Reports of WSY National Team at YMCA Nationals in College Park Maryland written by Coach Kristin and Scott

 

Friday, August 3, 2007 (11pm)   - Tonight was the final night of competition.  The team is having our team dinner right now at Dave and Busters, and we will file a report in a bit.  Final Team Scores are here.  We had a great night last night. Eric and Steph both had best time in their 50 back. Kayla represented the distance events well all week long for us and continued with a 4th place finish in the 800.  Emily went the same time as she did in the morning in her 200 fly so it was nice to see consistency when she had the 3 second drop in prelims and was able to do the same time again. Our boys medley relay finished 4th, with each of our boys having great splits. Overall as a team, the girls and boys teams both placed 9th and combined we were 7th. With only 11 kids at the meet for our team, walking away 7th was great. At our last team meeting on Friday, we had a team discussion about wanting to get more kids at this meet. All of our swimmers swam well and for our team with only 11 kids and being able to place 7th overall, we wondered what our team was capable of with more swimmers, so everyone agreed to talk with their teammates at practice about how much fun they had at YMCA Nationals. It was a great meet for our kids as many of them stepped up to the plate in both relays and individually.  The short course meet (qualifying times) is nine months away.  How many WSY swimmers will be at that meet where once again we will come together as a team and work hard for not only fast times, but a great time as a team.

Thursday, August 2, 2007 (10pm)   - Tonight was awesome. Adri took another second off her 200 back and got 11th. Harry had a best time in the 50 fly and took 2nd. Haley had a best time and remained 16th. Jon and Harry had great 100 frees. Our girls 800 free relay was amazing. Each swam great splits, faster than they did the 200 individual event yesterday and we took 3rd overall. We are all excited for the final day tomorrow, looking forward to some great individual swims and continuing the success that our relays have been having. Some of the kids who haven't been in relays before have really been stepping it up and performing for WSY.   The team has moved up to 6th place in the combine team standing.  We have one more day to go, and as all WSY (current and alum) understand, we have a saying "Last Day/Fast Day".  Friday is the day that everyone on the team "steps up".  We have some big events on Friday, and it will take a total team effort for the team to crack the Top 5, but if prior meets indicate anything, all team members will step up and make that goal.

Thursday, August 2, 2007 (1pm)   - We had another great morning this morning. Beegle did right around his best in the 400 IM. Lauren had a lifetime best in the 100 free just missing top finals and is going into tonight seeded 9th. Jon and Harry swam next to each other in their 100 frees and are seeded 11th and 13th for tonight so once again, they get to race next to each other. Harry was seeded with a yard time in the 50 fly, won the heat by a landslide and is going into tonight seeded 2nd overall. He is in with a 26.49 and the top seed is 26.43 so it should be a great race. Eric had a great 50 fly, it was a personal best but he is second alternate for tonight. Haley slipped in 16th in the 50 fly so she will be returning tonight as well. Adri had a great 200 backstroke. She took over a second off her time and is going into tonight seeded 13th. Our girls 800 free relay is tonight and they seem pumped to swim it after the awesome 400 free relay last night. More later....

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 (10:45pm)   - Another great day from the WSY swimmers.  BOTH relays (Girls)//(Boys) made it back and swam in the evening.  Kayla Zeller had an amazing mile, placing 6th (Results).  After 2 days of competition, the team is now in 9th place (scores). Justin Beegle had a huge drop of time in his 200 breastroke dropping another 2 seconds at finals (results).  The WSY mens team continued to place at evening finals, with Jon's 200 free (Results//6th place), and Harry's 100 fly (results//4th).  For the first time in a few years, the WSY men (7th) are outscoring the WSY women (10th).  We have uploaded some more pictures.  Thanks to all of the WSY parents that are in the crowd that have sent pictures as well. As we get time we are uploading those pictures as well.  We begin the 2nd half of the meet on Thursday, and the team is fired up and working together to see some more great swims.  We leave you with an email we received from WSY Alum (and Rhode Island Swimming Alum) Anthony Randall

I just wanted to take the time to congratulate you and the WSY on how far its come. I just got done watching Joe and Leah's swim and I've never been more impressed in my life. I hope that kids who are younger than them can see where hard work gets you. I don't for a second regret my times at the WSY because it has taught me so much. Please continue to keep the video feeds coming online because I enjoy watching them. I hope that one day I will be there on those pool decks looking across from you as our swimmers battle it out in the water. Tell everyone at Y and US Nats that they continue to impress the alumni and make us proud to say we once swam for WSY.
Anthony Randall

 

Wednesday, August 1, 2007 (2:45pm)   - We had a great morning this morning. Kayla is seeded 8th in the mile and is going to swim in the finals tonight. Beegle went a lifetime best in the 200 breast and ended up 10th so he will have his first ever finals swim. Jon is coming back in the A final in the 200 free and Harry squeezed in at 8th going into tonight's final in that 100 fly. The boys swam a great 400 free relay and are going in seeded 11th, so Beegle gets to do another 100 free! The girls shocked us all, with an awesome prelims swim in the 400 free relay and are seeded 3rd going into tonight's finals. We are looking for some good swims tonight. They all seem pumped and ready to go. Many are excited about theirs seeds.   Thanks to everyone for following

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 (11:45pm)   - We had some great evening swims, and we actually got some great pictures this evening.  Unfortunately the hotel connection is a bit slow, so we will not be able to upload until the morning.  After the first day of competition, as a team we are 11th overall (men are 11th, and women are 12th).  We are back in the AM for another day of great WSY swims.....more to follow

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 (11:45am)   - Just as our teammates in Indianapolis are swimming fast, WSY swimmers in Maryland are off to a very good start.  In the first event of the day,  girls 100 backstroke, we had three swimmers make a second swim tonight.  Stephanie, Emily and Adri all swim to lifetime bests.  In the men's 100 back, Eric swam his lifetime best to secure a spot in tonight's final.  In the women's 400 free Kayla swam a near lifetime best to secure her position in tonight's final.  We are continuing to swim the prelim session, and as we get time, we will provide more updates (Mike's turn to report  from Indy as Kristin and Scott are in the vans getting the team back to the hotel).  BOTH WSY relays are back for night swims.  The girls prelims results are here, unfortunately we had the team entered with a very slow seed time, so we expect a much faster time tonight.  The guys swam next, and made the top 8.  Guys prelim results are here.  We had some great 200 IM swims as well, and as soon as I get the actual results, we will post them.......more later

 

Monday, July 30, 2007  - We have been having some connection problems at the hotel, we are working on this so that we may get pictures and more regular reports.  We had some great workouts today, and are ready for the competition to begin on Tuesday.  WSY swimmers are also having some fun spending time with each other during the day.  First time WSY National Team member Alex Bornman learned today that when people go to see the Police in concert, they were actually going to see a singing group and not just a bunch of police men dancing on stage.  

The team has had some great practices yesterday and today. The kids look great in the water and seem ready to go. At our team meeting today, we had each of the kids talk about some of their individual and team goals. We have a lot of the kids wanting to make it back for an evening swim either individually or in their relays. It looks that we have many opportunities for those goals to be met. We have had a nice relaxing day with some down time to get rested up for a busy four days.......more on Tuesday.....