LGSC Hosts Spooktacular Amidst Scary Events

It's official, now, finally. The calendar reads late-October, and that means it's time to have some spooky fun! Halloween is upon us. The day is coming, and everyone is making their plans. Positively Ghoulish.

Our LGSC swim team hosted our annual Spooktacular swim meet that celebrates everything ghoulish in the Swimming World, especially our own. A little over 50 swimmers were on hand from three area swim teams. And, yes, you guessed it, in order to get a severed leg up on the Halloween competition, our LGSC swimmers were just scary fast! Little did anyone know that our own cozy and comfortable La Grande Veteran's Memorial Pool would be transformed into our own LGSC Halloween witch's roiling and boiling cauldron, brewing for the most unwary of competitors.

And so it was!

Our LGSC Tri-Swimmers of the Meet Drew Howard, Willow Lynch and Zane Ricker were certainly circling high above the kettle, leering down at the competition, searching for who knows what! In true Magic Faerie Princess fashion, Drew didn't actually swim her races. No, instead, she waved her magic wand over all who were competing, and amidst all the star dust, which flowed from her magic wand, Drew won 7 of her 8 events - and 2 relays, too. From her very first event, which Drew won by conjuring over 10 seconds off of her 100Y Free (1:41.48), it was clear what would happen....magic! And no one was the wiser.

And after having sized-up her competition from above, Willow landed on the pool deck with a thud and opted for a different plan of attack - Texas Psycho! So, Willow didn't actually swim against her competition either; she mercilessly chain-sawed them all! Winning all 8 of her races and 2 relays, Willow also recorded a new lifetime best time in each of them, including 3 new USA Swimming A Times. Her victory in the 100Y Fly (1:23.56) was particularly bloody. A word to the wise: best give Willow a wide berth during this Halloween season!

And then there was Zane Ricker. Little did the competition know that Zane had long since committed to the role of our Official LGSC Grim Reaper for this Halloween season, and perhaps beyond! In absolute silence, and with chilling stealth, he swung his scythe. Zane etched into the meet results 3 new lifetime best times as a Senior swimmer, not too shabby for mere October! He also won 3 events, while slicing 5 X USA Swimming A Times and 3 X AA Times. Most noteworthy, however, was that, at times, it almost seemed as though Zane's competition just disappeared altogether while swimming right beside him. Hmmmn.

There were many other scary fast swims, as well as many other Halloween stories to unfold, on this particular weekend. Claiming our LGSC Fast Swims of the Meet, like so much candy in the Halloween bag after a busy night of trick-or-treating, were: Winslow Baum, Isabel Fenley, Becca & Sarah Koza, and Adam & Justin Zamora.

7 year old Winslow was our Masked Sea Dragon, snatching up from the depths of our pool a yummy 25Y Back in :26.60. Isabel snuck on her Merlin the Magician disguise, conjuring up from who knows where a svelte new lifetime best in the 100Y Free (1:07.68). Becca assumed the role of the much-feared Doppelganger, or Shape-changer. (You never know how one of those is going to get you!) This time she was a Freestyler, donning her new early-season form in her 100Y Free (:54.31).

Not to be outdone in the 100Y Free, of course, Sister Sarah took the traditional Halloween approach to record a very strong :56.57 in the event. With her devious cackling laugh, as well as her pointed black hat and her darkling robe that roiled from the glowing night pool, she even burst from the water on one occasion to sing the national anthem: “O'er the land of the free...I'll get you my pretty!”

Adam went all Dracula in his 25Y Back. Sucking the life's blood from the entire field, as he did in several events, Adam used that extra strength to scale the outer castle walls to finish dining first in an immortal :21.11. And brother Justin did his dead-level best to assume a true Halloween alter ego - that of Dr. Frankenstein's monster! Some bystanders thought they could faintly hear screams of “No, no, no Master!!!” from the water as Justin stroked his new lifetime best time in the 100Y Free (1:31.66).

Still yet, the Halloween activities proceeded. 7 LGSC swimmers, a cryptic number, were awarded our LGSC Most Improved Swimmers of the Meet honors. Why so many, you ask? Well, it's somehow related, one has to assume, to the giant and sticky spider's web that had somehow been knit across the LGSC section of the pool deck. That's assumed because 7 big, black spiders were seen scurrying their 8-legged, sinewy way, throughout the entire meet, from that web to the blocks. One can only assume those were our LGSC swimmers on their way to consume the competition with a flurry of new lifetime best times. Munch, munch! Those big, black spiders included: Frankie Baum, Jaidyn Kast, Amelia Koza, Hannah Lynch, Wiley Toohey, Eliana Wheeler, Evan Zastrow. Congratulations to our LGSC Most Improved Swimmers of the Meet!

Here is a trick Halloween question for you: When is there a better time to win our LGSC Sandbagger of the Meet award than during the Halloween season? Answer: there isn't one. Stealing a race during the back half (a negative split) brings out the true spirit of Halloween, indeed! So, this is a special occasion, and, evidently, it was brought on by special means, as well. Prior to the Saturday Backstroke round of events, Isabel Fenley and McKinley Kruse were seen together, off on the corner of the pool deck, conducting a some sort of séance, complete with a crystal ball. Now that must have been tricky with all those spiders scurrying around the area! But nevertheless....

So, the bragging rights from our Spooktacular go out to this pair of LGSC conjurers, who both Sandbagged a 100Y Back with exceptional cunning. Isabel clocked (:39.38-:38.91-1:18.29), and McKinley posted (:37.34-:37.20-1:14.54). Congratulations Sandbaggers!

And there was more, much, much more! 13 other LGSC swimmers (Of course, it was 13 others.) competed at the meet, all of whom looked just like so many bats at night frantically escaping the belfry before the bell tolled midnight! Claiming our LGSC Tidal Wave Fast Swims were: Tanner Champagne-100Y Free (1:17.65), Ginger Chandler-50Y Free (:33.08), Harper Dunlap-50Y Back (:53.55), Callie Fox-50Y Back (:37.22), Avery Howard-200Y Free (3:06.02), McKinley Kruse-100Y Breast (1:21.25), Amanda Lair-50Y Free (:39.82), Jasper McFarland-50Y Back (1:18.93), Casen Miller-100Y Back (2:16.14), Amelia Romer-50Y Back (:50.64), Anica Setser-50Y Free (:28.36), Teagan Walsh-100Y Breast (1:44.98), Jake Weigland-50Y Free (:25.14).

As a heads-up, all of our LGSC Post-Meet Reports can be viewed in our Performance Reports tab of our LGSC website. Simply go to where you sign-up for a meet, and select the Performance Reports tab. You will see the pdf files. These files are also permanently stored in our Events tab, under the meet by its name. Simply select Past & Archive, then enter the meet dates. Take the time to review these reports. They should be self-explanatory once you scope them out a bit.

Nevertheless, we will spend a moment here, since some of these Reports may be new for many of you, explaining each of these Reports. It's actually pretty simple. First, there should be the Complete Meet Results, that is each Event's Final Results recorded. Next, you should see Coach Taylor's Meet Awards, which were just reviewed in this meet blurb. Then, you should see our Team's Results, listed by individual swimmer. Included in this Report is the time, place, improvement and Time Standard achieved for each event swum. There will also be a Team Rankings file. This is one completely self-explanatory. A USA Swimming A Time Standards Report will also be included, for those LGSC swimmers who achieve A Times, or above.

Perhaps the most useful file of all, although one that may require some more in-depth explanation than the others, is the Hytek Points file. Hytek is a provider of software in our sport. All of our swim meets are created on and conducted on-deck using Hytek software. Hytek also provides a Team Manager platform, which generates excellent data files, including this Hytek Points file.

In it, each swim is credited a point total, a score if you will, which is based on a National average for each swim: the higher the score, the faster the swim, and visa-versa. (It's Hytek's version of USA Swimming Power Points, if you are familiar with those.) Novice swimmers may score as little as a single point in a swim. Olympians score over a 1,000 points per swim. The highest score a Coach Taylor swimmer has ever posted is 892. Have at it!) Don't hesitate to consult with Coach Taylor should you have any questions about our Performance Reports.

Our next LGSC swim meet is in lovely Boise, ID just prior to Thanksgiving. Naturally, the Meet Info is posted to our website in the usual place, as well as the opportunity to enter the meet. (Be certain to list in the Notes which days you intend to compete.) Now that we have all gotten our feet wet, and seen how much fun and how personally rewarding it is to compete, let's all make an effort to compete in Boise next month as well! Through competition, we all get better.

See you all there!

Go LGSC!