Swim

[TU_BLA]

So I had been posting about my daughter's swim exploits on the Rivals site. She swam in a meet in Edmond this past weekend...lots of her favorite events (NOT). She swam the 400 Free and 1500 (mile) free. She qualified for the state meet in both cutting 21 seconds off the 400 (time was from a month ago) and she cut 3 minutes off her mile time and qualified for state by 35 seconds or so. Considering she absolutely hates freestyle and would prefer doing the fly or breaststroke, this was quite the accomplishment. Her coach doesn't understand her hatred of freestyle as she has said she's quite good at it.

She'll have 6 events at the state meet in 2 weeks (in Jenks). And she'll be on varsity as a FR at Union.

 

[Chris Harmon]

So I had been posting about my daughter's swim exploits on the Rivals site.

Those posts will EVENTUALLY make it over here. Taking too long, IMO, but just have to wait. Things will feel much more normal around here when all the historical posts and content make it over.

And congrats to your daughter!!

 

[TU_BLA]

Those posts will EVENTUALLY make it over here. Taking too long, IMO, but just have to wait. Things will feel much more normal around here when all the historical posts and content make it over.

And congrats to your daughter!!

Thanks...and she has become a beast in the pool. She got out of the pool after her mile swim the other day and she wasn't breathing hard at all. She was literally in the pool for 22 minutes straight. (By comparison, Katie Ledecky swims this event in under 16 minutes, so my daughter still has to find a way to cut 12 seconds PER 50 METERS to get anywhere close. She said her next goal is to make the Oklahoma HS state meet next March. In order to do that she has to be in the top 24 statewide in a given event. Right now her best bet is the 200 IM where her club team time would have placed her 22nd (as a 13 year old).

High school does some weird stuff because they simply don't have the volume of events and swimmers are limited to 2 individual events and 2 relays per meet. (competitive you get 3 events per day plus a relay), so for a 3 day meet you could swim 12 total events. High school also doesn't do any 200M events. All 50s, 100s, and the 500 Free. I think they do have the 200IM and maybe the 400IM. Which might not be the greatest for my daughter...she doesn't necessarily like the sprints and is more of a middle to long distance swimmer and she's able to keep her pace later in races better than a lot of swimmers this same age.

 

[TU_BLA]

My daughter will have 6 individual events this weekend and 3 relays (we think 3). Her individual events will be the 1500M Free, 400M Free, 200IM, 400IM, 200M Backstroke, 200M Breaststroke. Mile swim is Thursday evening and then she has 2 events on Friday morning and 3 events on Saturday morning. Likely add 1 event to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday AM sessions for the relays which are typically the 1st events out of the blocks. She will have a chance to make finals in the 400IM, 200M Breaststroke and 200M Back.

 

[TU_BLA]

1st event on Thursday was the mile swim (1500M) freestyle. My daughter dropped another 30 seconds and with this time she’s already qualified for 15 and up state when she reaches that age…in another year.

Today she swam a leg in the 400M free relay and dropped 3 seconds off her previous fast 100M free time. She also swam a 400IM and dropped about 15 seconds off that and then she swam the 200M breaststroke and dropped some time off that (when converted from a short course yard time which her qualifying time was). Shes in the B-final for the 200M breaststroke tonight.

 

[lawpoke87]

1st event on Thursday was the mile swim (1500M) freestyle. My daughter dropped another 30 seconds and with this time she’s already qualified for 15 and up state when she reaches that age…in another year.

Today she swam a leg in the 400M free relay and dropped 3 seconds off her previous fast 100M free time. She also swam a 400IM and dropped about 15 seconds off that and then she swam the 200M breaststroke and dropped some time off that (when converted from a short course yard time which her qualifying time was). Shes in the B-final for the 200M breaststroke tonight.

Trying to follow your “swim” posts and learn as I go. Is the B-final the equivalent to the silver bracket in a soccer tournament?

 

[TU_BLA]

Trying to follow your “swim” posts and learn as I go. Is the B-final the equivalent to the silver bracket in a soccer tournament?

It is, the top 16 advance. Places 9-16 swim in a B-final and the top 8 swim in the A final. If you are 9-16, you can place no higher than 9th for the team points stuff. Top 3 from the A final are your 1st,2 nd, and 3rd place podium finishers.

For ages 13-14, they don't swim 400M events twice in a day. So everyone who qualifies for the event will be placed in heats and they'll swim the 2 slower heats (based on qualifying times) in the AM session and what they call the "fastest heat" in the evening. Your time in those events determines your placement for final standings. For instance, on Saturday AM my daughter swam the 400M free along with 2 of her teammates and 5 other girls in heat 2 (the slower qualifying times). My daughter cut 12 seconds from her entry time (which was recorded 2 weeks ago). Her 2 teammates cut 27 seconds each (that was just ridiculous) and because they went so stupid fast in this race, they ended up actually finishing 7th and 8th respectively.

In all, my daughter had a good meet. She cut time in every event and made at least 3 more 15+ state qualifying times. She's also maybe a second or two away from recording some "A" standard times which will open her up to some more regional meets. Crazy thing is she could identify areas of her swims she needs to fix.

She swam the 200M backstroke on Saturday, in the AM and then as part of the B final in the evening. Both times she slipped off the starting block and so she didn't get the start she wanted. The AM slip wasn't quite as bad. The B final slip was brutal and she found herself behind the pack by 5 meters in the first 25. For anyone not familiar, the starting "block" for backstroke is a slat of plastic or rubber about 2 feet wide, 4 inches tall and 1/2" in depth. You're supposed to grip the slat with your toes. Well, when gearing up for that push back, her foot slipped. Anyway, she recovered nicely and finished 4th in the B-final and she really recovered well and she ended up cutting almost 4 additional seconds off her prelim time...and the time in the final would have actually qualified her 6th for the A-final.

Sunday she only swam the 50 back as the leadoff in the 200M Medley relay. She swam one of her fastest backstroke 50s to date. She's got some time off from swimming for about 3 weeks before the resume practices for short course. With that break, she's going to train for a mini Triathlon. Last year she finished 2nd in her age group of about 40. She's gunning for first this year as she has committed herself to actually do some running (she hates running...she can probably swim the mile faster than she can run one )

 

[lawpoke87]

It is, the top 16 advance. Places 9-16 swim in a B-final and the top 8 swim in the A final. If you are 9-16, you can place no higher than 9th for the team points stuff. Top 3 from the A final are your 1st,2 nd, and 3rd place podium finishers.

For ages 13-14, they don't swim 400M events twice in a day. So everyone who qualifies for the event will be placed in heats and they'll swim the 2 slower heats (based on qualifying times) in the AM session and what they call the "fastest heat" in the evening. Your time in those events determines your placement for final standings. For instance, on Saturday AM my daughter swam the 400M free along with 2 of her teammates and 5 other girls in heat 2 (the slower qualifying times). My daughter cut 12 seconds from her entry time (which was recorded 2 weeks ago). Her 2 teammates cut 27 seconds each (that was just ridiculous) and because they went so stupid fast in this race, they ended up actually finishing 7th and 8th respectively.

In all, my daughter had a good meet. She cut time in every event and made at least 3 more 15+ state qualifying times. She's also maybe a second or two away from recording some "A" standard times which will open her up to some more regional meets. Crazy thing is she could identify areas of her swims she needs to fix.

She swam the 200M backstroke on Saturday, in the AM and then as part of the B final in the evening. Both times she slipped off the starting block and so she didn't get the start she wanted. The AM slip wasn't quite as bad. The B final slip was brutal and she found herself behind the pack by 5 meters in the first 25. For anyone not familiar, the starting "block" for backstroke is a slat of plastic or rubber about 2 feet wide, 4 inches tall and 1/2" in depth. You're supposed to grip the slat with your toes. Well, when gearing up for that push back, her foot slipped. Anyway, she recovered nicely and finished 4th in the B-final and she really recovered well and she ended up cutting almost 4 additional seconds off her prelim time...and the time in the final would have actually qualified her 6th for the A-final.

Sunday she only swam the 50 back as the leadoff in the 200M Medley relay. She swam one of her fastest backstroke 50s to date. She's got some time off from swimming for about 3 weeks before the resume practices for short course. With that break, she's going to train for a mini Triathlon. Last year she finished 2nd in her age group of about 40. She's gunning for first this year as she has committed herself to actually do some running (she hates running...she can probably swim the mile faster than she can run one )

Appreciate the education. At least now I will have a bit of a clue as to what I’m reading. Good luck to her in the mini triathlon. Quite the accomplishment.

 

[TU_BLA]

My daughter won the girls 10-13 division of the St. Francis Mini Tri on Saturday. She improved her time from last year by over a minute and won over the 2nd place finished by 27 seconds. She also finished 3rd overall when you include the boys. Pretty proud of her. The swimming part is the easy part for her but she doesn't do much on a bike these days and she put in some work running the last couple weeks to prep for this as she hates running but knows it's a necessary part of training for this and her pom team will do some running for conditioning.

Interesting thing...one of her good friends finished 2nd. They're both competitive swimmers but her friend also runs cross country for Bixby. The 3rd place finisher also swims at Bixby JH and the Bixby Swim Club team...and coincidentally she and her family visited our church yesterday and she ran into my daughter. Pretty fun.

All these girls age out of the competition. My daughter turns 14 later this week and her friends turn 14 in September. The Bartlesville Y sponsors a triathlon every year where the swim is an 800M swim, I think it's a 10 miles bike ride, and the run is a 5K. Told my daughter she should think about doing it just for that cross train.