Day one complete with some good swims

Tonight there was some great excitement in the air. We saw two new world records, and a new American record. The crowd (estimated by the folks here in Omaha at 12,200) was on their feet with every race. After the new world records were set, we saw flames of fire all around the pool. When the new Olympic team members were introduced, the lights in the facility went dark, and we saw blue and rose colored lights over the pool. In talking to Sam and Alex Apa, they thought the swims were awesome. One of Tricia's teammates at University of Tennessee is going into tomorrow's finals seeded first in the 100 fly, which is always exciting.

Hopefully everyone was able to see tonight's events on NBC. I believe the remainder of the finals through Thursday are on USA network, and then Friday-Sunday are back on N BC. These are exciting times in American Swimming, and it is great to see all of the fast swimming going on.

We have some big swims on Monday with Tricia swimming the 100 backstroke, and Leah swimming the 400 free. Thanks to everyone for following. The trials picture gallery is here

First Prelim session complete

We started off the 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials on a good note. Leah was very happy with her 400 IM (results). She placed 22 going 4:48.59, just off her lifetime best of 4:47. After the race she told me she was glad to get the first swim out of the way, and is now more relaxed to go through the remainder of her even t schedule. Tomorrow (Monday) she will swim the prelims of the 400 free. Joe had a great workout today as he continues to prepare for his 1500 on Saturday. Tricia will also swim her 100 backstroke prelims on Monday.

Arriving in Omaha today were Coach Alyson, the Apa family, and Bob, Sue and Emily Weaner. We also hadthe arrival of Steph and Kim Kinsey, and are waiting to hear if Karlee Hoke and her mom Michelle have arrived. The WSY cheering section is ready for some fast swimming.

Today we saw some very fast swimming. The 400 IM tonight with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will be super. It is interesting to see these great athletes, and when they prepare for their races they are so "zoned in" on what they have to do. Even though there are many world class athletes at this meet, they still take time to mentally prepare for their races. Their warm-up routines are the same before each event. Everything seems well rehearsed. However there are "challenges". I saw one swimmer who was on a previous Olympic team, who just before she swam a prelim race today, her cap ripped. She was prepared. In her pocket was an extra cap. As I mentioned, she was prepared. Always have an extra cap, goggles, and some of these athletes even carry extra suits in case of a suit rip, tear etc.

Don't forget to watch the N BC Web cast of the prelim session. It is always exciting watching some of the fastest swimming in the world, and it is great we have many from our WSY family in attendance to watch!!

As Ashlyn tex'd me today 2-4-6-8 WSY

4 years of waiting begins tomorrow

Well tomorrow (Sunday) starts what will be the fastest meet in the world over the last 4 years. It seems like just yesterday we were in Long Beach at the 2004 Trials. This meet will be even bigger. 13,000 fans watching some very fast swimming. We had our coaches technical meeting today, and were told about all of the pyrotechnics that will be happening when world records are broken. Tomorrow and the remainder of this week will change athletes lives. There are 1,250 athletes at this meet. This represents one half of one percent of all USA swimming registered athletes. Of these 1,250 athletes, 26 men and 26 women will be chosen to represent USA at the Beijing Games (selection procedure here). We had two great workouts today, and both Leah and Joe looked and felt really good. I was also talking with Tricia's coaches as we were watching her swim, and her backstroke looks really good, and she was riding very high on the water. On Sunday, Leah will swim the 400 IM. Remember NBC will be web casting the prelims.

In our technical meeting today we talked about the media attention for this meet. Over 250 media have been credentialed for this meet, and all of the major TV, Print, Radio, and new media are in attendance. There is an aura to this meet like no other in the world. It is great to have WSY represented at the fastest meet in the world.

One of the stats that we all have to keep in mind regarding the pressure at this meet......at the 2004 trials in Long Beach, only 18% of the swims were faster than the seed times. Athletes must really keep the stress level down, and well as the nerves calm.

Joe spent some time tonight at dinner with his college teammates at UNC, and Leah spent time with her family in the "Aqua Zone" here at the meet. I went for a nice dinner with my room ate for the week Tim Verge (Head Coach at Shippensburg) who is spectating this week. Tim is a good friend who is doing some great things with Shippensburg Swimming and being here at this meet, he will experience some fast swimming.

I continue to get updates from the swimmers at the Penn State meet. We have had some new Y national qualifiers, and some fast swims. We have a photo gallery of the meet here. Continued success to everyone.

I will update after prelims on Sunday.......GO WSY!!!!

Remembering 3 weeks ago and the late night Tornado

At about 4pm we ventured to the pool, after Joe and Leah spent the afternoon walking through a local street fair. We got to the pool (which was a bit more crowded this evening as more athletes are arriving). The plan was to do the actual warm-up portion of practice in the competition pool, and the remainder of the workout in the less crowded "warm-up pool". Well, we got the warm-up portion of practice done when the PA announcer told all athletes to get out of the pool, and everyone (about 4-500 athletes, coaches, and support staff) had to go down to the lower levels of this very large Quest Center. Reason.......a very large section of tornado's were moving very fast through the area. I thought.....Oh great, here we go again. So all athletes were down in this small area, actually having fun and talking. These are the times when everyone is just an athlete, you see swimmers that you all know (Michael Phelps, Brendan Hansen, Natalie Coughlin, just sitting and tackling to friends). We were down here about 30 minutes,and then felt cold winds coming through the hallway. Word started to make its way through the athletes that damage had been done to the building. At that point we started to hear a very loud howling, and the lights started to flicker. At this point we were all instructed to move to the other side of the building that the arena had suffered damage, and water was running into the building. After another 30 minutes, the tornado has passed, and the sun was out. We were told the Quest Center was being closed for the evening. We got our gear and went back to the hotel. On the way out of the Quest Center we saw the extensive Damage done to the building, and several members of the security detail were roping off the areas.

We had a nice dinner at Spaghetti Factory, and Joe, Leah, Tina and Dave did a bit of shopping in the "Olde Town" section of Omaha. We are going to workout in the AM, and hope for a bit of better weather. Here is some pictures of the damage

Up at warming up at 8am

We woke up today so that we could swim about 8am. Sunny day here in the 60's. Purpose of today's warm up was basically 1,000 meters swimming in the new suits. Took both Joe and Leah about 15 minutes to actually get the suit on. Suits felt great. We met up with Tricia and the Tennessee crew (had to give her the WSY outfitting as well......yes Emily gave her one for you as well). It was not real crowded in the pool today, so both Joe and Leah had their own lane (those of you at WSY Outdoor pool........no bugs or leaf's either) . After we swam we checked out the other parts of the facility, as there have been a few changes since we have been here a few weeks ago. There are 2 hot tubs for swimmers, and we also saw the coaches hospitality area where there is another large hot tub (darn....I forgot my suit) and it seemed like a 60 inch plasma, with nice leather couches, but no Guitar Here like the swimmers hospitality area...oh well. We will be back at the pool at 4pm for our main workout for the day. Leah will begin to drop in total volume, and we will keep Joe motoring along as his actual event is not swum until next Saturday (1500 free). Leah's first event is 400 IM on Sunday. We will update again later tonight.

We arrived in Omaha and had a great practice today

We finally arrived in Omaha. Leah, Joe and I, as well as Leah's parents Dave and Tina left Baltimore at 8:30am on our way to Omaha. After a brief stop on Minnesota, we arrived with partly sunny skies about 80 degrees. Almost nice enough to be swimming outside. We got to our hotel for the next 9 days, made a brief stop to unpack, and then Joe, Leah and I headed to the pool (about 6pm). Tonight the plan was to swim the same volume we had been swimming back at home, although this pool is 50 meters of course (in comparison to the 52 meters at the Outdoor pool). On the way to the pool, of course we ran into Tricia and the Tennessee crew....we talked a bit, but then the light turned green so off she went. Joe, Leah and I went to "check in" for the meet, get our credentials (gotta have them with you at all times), get the goodie bags, and then it was time to warm-up. There were a few changes since we were last here, but for the most part it was exactly the same. As Joe and Leah were warming up prior to their workout, I went to the Speedo booth to get the new Lazr suits for both Joe and Leah (as one of WSY sponsors, Speedo is providing Joe and Leah with "the suit"). Pictured here is Natalie Coughlin in one of the custom Olympic Team Lazr Racer's. If you make the team, you will receive a few of these custom made suits. Heard some interesting opinions on the suits.

Most of the athletes are in town getting adjusted to the area that is about to be the largest swim meet in the world. Lots of media (remember this town hosted the College World Series the last few days) in town. NBC trucks all over the place (TV Broadcast schedule is here). I will do my best to upload some video, but it is tough here. NBC owns the rights to all broadcast here and they are very protective of websites streaming video. SwimNetwork will also have some good footage of everything going on here.

After our workout (about 120 minutes) we had dinner, and relaxed. We will have a very simple "wake up" swim in the morning. We are going to wear the new suits simply to get adjusted to wearing them in the water. Joe (who wore the suit in the Open Water World Championships in Spain) says the suits take about 10-15 minutes to get on.

Good luck to those of you at Penn State this weekend. Many of you are swimming in that meet, and we will be following from here. Several WSY family's will also be making there way out here (WSY will have a great cheering section).

That's about it for tonight. I will do my best to add to this a few times each day

WSY has a great weekend of swimming

We had many swimmers at two meets over the weekend. About 30 swimmers participated in the Trident (F & M College) Summer Storm (results), where we saw some great long course swimming. This was a 2.5 day meet running from Thursday through Saturday. We had several WSY swimmers make their first YMCA long Course National qualifying times at this meet. When swimmers reach 12-13 years of age, this is a big goal for everyone. Congratulations to Ryan Turner, Carrigan Eckels, and Jess Burkett who made their first qualification time for the National meet that will be held at the University of Maryland in August. It is always an exciting time when you get to represent our team at a National level competition. We will have full results later on Sunday, and update the National list at that time.

38 WSY swimmers along with Coach Alyson, Coach Derrick and myself drove to Dallastown High School for a Summer League Dual meet with Wildcat Swim Club (results). It is always great to see our friends from Dallastown. Their Head Coach (Richard Howley) is a WSY Alum (from way back when Coach Kim and Coach Alyson swam at WSY), and every time I talk to Coach Howley, he talks about his fun times he had as a swimmer at WSY. Today I saw so many smiles at the pool from WSY swimmers. We had a few WSY swimmers that swam in their very first swim meet.....everyone seemed to have alot of fun. We have such a strong group of 8 and unders and well as 9-10's. This is the future of our team, and it is really great to see the fast swimming and the great technique. Coach Derrick, Alyson, Gillian, and Guy have been doing a great job with these swimmers. In six or seven years, these swimmers will be making their National Qualifying times. I know many of our WSY swimmers are representing their local summer league teams as well. It is always good feeling for me when I get results, text messages or phone calls from the kids telling me how well they did at the Saturday morning Summer League meets. Keep up the great work!!

A great weekend of swimming by all WSY swimmers, and it could not have been done without the help of the wonderful WSY parents who continue to "step up" and volunteer at swim meets. We are very fortunate to have supportive parents at all of our events.

The week ahead of us will be busy with a Summer League meet on Saturday, and then our WSY Cuda Classic on Sunday. Be sure you have registered for everything, and see you on the pool deck......Coach Mike

Saturday Prelims

We talk alot in practice about the eyes being down on breastroke (and freestyle), here is a great photo of some breastrokers with their eyes down, getting a good amount of power on their underwater pull and kick.

We had some great swims today on our second full day of competition. Joe (video) and Leah (video) both has great 400 IM's making it back for evening swims in those events. Leah also had a 200 free (video). In her official event, Stef swam her 100 back (video/results) and actually tied her best long course 100 back time.

We have our evening session tonight, and then our final day of competition will be Sunday.

Friday Finals

Some fun thoughts from Mike: It does get a bit crowded at warm-ups. Something else we noticed tonight, there is so much electronics at this meet, there are no "back-up timers", I guess meet management feels that with back-up video for the touch pads, they do not need actual persons with a stop watch......just something I noticed today. We did have a few more spectators in the stands today, I estimate about 3,000, however in an arena that holds 14,000 it did seem a bit empty. Had a two races tonight that we had near American Records, so that was fun to watch. This morning during prelims, watch Leah's 100 fly....to the left is Amanda Beard who always has a crowd follow her. It is fun to watch Steph and Claire watch all of the USA Olympians walk by and warm-up with them in the same lane. With all of the planning (over 2 years) that went into this facility, they forgot to put an actual clock in the "main pool area", however the meet management is so receptive to suggestions that after I made this suggestion, two large digital clocks appeared tonight, along with many other changes and improvements that have been made in preparations for the USA Olympic Team Trials in three weeks. I never knew Downtown Omaha was so big. I would estimate it is about the size of the Greater Harrisburg area, but it is very lively and busy. As I type this blog (11:30pm local time), it is very busy in downtown Omaha. The coaches hospitality here is awesome....they really feed us well. In the swimmers hospitality area there are two 60 inch televisions with "Guitar Hero" and other video games, as well as a computer center with about many PC's. OH and yes we had some swimming this evening. Joe and Leah swam their 400 free, and went into the race with a different "race plan"....Joe (video) wanted to go out a bit faster, yet still finish fast, and Leah (video) wanted to "back off" a bit on the front end, but be able to "come home" a bit faster. Both accomplished their plan. We also swam a great 400 free relay tonight, and Steph, Claire, Kayla, and Leah had lots of fun. I will have video in the AM.........Good Luck to the Senior practice group back home as you workout on Saturday at the Outdoor Pool. I hear Coach Kim has a good amount of fun planned.....That is it for tonight....more in the AM.

Friday Prelims

We had a great prelim session today. After all of the tornado's passed through the area, the Mid West is very nice, mid 70's and not too much humidity. Breakfast was great, and then it was off to the pool. We had a great warm-up, and then had to wait through the 100 free's and 200 breastroke's before the 400 free's. Leah is coming back seeded 12th tonight in her 400 free (Results/video), and Joe had a great 400 free, grabbing a night swim going in seeded 18th (results/video). After a quick turn around, Leah swam a lifetime best time in her 100 fly (results/video). Kayla and Claire swam right beside each other in their heat of the 400 free (Results/video) and had some great swims. Steph and Claire also time trialed and event (Claire 200 free and Steph 100 fly, where Steph swam a lifetime best time (Video)). Tonight, as mentioned Joe and Leah will swim their 400 free, and Claire, Leah, Kayla, and Steph will swim a 400 free relay. Remember, their will be a live video cast of the meet on SwimNetwork.com. We will update again after tonight's finals

Day 1 with some great swims

Today we had some great swimming. We woke up and had a great morning swim (and not real early....more like 9am wake-up swim). We took some more time to get adjusted to surroundings, and go over all of the specific about this meet. We are using international rules (as like Beijing), some there are a few items that are different such as (1) all swimmers must report to ready area at least 10 minutes prior to your event, and then you get marshaled to ready room (read room is used for finals only). You must have your credential with you at all times. As you walk up the ramp to the pool you have one of the "handlers" would will take your credential, and sweats and return them after you swim. They have volunteers that dry off the blocks before each heat. (2) The pool deck is totally clear, other than 5-7 officials, meaning all swimmers and coaches in the stands (that takes some adjusting. Warm-up music is great, and they even play some great tunes during Kayla and Joe's swim tonight. Kayla had a great mile (results/ video), and Joe had his best "in season" 800 free time (results/video), and placed 4th over all. So we started the meet off with two great swims, and Claire, Leah and Steph got some more great swimming in these amazing pools. We had another evening of wicked tornado's out here, and Steph's parents surprised her and flew out to watch. Friday (Heat Sheets) will be another great day of swimming here in Omaha. Check out SwimNetwork for a live webcast of finals, where they will also have "On Demand" video as well.

We arrived in Omaha

After a few problems in Minneapolis with planes getting re-routed, we finally made Omaha. What a great city. The funny part we learned when we arrived here is that from the airport to the hotel (which is only 6 miles), you actually leave the state of Nebraska and drive one mile through Iowa, and then back to Nebraska. Everyone made it safely, we had a quick dinner, hotel staff was great about getting us into the room, and then it was off to the pool. Pictures are here. This facility is awesome. After we got into the Quest center, we roamed around for about 10 minutes until we finally found the credential area (at these meets you need to wear credentials with your photo). Security is very tight, complete with National Guard as security. The facility is so large that we were in the building for 20 minutes and still did not find the pools. Imagine being in a building, knowing there two 50 meter pools somewhere....you can smell them, but can not find them. We finally found them, and wow...what an awesome experience. 13-14,000 seats watching a swim meet, and not one bad seat in the house. 6 jumbo tron scoreboards with more video that anyone can imagine. There is an athlete lounge with about 5 leather sofa's and 8 computer stations for communicating with everyone. Air quality is great, with water temperature at 80 degrees (I hear the WSY Outdoor pool is mid 70's right now, so I know Coach Kim will have fun with practice on Saturday).

Right now, Steph is "flipping out" as there are major tornado watch's out here and we have some wicked weather out here in the mid-west. Steph is rooming with Claire, so I am sure Claire will take care of her. Tomorrow (Thursday), Joe will swim the 800 free, and Kayla will swim the mile, so we start the meet off with some great distance events.

I will continue to post pictures, and video's. More in the morning!!

WSY swimmers depart for Omaha

Coach Mike along with Leah, Joe, Kayla, Steph, and Claire, along with our chaperone Dave Gingrich (see Dave.....I have a job for you) will depart from Washington DC in the morning for the flight to Omaha, Nebraska. We are looking forward to a great trip, and will do everything we can to let everyone back at WSY know what is going on in Omaha. This town will be the "center of swimming attention from now through Mid-July as we have this Grand Prix meet and then the USA Olympic Team Trials. I will do my bet to blog a few times a day.

SwimNetwork will be webcasting the finals live each night. Should be a fun weekend