Vandal Invitational

    12 CAST Athletes traveled to the second annual Vandal Invitational, a prelims/finals championship  style competition with several club teams as well as 2 college teams in attendance. Our athletes swam extremely tough all weekend-with very short turnaround times in between swims, kids had little time in between races to recover and often doubled up events in the span of mere minutes. With over half our athletes sick or recovering from being sick, these performances were doubly commendable! Every one of our athletes that qualified for finals came back and swam stronger at night, learning from their morning swims and making good adjustments in their races. While best times were scarce, our kids swam hard and should be proud of their efforts!

    Elishka Janout netted the most best times, earning PR’s in her 200 IM, 100 Breast, 100 back, and 100 free. Rachel Nicholls crushed her 1650, netting the 7th fastest performer time in team history, to go along with a best in the 200 freestyle. Elijah Brown got a pair of PR’s in the 200 free and 200 breast despite a brutal triple event set on both days.  Delaney Snell had a terrifically difficult event set, but managed a double dip best time in the 400 IM, dropping 6 in the morning and 6 more at night in A finals. Owen Bennett dropped over half a minute in his 1650, Erin Griffith shaved off a second in her 200 free while coming off being sick, Zach Linford dropped a second in his 100 back and came oh-so-close to breaking the 1:00 mark, Camryn Schmidt shaved a half second off her 100 fly to go along with a bunch of swims right at her previous bests, and Bostyn Shoemaker dropped a second in her 100 fly while sometimes racing athletes 10 years older than her!

     Our final three swimmers didn’t make any new PR’s, but all had swims just off their best and improved in their evening swims. Pema Anain had an excellent finals swim in the 500 free, just off her best; Ben Linford’s stellar 200 free in finals was also just off his best; and Gabby Garasky worked some terrific underwater in her 100 fly and 100 back finals.

    Thanks to all the swimmers for their great attitudes all weekend, despite some adverse circumstances!