Today's session took place at the Holland Aquatic Center. Its a place with a good history for Carthage swimming. Its where Nathaniel Chapman set our school record in the 100 back record' where, coach DeLaRosby won a swim-off to make top eight in the 50 at NCAA's. Today wasn't nearly as historic, but it was a day where we got better as a team. We worried a little less, dwelled less on the scoreboard and more on racing, made some noise, and swam faster. Every component building on the next, picking up speed as we went along.
Its slow typing here but some observations:
* Milers are coming into form. Bryan's 16:39 was more in line with expectations, Glover and Ross go lifetime bests 17:06 and 17:13 respectively.
* Great race in the 50. 0.15 separated 1st from 5th. Rip 22.2, Bax 22.6, 'Sic 22.8. Legs looked tired but we raced we'll.
* Backstroke - Bob P comes through with another great swim-55.5 is an unrested best. Chris, Pat and Kyle bring back good second halves of their race but weren't real quick on the front end.
* 200 Breast- much better showing than week's past. Stephen swam after a couple of weeks of resting a strained muscle. Alex brings home the back half to edge his little bro, Mike and Ben's timing and pullouts were much better while Chris put together an easy first 100 but had a little too much gas left.
* Fly - well-paced races tough Doug burned up the legs a little bit to fade at the end. Mitchell had a much-improved set of walls and it paid off, I feared Bax was going to fade and e looked like he was getting tight, but he muscled through.
* 200 Free, like the 50 was a dogfight with each guy swimming a different race. Rip couldn't match the early speed of the pack but he fought and fought and fought. Kyle and Stephen also didn't go out with the Kzoo sprinters and didn't have enough time to catch them. Issac swam the 2 free the way it should be swum-he redlined it the whole way but by doing little things right (in the race and everyday in practice) he didn't blow out the engine and was rewarded with a lifetime best 1:50.05.
*400 IM - Doug goes out 3 seconds faster than the field and then held on for dear life to finish in 4:27. Glover, Alex, Adam and Adam were all 4:38.
* We wrapped with a season-best 400 Free Relay 3:15.1. Rip and Blake got our 'A' and 'B' relays into the race, Bob Pellican popped out ?d best relay split of the year, going 47.9. Isaac made his 'A' relay debut with a LTB 48.5 split. Bax brought it home with a 49.4. Like his fly, he lacked the early speed, but brought it home well.
End result KZoo 191 Red Men 141, Hope 205 Red Men 109. Not the team scores we wanted, but I think last year's sweep gave us a false sense of how good we are. Today we left knowing we're going to be a team that gets better and better as the season goes on. We took that first step today.
Its slow typing here but some observations:
* Milers are coming into form. Bryan's 16:39 was more in line with expectations, Glover and Ross go lifetime bests 17:06 and 17:13 respectively.
* Great race in the 50. 0.15 separated 1st from 5th. Rip 22.2, Bax 22.6, 'Sic 22.8. Legs looked tired but we raced we'll.
* Backstroke - Bob P comes through with another great swim-55.5 is an unrested best. Chris, Pat and Kyle bring back good second halves of their race but weren't real quick on the front end.
* 200 Breast- much better showing than week's past. Stephen swam after a couple of weeks of resting a strained muscle. Alex brings home the back half to edge his little bro, Mike and Ben's timing and pullouts were much better while Chris put together an easy first 100 but had a little too much gas left.
* Fly - well-paced races tough Doug burned up the legs a little bit to fade at the end. Mitchell had a much-improved set of walls and it paid off, I feared Bax was going to fade and e looked like he was getting tight, but he muscled through.
* 200 Free, like the 50 was a dogfight with each guy swimming a different race. Rip couldn't match the early speed of the pack but he fought and fought and fought. Kyle and Stephen also didn't go out with the Kzoo sprinters and didn't have enough time to catch them. Issac swam the 2 free the way it should be swum-he redlined it the whole way but by doing little things right (in the race and everyday in practice) he didn't blow out the engine and was rewarded with a lifetime best 1:50.05.
*400 IM - Doug goes out 3 seconds faster than the field and then held on for dear life to finish in 4:27. Glover, Alex, Adam and Adam were all 4:38.
* We wrapped with a season-best 400 Free Relay 3:15.1. Rip and Blake got our 'A' and 'B' relays into the race, Bob Pellican popped out ?d best relay split of the year, going 47.9. Isaac made his 'A' relay debut with a LTB 48.5 split. Bax brought it home with a 49.4. Like his fly, he lacked the early speed, but brought it home well.
End result KZoo 191 Red Men 141, Hope 205 Red Men 109. Not the team scores we wanted, but I think last year's sweep gave us a false sense of how good we are. Today we left knowing we're going to be a team that gets better and better as the season goes on. We took that first step today.