Sharks/Killer Whales

Candy Pentathlon Championships  November 7th, 2009

What a great job everyone did getting to their races and swimming with all their efforts!  We had a couple of last minute scratches due to illness and injury, but we had (in order of appearance) Kendra Wu, Claire Hu, Meredith Cummings, Abigail Clarke, Quinn Knoblock, Leon Xia, David Shau, Eric Liu, Yotam Ponte, AJ Johnson, Randy Tang, David Ma, Meera Santhanam, Julia Whealan, and Alex Song (I count 15) who participated.

It was a pretty cold morning, even though the sun was out.  And our times were a little off in the first couple rounds, but once it started to warm up, the times started dropping.  I was really impressed with the number of the Sharks who tried all 5 events - Meredith Cummings, Claire Hu, Quinn Knoblock, Kendra Wu, AJ Johnson, Eric Liu, Randy Tang and Leon Xia - all competed in the whole Pentathlon - great job guys!

Yotam Ponte (Killer Whale) also swam 5 and David Ma really wanted to, but he went too fast at the Burlingame meet and got his A time in 50 back, so he couldn’t do all 5.

Special Thanks to Mrs Cummings, Mrs Knoblock, Mr Santhanam, Mrs Burrows, Mr Xia, Mrs Li, Mrs Qin and Mrs Zhou for timing during the meet.  We only had one lane to time, but you guys stepped up when other sites didn’t have their timers and a huge thanks to you!

Thanks to LAGCC for hosting the meet.  The hospitality was yummy!

BAC Spooktacular October 31 and November 1, 2009

It was a misty cold morning, perfect eerie Halloween weather! And since I couldn’t make it, I got Teletubbie, Po, to coach for me (last second conflict). I was very warm since I was pretty much wearing fleece pajamas! Sorry if you didn’t see me, and please let me know if anyone took a picture as I am trying to head off all blackmail attempts!

I would like to remind everyone of how to go to a "Real" swim meet.

I want you to arrive at a meet one hour before the meet starts, so if the meet begins at 8:30 am, please get there by 7:30 am. Once you get to the meet, immediately get into the check in line and check in for your events. As you know we enter meets about a month (or more) ahead of time and this lets them know that you are there. Then come find me.

I will be under the coaches’ tent, usually writing split sheets for the day. Just say hi and I will point you to where the team is sitting and then you can get in and warm up. You should already know your events and what you should do for warm up. After warm up, get out, get dressed and stay WARM.

The event’s heats and lane will be posted right before you swim. Once you get them, you need to come and tell me what heat and lane you are in. Just tell me two numbers - heat first, lane second. I don’t need to know the event number or the event, just the heat number and the lane number. Remember I am old and blind and pretty nearly deaf when there is background noise (none of that at meets) - so speak up loud and proud!

Then you should get your cap and goggles on and head behind the blocks to your lane. Sometimes the heats and lanes get put out at the last second, so you might have to get to the blocks without telling me (this is rare - so don’t use this as an excuse!) If you are standing behind the blocks, and you hear your name being called out by the officials, JUMP in front of the timers, WAVE your arms overhead, and YELL that you are there. If they see you, they will wait for you. But if you are quiet and polite and take your time, they won’t.

After you swim, warm down in the warm down area by doing about 100 frankenstein - more if you swim a longer race. Get dressed and be warm and then come and see me. Please be patient as I have to watch all my swimmers before I have a chance to talk to you. But I want to talk to you about what went right and what went wrong. Also, you might get a duckie! Reminder - you need to get your heat and lane and go behind the blocks BY YOURSELF!!! No parents to earn duckies!

Sometimes your heat and lane are up for your next event while you are heading over to talk to me, so kill two birds with one stone, and tell me your heat and lane after I tell you about your event. Sometimes the meet is running so fast that I want the Killer Whales to skip the "talk to you after" part until the meet slows down. I ALWAYS want the Sharks to come over. Again, this is rare, but it does happen (think DACA LC last summer - CRAZY!)

Candy meets (and the QUAD meet) are pre seeded meets. Meaning there is no check in, and the heats and lanes are available right when you get to the pool. So you need to write them on your hand, and I will already have them, so you don’t need to tell me. Just pay attention to how the meet is running and get to your heat and lane on time.

Even with the very cold morning on Saturday, and our practice Challenges we are continuing to experience (no backstroke since we have no backstroke flags), I thought the meet went pretty well. We had a lot of best times, a bunch of new time standards and even one new Team Record!

Supriya Sharma became our second swimmer to finish her ALL EVENTS T Shirt on Halloween day!

Great Job everyone, and thanks to all the Parents who helped time and to our Officials who helped run the meet!  See you at the pool.

DACA C/B/A+ October 14-15, 2009