Age Group One December and January Recap and All Star Swimmers

Michael Chasson

AZ vs SD All Star Meet Summary

Great weekend of meeting and racing new people! As we grow in swimming, the competition comes from farther away and we have to learn how to keep healthy routines in new environments. We also faced a new challenge: lots of racing in a short amount of time. I thought you all handled that wonderfully. At a meet like this, we have to find ways to keep our mind on the present moment. Just finished a race that was a letdown? How can we use the short warm-down to focus up for the next event? What can we do between races to help us stay focused only on the next task? It’s very unlikely we figured this out over one weekend. Rather, we have to look back on all of our competitive environments and how we responded or reacted to each one. All three swimmers are leaders of our group in this skill. I hope this was a fun experience of practicing with a new team and racing for a new purpose!

Lillian F:

  • Best time in 200 Fly

Mikaela

  • 2 individual best times: 50 Breast & 200 IM
  • Swam 5 events each day - way to handle the workload!

Ellie 

  • Best time in 100 Breast
  • Swam 5 events each day - way to handle the workload!

 

Candy Cane Meet

With our first prelim-final meet of the season under our belt, we showed a lot of resilience, discipline, and skill. One of the biggest components I would use to classify a successful prelim-final meet: Did you get a second swim? Did you drop time from your morning swim? As we inch closer to championship season learning what helps fuel dropping time from prelims to finals becomes very important. For some of us, it’s simply the excitement of standing behind the blocks, under the lights, hearing your name called. For others, it might be learning how to let negative thoughts crash and recede like a wave, quickly followed by something positive or task-oriented. Nevertheless, be the same person you are outside of the pool. We cannot let the stress of performance change who we are leading up to the event. Be silly, talk to competitors, think about the detail that will help you one lap at a time, or hug your parents. Everyone is capable of dropping time at finals, even if you went a best time in the morning. Below are the swimmers who earned multiple second swims (finals) and continued to drop time at finals: Audrey, Stella D, Ryan, Ashton, Mikaela, Leo, Lillian T, Truitt, Sophia, and Gavin. For those that dropped time in one event from prelim to finals, but added in others at finals, most of the time it comes down to consistent focus at practice. If we let fatigue or distraction change how to think and act at practice, it will do the same thing at a meet. Great work at Candy Cane everyone, this is making me very proud to see all of us taking the skills we have learned and applying them to our racing!

Candy Cane Notable Performances:

Blake: 

  • 4IM Regionals
  • 200 Fly 9-second drop - 1.6 seconds from regionals 

Audrey: 

  • 4IM 28-second drop - new State cut
  • 200 Back, 200 IM & 50 Free prelims to final drop

Enung: 

  • 400 IM 7 seconds from state
  • 500 Free 46-second drop & 200 IM 10-second drop 

Stella D: 

  • First 4IM only 7s from state
  • 200 Back 8-second drop total ONLY 0.5 from State

Lillian F:

  • First 400 IM - Regionals cut
  • 200 BK 3.5-second drop & 0.9 seconds from state

Ryan: 

  • First 400 IM - Regionals, 
  • 100 Fly 2.6-second drop & 200 Fly 5-second drop 
  • Great splitting in 500 Free

Mikaela: 

  • 100 IM 1.3-second drop, 1FR 1.1s drop,
  • 200 Back 0.6s from state & 100 Back 2 seconds from state 
  • 100 Breast regionals with a 12.5-second drop

Ashton:

  • First 400 IM & state cut
  • 7-second drop in 5FR & top-20 in Arizona
  • 200 IM new state cut

Leo:

  • 5 for 5 in dropping time from prelims to finals

Zephyr:

  • Best time in 500

Stella O: 

  • Best times: 400 IM, 200 Back, 100 Fly

Ellie: 

  • 4/4 best times
  • Achieved ALL 11-12 State Cuts

Anya: 

  • 4 for 5 best times
  • 26-second drop in 500 Free & a new regional cut

Rachel: 

  • 3/3 best times - including two 2-second drops in the 50 Fly and 50 Back

Lillian T: 

  • First 4IM - new state cut
  • 8-second drop in 200 IM, 6-second drop in 100 Breast & 5-second drop in 100 Fly 

Truitt: 

  • 8 Best times & 4/5 dropping prelim to finals 
  • 0.1 from 100 Free, 0.05 from 200 Free & 1.3 from 200 IM state cuts 
  • 1-minute drop in 500 Free bringing the state cut within 2 seconds

Nathan: 

  • 5 best times 
  • Time drops to Regionals cuts: 200 Free 2.6 seconds, 100 Back 1.4 seconds, 200 IM 3.6 seconds

Sophia: 

  • 200 IM State cut
  • Drop in 200 Back - overcoming a big plateau!

Riley: 

  • 2-second drop in 200 Free for a new regional cut
  • 8-second drop in 100 BR

Ella: 

  • 13-second drop in 200 Breast & first time under 3:00 
  • 2-second drop in 100 Breast - 1.4 seconds from state

Ander: 

  • 200 Breast 5-second drop & state cut
  • First 400 IM & state cut 

Gavin: 

  • 200 Back 10-second drop & state cut
  • 200 Free 3-second drop & first time under 2:10
  • 100 Free first time under 1:00