SMAC 8 and Under Champs Recap
8 & Under Champs Recap
Congratulations to all SMAC swimmers who swam at the Southwest 8 & Under District Championship on February 11th and 12th. We had 12 swimmers attend, swimming a total of 62 races.
Congrats to Alex Ai for 2 second place finishes, one in the 25 backstroke, and one in the 25 breaststroke, as well as a 4th place finish in the 100 breaststroke. Congrats to Daylie Oswald for a third place finish in the 100 freestyle, a fourth in the 100 back.
Of the 62 races, 45 of them were events swam previously by our Team. Swimmers dropped time in 35 of them. That’s a 78% best times on top of 18 new swims. In total, just by the numbers that’s an 85% improvement from past meets.
Great job to our 8 and under swimmers!
8 and under meets can look a little different than traditional swim meets when it comes time to reflect. While time improvements are always something to be celebrated, technique changes, or added skills sometimes are even more so. Something as simple as streamlining off the walls, or touching with 2 hands should be a given for your older swimmers, things they don’t even have to think about, but for our younger swimmers, it can be a struggle, no matter how often we remind them during practice. All of our 8 and under swimmers should be proud of the meet they had, for in one way or another, they all had victories.
Carrie-Anne Proffitt for example, added in a backstroke flip turn in her 50 backstroke swim, a daunting task for a championship meet. Ainslee Newman did a great job of triumphing over a one handed touch to nail two great (2 hand touch) finishes in her 25 breaststroke, and 25 butterfly. She also dropped almost 18 seconds in her 50 back! Thomas Joyner took all his kick sets during practice to heart, and kicked up a storm in his 25 freestyle. Zachary Anderson competed in his first ever SMAC during this championship meet to swim 2 best times! Kannon Koser dropped an overall total of 21.29 seconds, really proving how much he’s listened, and learned at practice, despite only joining Mighty Marlins in January, moving up from our Mini Marlins program. Filip Rankovic stepped up and swam the 100 freestyle, and 25 fly for the first time, paying special attention to keep his feet together in his butterfly. Lainey Brown swam the 100 freestyle for the first time, and had a lovely smooth 50 backstroke swim. Charlotte Harris swam her first 25 breaststroke, really focusing on keeping her pull small, and efficient, instead of letting it drift too far. Cap McKay also swam his first 25 breaststroke, channeling everything he learned at practice, specifically focusing on small pulls. Grady Santiuste dropped a total of almost 11 seconds, with an impressive 5 second drop in a nice 25 fly. Eryk Alton swam 25 fly getting the timing kicks and pulls correctly, something the Mighty Marlins have been working over the past three months.. Alex Ai and Daylie Oswald did a great job representing Age Group 2, not only cheering on their teammates, but helping some of the Mighty Marlin and Age Group 1 swimmers who were a little less experienced with swim meets, giving them good information, helping them figure out where to go, and calming nerves, on top of swimming a multitude of good races.
Remember “sometime you win and sometimes you learn”. Well the coaches learned several things that we will be focusing on in practice - two hand touches for breast and fly, hips up and head steady in backstroke, stroke count for backstroke finishes, balance on the starting blocks to help when the starter holds the start, breaststroke pull out, and fast tempo.
See full list of results in the attached sheet below.
If you have any pictures from the meet, please send them to your coach or to Coach Tasha at [email protected]
Link - 8 & Under Champs
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QDFEht38UNYR8sgsN78OYE-d1Wo8mFazwF_wZjq1sGA/edit?usp=sharing
