2012 AA Champs Day 3 And Conclusion

Day 3 finals proved to be as exhilarating as the first 2. We started off with Jakob swimming in the 200 back swim-off. He had gone a 3 second best time in the morning but it was only good enough to tie for 8th place. So, it was him and another swimmer, heads up, one on one, man to man. With Hyack swimmers up cheering him on, the recipe for victory was set. He had a great start and led the race the whole way. With 50m to go, he was just on pace to make his AAA. One missed turn, a bad streamline, or a lapse in concentration would've cost him the time. Jakob ends up touching the wall just under the time and earns a spot for his first AAA meet ever.

With that awesome start, the tone for finals was set:

Elaine 1st 200 fr
Grace 3rd 100 br
Brodie, Tej, Sehaj 1,2, and 3 in the 100 breast, which means we swept both the 200 br and the 100 br; Brodie with a new AAA
Aleks 2nd 100 br
Stella 1st 200 bk
Elaine 1st 200 bk
Qiqi and Brian 2nd and 3rd 200 bk
Danaka 1st 400 IM

After 3 fantastic days of racing, we have some impressive results. A total of 58 final swims with 35 of those ending up on the podium (60.3% of our finals medaled....). That's 14 Golds, 10 Silvers, and 11 Bronzes. Not only were our AA athletes showing that they could perform at the top of their game, it also shows that they can race to win. This bodes well for this group of swimmers as they move on to bigger meets.

Coming out of this meet, we have 10 new AAA qualifiers and 9 of those will have a shot of racing at Provincials in a couple of weeks. Considering we only had 22 swimmers at this meet, 10/22 is quite an impressive stat. What's even more impressive is that many of the qualifiers were "surprise" qualifiers; on paper, it did not seem like they were close to AAA's. They started the season off without any AA's. However, I have seen some awesome things in practice that have obviously paid off. It just goes to show what hard work and perseverance can do.

Congratulations to all swimmers at AA's! You all did a great job and fully deserve all the achievements that you guys/girls have gotten. Good luck to all going to provincials! Let's see some fast racing.....