This week again showed us how persistence is a quality worth pursuing. We faced a team one third our size with few real races, it gave us an opportunity to swim some different events and lean on our less experienced athletes and we still had many who continued to reach new heights in their performance with some lifetime bests and two new records. As we finish up our dual meet season this week at Hamilton, it will be the continued hard work and persistence that propel this team toward the championship finish that we set as a goal at the beginning of the season.
We have also been facing some health challenges this week that have had a significant impact on our numbers. I want to continue encourage athletes to do the things that we know help keep us healthy. Wash hands, don't share drinks, etc., maintain some extra distance from others when you can, drink more water, eat healthy food, take some additional vitamins, GET EXTRA SLEEP. Obviously these don't guarantee health, but they certainly help.
GRITTY AWARDS - Two new Gritty awards and a couple repeats. Eli VanDuinen gets the first award for multiple reasons. First for listening to his coach . . . even though coach (me) was wrong about the additional 50 that Eli ended up swimming. Second, for a fantastic sub 7:00 swim in his first 500. Well Done! The second Gritty Award goes to Aidan Brinks. Aidan had a 1.5 second drop in the 50 and a nearly 3 second drop in the 100 Free. Great job Aidan. Finally, the last two Gritty's go to our two divers that teamed up for a new Sophomore record and a new Varsity Record. Charlie DeHaan's Sophomore record broke a record that has been around for 33 years. Though not as long on the board, Parker Schut's Varsity record is outstanding. A score over 300 points for six dives is a truly rare feat. Way to go boys!
Ready for Taper?
During the next two weeks, beginning on Wednesday, swimmers (Those not qualified for state) begin the taper portion of the season. Taper is that time of the year when workouts change. Yardage decreases while intensity and speed increase with the intent of preparing and "resting" the body for the championship portion of the season. If you want a little more detail about taper, here is a nice little article that explains it well.
Swimmers who choose to use tights, I suggest tights that are nylon and footless (hemmed at the ankle), NOT leggings like you might for outdoor running and NOT heavy "winter" tights. Tights are used to enhance drag during taper but heavy winter tights provide too much drag. The footless tights don't unravel during the two weeks or so of swimming with them on.
Conference Meet
We are HOSTING our Conference Championship February 28 and March 1.
Below is a schedule for that meet. I will update this as I get more information including school absence permission for the 28th, etc..
PRELIMS - Friday, February 28
- Swimming Preliminaries begin 12:00 p.m.
- Diving Preliminaries & Semi-Finals to follow the end of swimming prelims (3:00ish)
FINALS - Saturday, March 1
- Finals Begin (Swimming & Diving) 12:00 p.m.
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