were also no missed events or DQs, although we did have a few swimmers with some close calls on relay takeoffs.  I also want to thank the boys for rolling with some changes as we had one boy absent from school which prompted changes during the day and then another boy needed to leave midway through the meet, prompting more changes and unfortunately a relay scratch.  These changes, and in some cases, the lack of a coach as I was solo tonight and also in charge of sort of being the meet host, could have made this meet a challenging one, but the boys handled it well.  After achieving our goals of sportsmanship/teammate support and no missed events, we also did a great job of shooting for personal bests, the last of our three main goals at each meet.

 

In our first event, the 200 Medley Relay, Tristan Litzenburg had a strong 2-second personal best breaststroke leg and Luke Levy, who has been playing JV squash and came tonight to help us out, swam a big personal best of 28.99, down from 30.16.  We could certainly use that 50 Free time in a few more of our meets!  In the 400 Crescendo Relay (50-50-100-200), we went 4 for 4 in personal bests, technically 5 for 4!  Fletcher Stephens led off with a 1/2 second personal best, followed by R.T. Upson's 2-second personal best and Chris Rauchle's big 14-second drop in the 100 Free leg of the relay.  Matthew Harte Hackney anchored this relay swimming the 200 Free for the first time ever.  Much like Max Dyshlevyi last week, Matthew swam a 100 Free personal best in the opening 100 en route to breaking 2:50 in the full 200 Free.  Those are great debuts for Max and Matthew in that event, something that could be their niche this season.  We did not swim a 400 IM relay, the only relay we did not have an entry, but we kept the personal bests rolling into the middle third of the meet.  The 200 Free Relay had 3 of 4 swimmers come within .5 seconds of a best time, with Luke once again anchoring with a solid time, just a few tenths from his PR earlier in the meet.  The 200 Butterfly Relay saw an almost 10-second improvement for Lowndes Peple, about a second for R.T., and a near PR for Tristan.  In the 400 Free Relay, Tripp Schnell led off with a 2-second best and Charlie Johnson anchored in a big 11-second best time.  We closed things out after the second break with the backstroke relay (3 guys went faster, but it does not count for a PR since they dove from the block) while Tristan, Atticus Morgan, and Max all had personal bests in the 200 Breaststroke Relay, with Charlie about a second away from his best.  There is nothing to compare to for the 100 relays, but it was just fun to watch these swimmers just let it rip for their 25-yard leg(s).

 

Scoring-wise, we have never lost this meet since we started it back in 2017 and this year's squad kept that tradition rolling with another big win, more than double runner-up St. Bridget with a score of 130 to their 58.  Beating 5 teams today pushes us to 11-0 on the season.  This big win was thanks to our numbers.  As much as it would have been nice to have Will, Burn, and/or Fletcher for the whole meet, I am proud of the boys for stepping up when needed.  We won 8 of the 10 events, finishing runner-up in the 200 Free Relay and not entering a 400 IM relay, and even went 1st and 4th in the final relay of the night (100 Free Relay).  We were the only scoring boys team in the 400 Crescendo, 200 Fly, and 400 Free Relays and won the 200 Medley, 200 Back, and 200 Breast relays each by 10 seconds or more.  Well done, boys!