Day 3 finals and WSY swimmers are getting faster

Thanks to everyone for the emails and texts. All are very well received. Tonight, usually the shortest day of the meet, WSY swimmers were alive with great swims. Carly Munchel swam a lifetime best time in her 400 IM (results), 5th place (5:05.71). Carly swam the race as we like all 400 IM's which is negative split the backstroke, breastroke, and freestyle legs of the race. WSY was very well represented in the 100 free. On the women's side we had some fun as Steph and Claire tied for 9th, and Lauren got 11th (results). On the mens side, Kevin took his 100 out like a rocket, and swam to an 11th place finish (results). Adri Phillips was holding the points for the team in the 200 backstroke, where she bettered her prelim time. Adri finished15th (results). Lets not forget about the 50 butterfly where we had Harry and Eric ready for the "Butterfly Dash". In the 50 fly, it all comes down to timing of the finish. (Results) Eric was 13th and Harry was 2nd (same as his place in 2007).

Up next were the 800 free relays. This is the only relay where it is swum as "Timed Finals", meaning you only need to swim it one time. Girls were up first. The 800 free relay (Results) is very mental, meaning you never want to allow your relay to get too far behind the leaders as it is very hard to catch up. We chose to lead off with Leah as we knew we would get a lead. Peter from Spartansburg and I spoke with each other last evening and decided we would "show our cards" so we could both race against each other.....he led off with his fastest swimmer as well. This meant Leah had a shot at the Y National record (old record was 2:03.90). At the 100 when I saw her 100 time of 58.8, I thought she had a shot of breaking 2:00, which would be her best time by over a second, at the touch she was 2:00.22, a new National Record, PLUS a University of Maryland Pool record. Now it was up to Lauren, Emily and Claire to bring home the race, and they swam very well, and really worked as a team. In the end, WSY set a new National Record by 6 seconds. Congratulations Girls

On the mens side, we wanted to be sure Eric, Harry, Ben and Kevin swam "smart races" in their 800 free relay (results), and no one went out fast the first 100, and "dropped off". Each one of the guys swam very well, and used great race planning. In the end, they ended up 11th place......so WSY had a great night for the 3rd night in a row. Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of the meet, and we plan on showing more WSY fast swimming, and great team spirit. It is awesome for me as a coach to see the WSY swimmers supporting each other for every race. No matter what the outcome of the race, there is always a teammate around you for support.

We have some big relays tomorrow (4 of them), which means big team points. Also, Ben and Jess will also be swimming their first and only event of the meet (50 backstroke). You would not knnow that these two are only swimming one event on the last day. They have been a huge part of the team, never once complaining about 5:15am wake-up calls or being tired. I am very impressed with both Jess and Ben for their maturity on this trip, and look forward to having them on future National trips. We are currently in 2nd as a team, but need to work hard to remain in 2nd place. The meet has been going so well, and it has been an honor to be here with such a fine group. After the meet ends tomorrow night (Friday), we will all be going to Dave and Busters for some fun time with team mates.

I am going to sign off for now so that I can be sure not to have any coffee preparation problems tomorrow. Unlike Spring Nationals I have not had to listen to my roomate Coach Scott snore too much, although he does talk at times......I will have to listen to hear if he says anything about me.

More tomorrow

Mike