Announcement

Note from Coach Kevin - Indy Meet

Posted by Birmingham Blue Dolphins on Jan 27 2020 at 05:35PM PST
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Dear Parents and Swimmers,

We have just returned from a MEMORABLE meet in Indianapolis. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Indy Meet is a regional meet with teams from all over the Midwest. The competition is in two side-by-side pools. The older swimmers swim preliminaries in the morning and, if they finish in the top 24, return for finals in the evening. The younger swimmers swim timed finals in the afternoon. The coaches who attend are on deck for 36 out of 56 hour weekend skating between the two pools.

Our swimmers were on fire! Some highlights….

  • Ethan Schwab won three events and qualified for nationals in all of them; the 100 and 200 breast and the mile. Ethan’s time in all three are new BBD team records.
  • Gus MacDonald was the high-point winner in 13-14 boys and he set a meet record in the 500 free. (I was standing with a group of boys from other teams while Gus was running away from the crowd of swimmers and they were amazed by his splits.)
  • The 11-12 boys set meet records in the medley relay (Emmet Knudsen, Sean Lu, AJ Farner and Jack Higgins) and the free relay (Sean Lu, Emmet Knudsen, Ian Whan and Jack Higgins).
  • We had new AA cuts from Michael Drelles (3,) Malin Murphey (2,) Avery Anderson, George Witte, Charlie McQuiston and Mira Tarraf (2.) Nolan Knudsen, Will Schwab and Aleks Bovdur achieved new zone cuts.
  • Jack Higgins won two events and Drew Collins finished first in the 100 back in the morning session.
  • Lindsay Louwers and Lucy Truesdell dropped time in the 200 breast in the morning and came back at night for finals where Lindsay dropped another two seconds and Lucy dropped another EIGHT seconds.

I know I have missed many highlights….so many great races! Please forgive me. There were amazing performances from every swimmer and they are setting themselves up for an amazing championship season. It’s important to revisit our goals and choose events carefully.!

Even more impressive was the amazing display of support and sportsmanship from our swimmers. They were having a great time cheering for one another and celebrating their successes. The older boys were standing with me during the medley relays and were blown away by the performances of their younger teammates.

This kind of experience sets Y swimming apart from other programs. The swimmers were there for each other whether it was one of our superstars or if it was one of our newer swimmers. It transcended age group and gender and it made for a weekend they are not likely to forget. As always I couldn’t be more proud of our athletes, grateful for the hard work of our coaches and the support of our parents. We can accomplish incredible feats when people trust and endorse the process and the program.

Kevin