Do or Do Not -- There is No "Try"

Ten members of the HS swimming team joined in as exhibition swimmers in a meet with Father Ryan, St. Cecilia, Centennial, and Pope John Paul II last Wednesday at the Vanderbilt Recreation and Wellness Center. This meet gave us an opportunity to have a different approach than what we bring to a typical dual meet. Instead of focusing on spreading our lineup out, maximizing our team scoring opportunities, and emphasizing relays, we aimed to maximize individual swims and earn some State qualifying times.

This first goal was met by all ten swimmers. Everyone who competed earned season best times, and several swims were close to or faster than lifetime bests. In particular our 200 and 500 freestyle swimmers (Graham Shockley, Katie Watke, Caroline Hollahan, Natalie TeSelle) were all very strong, which is a testament to the work they’ve been doing as part of Coach Richard Rosenthal’s mid-distance freestyle group. Notably, Graham dropped 30 seconds off his seed time in the 500 free!

Senior captains Jack Reed and Natalie TeSelle punched their tickets to the State meet once again. After missing the 50 freestyle cut in the individual 50, Jack chose to race the 100 freestyle (only 15 minutes later) to try for the 50 cut again. He was better the second time, finishing in 23.89, which is just off his best time and allows us to take a relay to the State meet in February. A few minutes later, Natalie swam an aggressive 500 and beat the state qualifying time by four seconds, which is by far the fastest she’s swum in December.

Other standout swims came in shorter races – Ky Hall’s 100 breast showed promise, Mia Pretorius’ 50 and 100 freestyles (27.9 and 1:02.9, respectively)were both within striking distance of the state qualifying times and cemented her role on our “A” relays, and Henry Standard’s 100 breaststroke was a major improvement.

As coaches, what we were most pleased with is how fast this group was able to swim without any special physical or mental preparation. We didn’t back off our training or make any major adjustments to the practice routine leading up to this meet. As a group, we simply decided that this was a meet we should approach with the intention to compete, and they rose to the challenge. December meets are sometimes a mixed bag, with everyone looking ahead to exams, and this group negotiated this very well. The team is in training mode until January 7, when we begin a stretch of four meets in ten days, which will sharpen us and help us prepare for the Region and State championship meets.