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

WSY having amazing success in College Park, Maryland

Sorry about not writing last night as I had a few "server" type problems which are way too much to explain. We had an awesome day yesterday with excellent results for the entire team. One of the areas we talk about in our daily team meetings is keeping positive, and working together as a team. It is almost like the "snowball effect", when you get a few athletes swimming fast, and seeing great time improvements, all of the swimmers start to think "if they can do it, so can I". We talk about "Laying it on the line", not holding back. getting our fast in all of your races, yet still able to finish strong. Sure, you are going to be fatigued due to the long days, and sure it may hurt a bit, but really, this is the last meet of the season. Lets see what you have.

Right from the beginning yesterday we had some awesome swims. We are scoring points in many events. The team spirit is very high, and everyone is getting along and becoming closer as a team. As I mentioned previously, only Leah and Harry (out of 21 swimmers) will be leaving us after this meet. The other 19 swimmers will be together in April at Short Course Nationals as well as the many new WSY swimmers that will be joining us in Fort Lauderdale. Last night in finals (all video of all finals races is here), we started off with a great 800 free from Claire (results), during the morning distance events Ryan Turner swam his best time in his mile going 17:34.19, and Maddie Hopch scored 13th place with her best time in the 800 going 9:32.00. Next up was the 100 fly. Leah and Emily were in the final heat and BOTH girls swam to their lifetime best times (results). Leah set a new National record going 1:00.49, and Emily 1:04.12. The young 14 year old that Leah swam against (who previously held the National record - her name is Hayley Lips (video here of her interview) does remind me of Leah when she was 14. Hayley swims for a good friend Peter Wright in Spartansville, South Carolina. Kevie/Kev Marsteller also had one of the best finishes of any race in the years I have known Kevin in his 100 fly. With about 4 more feet of the pool, Kevin would have won this race (results), however settled for 2nd going 56.95, and team mate Harry Foster got 4th. Justin "JB" Beegle made his first National final in the 200 breastroke (results) going 2:28 (6th place). JB had a huge cheering section behind his lane of many WSY swimmers due to his status as "The King". The WSY 200 freestylers were very strong, both prelims and finals. First year national qualifier Carrigan Eckels swam to a best time in prelims going 2:15, and Lauren, Emily and Claire swam for evening swims in their 200 freestyle's. (Results). These three times should really help our 800 free relay (which will be swum tonight - Thursday).

The final event of the day was the 400 freestyle relays. I know some of you reading this blog have been to this meet previously, but the aura surrounding the relays can not be described. Eact team only gets one relay, which means only 4 swimmers can represent your team. Everyone swims very fast in relays. All of the swimmers want to be on the relay that represents the team. The 400 free relays at this session were no different. The girls went first. We went in as the first seed, but we knew that Spartansburg was making some switches to attempt to knock off WSY. Lauren, Claire, Steph, and Leah knew they had a shot at winning, and I think the National record was in sight. (Here is the video that describes it the best). In the end, the girls got 1st place, and crushed the National record. The WSY men were up next. This was a very competitive field. Harry, Kevin, Ben, and Eric had a tough order. (results). In the end, we had some great splits and ended up 5th.

Our team meetings have been going great and we do have some more video from each of these meetings. Tonight's finals session (Thursday) should be great, and then we move into the final day of competition (Friday).

Oh wait.......I think the biggest problem yesterday was the blow up of my coffee machine in the room. I think I told you that the coffee machine "ran over" the day before......well yesterday (Wednesday) it would not start. It was 4:20am, and I do not have any coffee. I knew there was nothing open around the hotel, so.....visualize me yelling at this coffee machine while Coach Scott is attempting to sleep. He finally woke up and said "Mike....the coffee machine does not have vocal chords, it can not yell back at you". So I went over to the pool, got in line (there were 4 coaches in front of me), and finally got in the pool area at 5:45am and guess what......no coffee was available in the pool area. Being the patient person I am, I waited until I say the large coffee pot in the hospitality area, waited a few minutes for the line to go down, and then walked in the hospitality room. Can you believe the thermos filled with coffee was empty???? I was fuming. I ran out of the room and told, Coach Kim and Kristin that I was running out to Starbucks. At last.....3 hours after I started the day I had a hot cup of coffee. To end this saga......we got back to the room after the morning prelims, and I brought the hotel maid to my room to show her my coffee machine would not work. I put my finger on the button to start the machine, and guess what.....IT STARTED TO WORK IMMEDIATELY. I lost it at that point. Thanks to coach Scott, I calmed down.

Thanks for reading, the coffee machine works, WSY swimmers are swimming fast, we have a great WSY parent cheering section at the meet, and yes I am having alot of fun!!!! More later

Mike

Day one is some great fun and fast swimming for WSY

Day 1 (Tuesday) was the first day of the competition for the 2008 YMCA Nationals. It started early. Remember there is only one pool here, so every swimmer (1,300 strong) wants to get "prime bleacher location" for their team. So, I get up at 4am each day, and am at the pool by 4:20am to stand at the Door, so WSY is the first team to get in the natatorium....problem today was there were 4 teams in front of me. Yes, several teams arrive at 4am, even though the doors do not open until 5:45am. Well....this was reason enough for me to have a few extra cups of Starbucks (remember at Trials hen Coach Verge from Shippensburg University got my coffee for me every day), well Coach Scott says no way......so I brew my own in the room. Today, I ran into a small problem with the hotel coffee machine....I filled it with too much coffee grounds, so I had coffee all over the floor. I had to get to the pool, SO Coach Scott to the rescue, he cleaned everything up, and I did not even hear him snore last night. On that note......our room is still not very cold, however I am dealing with it, but I do appreciate the emails sending me pictures of snowmen.

On to the meet: We had a great time today with 3 girls (Carly, Adri, and Claire) making an evening swim in the 400 free, with some very hot times (results). Kevin was Top 8 in the 100 back (results). Leah (broke the Y National Record by 2 seconds), and Steph had great 200 Im's (results). Ali and Justin got up and raced some nice 50 breastrokes in the evening. Steph swam a very nice 100 back (results), and Leah attempted (and yes I admit swam very well....even though she says otherwise in this interview) her 50 free tonight, where she and Emily (from SPY swimming) both went under the existing National Record in the 50 free (Leah's time was 26.36). Both the guy's (results) and girls (results) 200 medley's mad the Top 8 at finals tonight. At the end of the day the girls were in 2nd place, the guys in 10th place, and we are 3rd as a team. (scores).

At our team meeting today, Alie, Kevin, Enya and Jess Trgovic handed out pieces of paper with each team members name. The assignment was to take the name of the person you got and write something positive to tell that person. It was a great team building activity, and again it was something that brought this group together as a team.

The meet ended this evening about 8:45pm, and then it was 9:30pm until be had dinner and back on the floor. We had a great email today from Jess Feldish who is not with us on this trip, but she reminded each of the team members about taking naps during the day, and staying hydrated. Most of the WSY team members will be up at 5am on Wednesday for Day #2 of the 2008 Long Course Nationals, so I am going to sign off for the evening until tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Mike

Getting ready for Day 1 at YMCA Long Course Nationals

As I was talking with Coach Kim, Kristin and Scott this morning at practice, one of the areas we were discussing was out of the 21 athletes we have at the meet this year, only two (Harry and Leah) are Seniors. This means 19 of the WSY swimmers participating this year will be at the Spring National meet as well as any new qualifiers we have. In the picture above (Turtle, Jessie, Gracie, and Anna) each of these girls will be at this meet in the next 3-5 years. It is great to see the progress of each of the WSY swimmers as they develop in our program. Many of the younger swimmers get their first experience of a "Travel" type meet with the Swim International meet in Canada each November. The next step is setting your goals on the Long Course National meet as well as the Short Course National meet and onward to US Nationals, and then USA Olympic Team Trials. We are looking forward to seeing the many great swims this week by not only the "WSY Veterans", but the "WSY First Timers"

We arrived late afternoon yesterday, and the hotel staff was very organized, had all of your keys and room assignments, which allowed the stress level to be kept down, and everyone to get into their rooms. The hotel is very nice, and we are on the 2nd floor, which makes for short elevator rides. We swam for about 90 minutes yesterday, and mad our grocery run, as well as had some quick pizza. We had our first team meeting last evening where Adri, Steph, Claire, and Eric talked about motivation and working together as a team. We had some discussion of how the week will flow, and team rules. Everyone always gets excited in a new environment, thus sometimes we are not conserving energy for the remainder of the week. Then it was off to bed for the 5:15am wake up call on Monday (7/28)

Well, the air conditioning is not working the best in Coach Scott and I's room.....you know what that means, Coach Mike is complaining a bit. I awoke and told Coach Scott "I did not sleep like a rock, rather more like a pebble". Don't worry I will have this fixed by the end of the week....hopefully today. 5:30am, was here and everyone was ready to go. As always WSY was the first to the pool, therefore got great lane space and had an awesome workout. After our workout we went to the University of Maryland Dining hall and had some good breakfast, had a few minutes to relax and then it was back over to the pool where we officially registered for the meet, always a fun time. Back to the hotel to relax until lunch. Today is probably the day where the swimmers have the most "down time", as after today we are moving by 5:15am until about 9:30pm.

In our team meeting later today, we are going to talk about some team goals. as well as hear the "Thought of the Day" from Lauren, Justin, Lauren, and Emily

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WSY Swimming and why we have so much fun AND SWIM FAST

I am not really sure where to start for this blog as it has been quite a while since I have written. Our WSY National team (21 strong) will be departing in the morning, and I am taking a break from packing (as everyone knows I overpack anyway). It seems like just yesterday we were finishing up with Short Course Nationals in Florida, and saying goodbye to all of our Graduating Seniors. The last 10 weeks seemed to fly by us. We had more swimmers on the team this Summer than we have had in the last 5 years. Coach Derrick mentioned to me today "Coach Mike....do you know our 8 and Under boys have won Mid Caps in their relay the last two years??" I know Coach Derrick, Alyson, and Gillian are very proud of that fact. As I sit here thinking about the week that is ahead of us, I know this will be the last meet for Leah and Harry, but I also know that WSY is very healthy with younger swimmers.

By now, I am sure it is not a secret that I was looking at an opportunity to move away from WSY. I was very appreciative of all of the support I received from not only swimmers here within our team, but others in the area. After a long process I really came to the conclusion that I have everything I want right here in Central Pennsylvania and more specifically at the West Shore YMCA. The last 10 weeks really confirmed that for me. There is nothing more pleasing to me that to see our future WSY National team at Mid Caps today doing best times, having fun, and representing a team that they take pride in.

I know many of you will be enjoying a break from swimming over the next 5 weeks, while 21 swimmers from your WSY National Team will be representing you at the 2008 Long Course Nationals at the University of Maryland. Many of these swimmers were in our program at 9-10 years old, and they have stuck with their goals and dreams and continue to have fun and swim well. Every time I see an athlete swimming fast, I see a smile on their face. I encourage each of you to watch the Olympics in two weeks. Watch the swimmers on the medal stand.....sure they work hard, and sure they make many sacrifices in their lives, but they also have fun training hard. They have fun learning new skills. This is the challenge to each of you.....Can you swim fast, achieve goals, learn new skills and have fun at the same time.

As we do at every National meet, we come together as a team to swim well. As I say every time, the reason we swim fast is the "Power of Team". I will talk about this at our first team meeting in Maryland. All individual differences must be put aside at this time, and we will come together as a team.

Thanks for following, and one of my goals this week is to be certain to enter two Blog entries per day. Good or bad, I want to be sure to let everyone know how we are doing. As always, feel free to send us emails as they are always to read at our Team Meetings. We leave at 11am in the morning (Sunday), so I will be sure to add another entry in Sunday evening

-----Mike

WSY swimmers performing well at MA senior Champs

Many of our Senior level swimmers have been performing well at the Middle Atlantic senior Championships at Bucknell University. This meet is a four day prelim/final meet, and we are using it as a final preparation meet prior to Y Nationals. We have had several swimmers make a few more qualifying times for Y nationals. Real Time Results are here. We are half way through the meet and thus far we have had 53% lifetime best times from the WSY swimmers at the meet. The WSY swimmers have been having fun supporting each other at night at finals (picture gallery here).

Final night at Trials

The 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials has come to a close. The USA Olympic team was named tonight, and they depart in the morning for their training camp in Palo Alo, and then they will go to the international training camp in Singapore before finally arriving in Beijing for the games. This meet was the fastest swim meet in the history of the sport. Some will say the new suits played a part, and yes I believe some of it, but I think a bigger part of why our sport has gotten so fast is athletes are staying in the sport for much longer. For an example in the women's 50 free tonight, there was not one athlete under 20. The age ranged from 20-41 (Yes....Dara Torres put on a show this week), and I fully expect her to win at least the 50 in Beijing. It will be funny to see her racing Cate Cambell (from Australia who is currently the 2nd fastest in the world at 16 years old). In looking ahead to the 2012 trials (in case you are marking the calendar, the dates of the 2012 trials are June 17-24, 2012) both Joe and Leah were talking about how they are looking forward to that meet. As I mentioned in previous posts, how many other WSY swimmers will be joining them??

Joe had a tremendous race this evening. The field that swam the 1500 tonight was the fastest field of 8 in American swimming history, and Joe was part of it. Joe started out a bit slower (at the 400 he was 4:03 vs 4:02 yesterday), however he made up for in in the back half of the race. Joe ended up 8th (where he was seeded), however he did improve his time to finish at 15:21.84 (results). Joe had 3 races and had a personal best in all 3 races....a great accomplishment. Joe's college coaches at UNC were very excited for his accomplishment, and his future. The UNC Coaches (Rich, Catherine, and Mike) are great to work with in a partnership to get the athlete where he/she needs to be, and I thanked them for their work with Joe as well as any WSY athlete that could attend UNC in the future!!

In closing, as I mentioned previously, this meet was a totally different experience in American swimming. Total, there were over 160,000 fans that watched this meet, not to mention all of the fans that saw swimming on the nightly telecast on NBC. This is huge for our sport, and I know personally in my 17 years being involved as a coach, I have seed this sport changing for the better. The suits are simply part of it, the athletes are working harder, forming long term goals, staying in the sport longer, and finding a way to get their hand on the wall first.

After we move through the next few weeks with many WSY swimmers participating in Summer League Championships, Senior Championship Meets, sectional Meets, Y National Meets, US Open Meets, I hope everyone will tune in to NBC and watch the American swimmers (beeg begins 8/8/08) at the Beijing Olympic games. After the Olympic games conclude attention will be refocused to the 2012 games in London. I know it is hard to think about swimming at that level, but being at this meet I have seen so many athletes that at one point swam in their summer leagues, high school teams, and then moved through the National level meets and ultimately to the Olympic team. There were many athletes that swam in this meet (a few of which made the 2008 Olympic Team), who did not even qualify for this meet in 2004, so I know with focus and preparation it can happen!!

Wishing everyone a great end of the Summer!!

Mike

Final days of 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials

My apologies to everyone for not blogging over the last two days. I have received all of your texts and emails. We have been having a huge amount of success here at the 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials. As I had written in my last post, Leah had a very successful 200 Fly, getting a top 8 swim at night, and swimming her lifetime best time. Leah also secured another Top 8 swim in the 800 free last evening, which I know many of you saw on NBC. I wanted to take some time to go over what happens when you get a final 8 swim at the Olympic Trials.

We usually get to the pool about 5:30pm, and swim our warm-up of about 1,500 meters. The finals session is scheduled to begin at 7pm (local time). Most of this is dictated by NBC. There are some nights where we were to begin the session with some semi-finals heats, and NBC wanted to begin their live broadcast with a "Finals Heat", so we did begin a few nights at 6:45pm, so we could go live at 7pm. During the evenings of Leah's finals swims, we ended warm-ups about 6:10pm, and Leah had some time to get her racing suits on, get water, and had a few minutes to talk with me. Most times about 6:30pm was the last I talked with Leah. She went back to the warm-up pool area, where there is no media, only other swimmers and coaches. She would remain back there until she was about ready to swim. All athletes must report to the "Race Ready Room" at 15 minutes prior to their swim. This is a room where all 8 finalists sit prior to the race. There is a TV in this room where you can see the actual meet, and some times the athletes may say a few things to each other, but for the most part the swimmers usually have their head phones on, and are preparing for their races. About 5 minutes prior to the race, the athletes will be led to the "chute", which are stairs which lead to the main pool deck in the arena. When the music starts, this is the signal to begin walking out of the chute. Here the athletes will see 2-3 TV camera's, and then hear the crowd. Imagine 13,000 people screaming and yelling, and lots of bright lights. The key here as I mentioned to Leah is to keep your head set on, and block out the crowd. After all of the names have been announced, it is time to swim, and over all we have had some fantastic swims. Leah's 800 last evening was a second opportunity for her to get a Top 8 finals swim, and she learned some valuable things which will help her as she prepares over the next four years for the 2012 trials.

BIG JOE's MILE - WOW.......Joe knew his event was on the last day, so we have used this week to continue to prepare him. We kept his volume a bit higher most of the week in preparation for this event. In talking with Joe, we knew it would take about 15:15 to get a Top 8 finish. Joe's best was 15:31. The metric mile has become a very fast event for American swimming. Joe's goal all Summer was a Top 8 finish, but we knew it would be a very large task. Mid way through the week, Joe time trialed the 400 free. His previous best time was 4:02, and in his time trial he broke 4:00, and went 3:59, so he really felt ready for the mile. Joe was seeded in the 2nd to last heat of the pyramid seeding. He looked relaxed and ready to swim at yesterday's (Saturday) prelim session. As he entered the water, he was 4:02 at the 400 mark (which up until this meet was his fastest time), he held 1:01's most of the way, and was well on his way to a 9 second improvement. When he finished, he was in 5th place out of all of the heats (results) going 15:22.45. We had one heat remaining!! About 1000 meters through the last year, we knew Joe had a shot at Top 8. His college coaches at UNC were very happy. Joe accomplished his goal, and now was ready for another shot at time improvement. Hopefully everyone will be watching tonight as Joe will be swimming on National TV (NBC 9pm- Heat Sheet is here). Joe is ready for his big race!!

This meet has offered a huge amount of experience for Joe, Leah, and Tricia. In the last four years, each of these swimmers has prepared for this meet, and I think we had some huge successes. After tonight, all three swimmers will return home as Joe prepares for the US Open with his college teammates, Tricia will end the year at the Eastern Zone Sectional meet at Penn State, and Leah will joining the other WSY swimmers going to Y nationals at University of Maryland. I know all 3 swimmers are looking forward to 2012, and taking the experiences from this meet and using them over the next four years. The question we have for all WSY swimmers is who will be joining us in 2012, as we prepare for the 2012 London Games.

After Joe swims tonight, we will make one more entry to our Blog. Thanks to everyone in Central Pennsylvania for all of your supportive emails, texts, and phone calls. I know Joe, Leah, and Tricia appreciate them. Our flight is out tomorrow (Monday), and we will see everyone at the WSY Outdoor Center on Tuesday....complete with bugs, leaves, frogs, and birds singing!!!

Thanks for following

The last two days have been super for WSY

Actually at present I am not really sure what day it is any more. I look at my watch and I see it is July 4th, but I feel like it is July 31st. The Summer seems to be in over drive. This marathon meet we term USA Olympic Team trials is really beginning to unfold. As many of you are seeing on TV (schedule is here......now we move to NBC 8-9pm East Coast Time LIVE), there are so many turns in this meet. How many of you saw PA native Brendan Hansen get 4th last night in the 200 Breastroke. Of course he was very happy for his two teammates that made the team, but less than 2 months ago, this guy held the world record. There have been so many other surprises. In the men's 100 free, 19 year old Nathan Adrian tied for 9th in the semi's, and had to have a swim-off 9with Sam Goldsmith's college teammate Alek Riggi). Nathan won the swim off, and then went into last nights finals and got 4th, which means he made the Olympic Team. The guy went from not making an evening swim to actually being selected for the team. This is what I call "taking advantage of an opportunity"

Leah swam very well last night in the final. One of the goals coming into this meet was a Top 8 swim. Leah accomplished that. I could tell last night when she walked out on deck that she was a bit nervous. As one Olympic coach told me "Everyone at this meet is nervous, the key is to learn how to contain that nervousness". Leah was very happy with her swim. We had a great warm up today, and then it was time for Leah's 800 free. Joe and I were sitting in the stands and I thought it was going to take about 8:35 for an evening swim (Leah's lifetime best was 8:36). Going into Leah's heat, the 8th place time was 8:40, so I knew if she was going to advance she was going to have to hit a great swim. The rest was up to her. Feeling good she took it out at 2:06, was 4:17 at the 400, and then almost even split going 4:18 on the final 400. Her last 50 split was 30. (the fastest of anyone in the field), so I knew she has it in the tank for tomorrow evenings final for a great swim!! Her final time was 8:35.86 (tied for 5th and 31st fastest time in the world as of today)

Tricia swam the 200 back, which was a very fast event. Tricia's time going into the event was 2:17, and she swam a great race, improving her time going 2:16.61.

Tonight is an off night for WSY swimmers, however we are excited about watching some very fast swimming. On Saturday morning prelims, big Joe will swim his mile. Joe has been here supporting everyone (both WSY, his college team mates, and basically everyone he knows). The swimmers can always hear Joe when he is showing his support, and at a meet like this you need that support. Joe's big day will be Saturday AM, and Joe looks really good in the water. The men's 1500 is a stacked event, and Joe knows he will have to have the performance of his lifetime

Leah advances to Thursday evening Finals in 200 fly

Ok.......so I think I have heard 10 times today "See Mike......I told you I liked 200 fly and not distance freestyle". Well, Leah definitely made her point to me. She was in the 2nd heat of the 2-heat semi finals. I had mentioned to a few coaches earlier today that I felt it would take a 2:09 to make the final 8. It was darn close. After the prelim session today, Leah seemed very calm (even after we had some hail storms out here). She had a great warm-up, joked around with Joe, and really stayed relaxed going to the night swims. She told me she was excited, and I mentioned that she needed to "contain the excitement", which she did. When she walked out on the pool deck after being in the ready room, she looked very confident. The first semi heat was very fast, and then I new she would definitely need a 2:10 to make it back, but I did not know how fast Leah's heat would go. She took the 100 out a bit faster than today, and really stayed with her stroke the entire 2nd 100. She was mentally focused, and really contained her excitement, and any nerves that she had going. She hit the wall, and I turned to Parkland Coach Erik Posegay to get confirmation that she was 8th. Although all I really had to do was look 20 feet away and see the smile on Leah's face, and then I knew she had advanced to the Top 8 tomorrow night (Thursday). Leah finished with a 2:10.43, lifetime best by 3 seconds, and now top 35 in the world in that event.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Tricia will swim her 200 back, and most likely Joe will "time trial" a 400 IM, just to keep with some racing before his mile. On Thursday evening Leah will swim in the big 8 of the 200 fly (a first for WSY......a top 8 finisher at Olympic Trials).

Thanks to everyone for your texts and email. I know Leah really appreciates it. I heard the news made its way to the Hot Heats 10 & under Meet as well. Thanks to all of the WSY 10 & unders at that meet for your support. In talking with Coach Derrick, we had some awesome times at the Hot Heats meet. The communication goes both ways out here, and we are very proud of our WSY 10 & Under swimmers

We have our own WSY camera crew out here. I think Kim and Steph Kinsey, Karlee and her mom Michelle have a picture of every Olympian here. Tonight as I was leaving the pool area, I saw they had Brendan Hansen signing every piece of clothing they could find. These guys are really great about that stuff. As soon as I get the pictures I will upload them to the web site.

Thanks again to everyone for following. It is great to continue to get the texts and emails!! We will update again on Thursday

Had our first semi-finals qualifier

As we were building into this meet, and Joe and Leah are getting faster as the meet goes on, we saw Leah qualify 9th for tonight's semi finals in the 200 fly. She took her 200 fly out with her best 100 fly time (1:02.87) and then came back hard for a final time of of 2:11.25 (previous best was 2:13) (Heat Sheet for the event tonight is here). Now Leah will navigate through the semi-finals where the top 8 will advance to the final tomorrow night (Thursday) for a chance to make the Olympic Team. (Patriot News article). We will follow up with tonight's results after she swims!! Watch the event tonight on USA Network (NBC). Here is an interview from FloSwimming

Tuesday was a day of excitement at Olympic Trials

Today was a day filled with excitement. The weather here is getting warmer. Today it was in the 80's, but in the Quest Center there were fireworks going off tonight as we saw more world records being broken at finals. Here is an amazing fact that happened. We had a world record broken yesterday in the prelims of the women's 100 backstroke, then Natalie Coughlin came back in the next heat and re-broke the world record. We got through semi-finals (at this meet in all events 200 and less you must go through semi-finals after prelims before you get to finals). Tonight at finals......the athlete that originally broke the world record yesterday (Hayley McGregory from Texas) did not event make the Top 2, which means she missed the Olympic team. This same swimmer got 3rd place in Long Beach in 2004 as well. That is how fast this meet is moving.....break a world record, and the next day, not even make the US Team going to Beijing.

On the other end, you have athletes making the team that in 2004, did not even make the 2004 Trials. Tricia's teammate (Christine) did not even swim the 100 fly in 2004 as she did not qualify for the 2004 trials, and now 4 years later she won gold at trials and secured a spot on Team USA. It really shows you what 4 years of hard work can do. At this meet there are so many emotions that are running through the minds of every athlete. Not only athletes but coaches. I had the opportunity to ride the elevator with a coach who is on the 2008 Olympic Coaching staff, and he said to me "No matter how many world records, or gold medals your athletes win, as a coach, you will always get nervous at Olympic Trials."

As far as WSY swimmers, Leah swam a great 200 free today. She went 2:01 and almost equaled her tome from US Nationals last Summer. She took her race out much faster (she was 58 at the 100 mark), which showed a good amount of confidence as she moves into her remaining two events (200 fly and 800 free). Joe swam his lifetime best time (by 3 seconds) in the 400 freestyle. Joe had not made the qualifying time for this meet in the 400 (q time was 3:59.99), and Joe's best was 4:02. We wanted to time trial an event to see where we are in the preparation process for his mile on Saturday AM. Joe went 3:59, and looked real strong, especially his turns, which sets him up for a great mile on Saturday. So today was a big success for us.

Tonight at finals, not only did we see a great amount of fast swimming, I was sitting in the athlete section, and right beside me sat Mike Golic (interview) from Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN. Mike was a great football player from Notre Dame, and a few Pro teams including the Eagles. I listen to his show every AM, and it was great to talk with him. His daughter swims (she has sectional cuts and does very well) for a team in Connecticut), so that was fun for me to meet him. Coach Alyson has a great story about her elevator ride with Brendon Hansen (his room is right beside hers) and how he walked her to the room......you will have to get the entire story from her. I can only imagine that as I am typing this that Coach Alyson is waiting in the lobby for Brendon to come to the hotel, so she can have her elevator ride. As for my roomate Coach Tim Verge (Head Coach at Shippensburg University), he is doing his job every day which is to go to the Starbucks and have me a large cup of coffee by 7:20am. (Don't worry Coach Kim.......I will not be asking this of you)

So we continue to swim well at the 2008 USA Olympic Team Trials. I continue to think what WSY swimmers will be at the 2012 Olympic Trials to prepare for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Four years will be here before we know it. Will you be preparing??

Leah has the 200 fly on Wednesday, so I will write again after she swims. Good Luck to Coach Derrick and Gillian and the WSY/NYAC 10 & unders as they represent our team at the CV Hot Heats meet at CV high School. 2-4-6-8 WSY

Continuing to move along at the 2008 Olympic Trials

We continue to see some very fast swimmers in Omaha. I was thinking last night about the 2004 Trials, and how much faster everyone is swimming in 2008. There are some events that if you got 2-3rd place at the 2004 trials, you would not event make the final heat in that event at the 2008 Trials. The pool has been constructed to be very fast. I know you may hear alot about the new "Technical Suits" that are bring worn, but I think there is more to it. Since 2004, all of these athletes at this meet (in 2004 there were about 800 athletes at the trials, and without really changing the cut times in 2008, there are over 1200 athletes at the trials, so I am expecting the cut times for the 2012 trials before London to be a bit faster) have been thinking about this meet, making sacrifices, and training hard for this meet. The excitement here is awesome. When they get back, ask Sam and Alex Apa, Steph Kinsey, Karlee Hoke, Emily Weaner, and of course Coach Alyson. They are seeing the fastest swimming in the world on a very intense scale. There was a statistic released to the coaches today that so far 50% of the swims at this meet are faster than their seed times. In 2004, that stat was 17%. We will see how that stat changes as we move through this meet.

Leah had a good swim yesterday, I think she wished she could have gone faster, but at this meet (as like I talk at Y Nationals), we have to move forward for the remainder of our events. Tricia had a good 100 backstroke swim as well, and she will now move on to swim her 200 back on Thursday. Today (Tuesday......I am typing this here in the stands at the meet) Leah will have her 200 free (which the 6th place time in 2004 would not even make the Top 12 at this meet) and Joe will be time trialing the 400 free (his best time is 4:02.....so we are looking for a bit faster)

Good luck to those WSY and NYAC swimmers who will be swimming in the Hot Heats meet on Wednesday. Those 8-9 year old swimmers will be 13-14 years old for the 2012 trials, and if we are really looking forward those same swimmers will be 17-18 year olds in 2016 (where the Olympic games may very well be back in the USA).

Thanks again for following not only the WSY swimmers but all of Team USA........More later