Sprint Spectacular and week of 10-12

Hello everyone!
What a great first meet of the season! Best times and records were shattered all weekend! It would take an hour for me to write all the best times out, and I am not about to do that, so I would like to just say congrats to everyone who swam. We swam really well, but we have alot to work on still. I will mention some of these in a minute, but first I want to recognize a few people for their performances.

• Matt and Michael Flinchbaugh continued where they left off this summer, both crushing their best times from last season in pretty much everything they swam. Between the two of them, they dropped at least a collective 30 seconds among all their races. Good work!
• Marissa Henderson had a couple best times, but she swam some new events and didn't shy away from the longer events. She is new to the 11-12 age group, but she is not afraid to swim the 200 IM and the 100 fly in the open age group events, racing 17 and 18 year olds. Hats off to you Marissa!
• Michelle Leahy achieved her first "A" time by posting a time of 1:21.74 in her 100 Breast! Great job!
• Amber Kovach set 4 team records (50 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly, and 100 Fly) as well as breaking a 12 year old district record, taking down both the swimmer and event records for the 50 fly! Her time of 27.00 broke the team record by 1.85 seconds, the district swimmer record by 0.50 seconds, and the district event record by 0.28 seconds. Her time also would have tied her for 20th in the nation among all 12 year olds last year!

Though we swam well, we need to focus on some of the smaller things at practice. Too many of us are breathing the first stroke off the wall on our starts and turns in freestyle and butterfly. We need to be more disciplined in practice and not allow ourselves to do this and it will carry over into the meets. Also, our kicking is great, but we need to keep working the legs in every swim we do in practice. This will only help us get better.

Don't forget to sign up for meets by the posted deadline on the USC website. If you are having difficulties with Direct Athletics or have other questions about meets, let me know. I will do what I can to answer your questions and solve your problems.

That's all for today. See you at practice!

Coach Matt