The Cracker turned out to be a very solid meet for everyone with most coming away with best times in almost all their swims and if they didn't in one or two events they were very close to them. This was already after some significant drops at the Langley meet 3 weeks prior. It was nice to see everyone come back in the evening to support their teammates and watch some of the swimming at finals even if they were not in the session. It always helps when you feel like you have a crew behind you. Although we had no significant time standard cuts made we are moving in the right direction and that is the important thing. The age group national standards have significantly tightened and are very difficult to make. You are basically top 15 in the country if you make them. Currently our top two ranked swimmers are Colby Evans who is 20th in Canada for the 200fly with his time of 2:15.81 and Chris Ruus in the 200back who is 28th with a time of 2:26.50 for all 13 year olds. John Hollands is in the top 50 for his 200 fly for 14 year olds and on the bubble is Aiden Smith who is about a half a second from cracking the top 50 in Canada for 10 year olds in the 50 free. Nice work boys!

 

It was great to see a lot of the swimmers starting to mature into more complete athletes. I see steady progress being made in areas such as self-awareness, racing strategies, pacing and tactics as well as a more aspects of preparation being controlled instead of just an afterthought. Many challenges arise over a 3 day meet with heats and finals, most of them being of how to manage yourself and staying consistent with performances after very long days. Some of you were racing at 130pm after warming up at 730am - not an easy thing to do yet still swimming at your best. So keep up the good work and remember if you feel overwhelmed or tired that everyone has to deal with the same circumstances so the playing field is level.

 

Congratulations on everyone on a successful competition.