FINAL DAY OF COMPETITION

So this morning the Mako swimmers rose from their deep slumber for one more day of competition at there North shore Aquatic Pool in Saint Petersburg.  As in previous years Saturdays event began with the 400 IM which always takes over an hour on both courses.  Because of that a lot of teams arrived later for warm up but for us taking a page out of coach Peter's book let's stick to our schedule and get a good warmup followed by some stretching. This year we also had Makos very own Emerson Wilson swimming the 400 Im. We got to spread out and use 4 lanes for our general warmup which was quite nice.  I always enjoy Saturday and not because it's the last day but it provides the swimmers and coaches extra time to just hang with each other.

Last years group

As was mentioned the meet started with the IM events and our first 2 swimmers were Sadie in the 200 and Emerson in the 400.  Both girls had great swims Sadie attacking the back half of each 50 with a strong backstroke and freestyle leg finishing 3rd in her heat and securing a spot in finals.  Not to be outdone by a 10 year old Emerson took to the pool and put together 4 great legs.  Her fly looked strong and smooth, a good sign in the 400, and she followed that by even splitting the backstroke which set her up for, yes the breaststroke.  With good fly and back legs behind her she was now able to stay calm in the breast legs and just race and finish with a strong free to win her heat just missing a spot at finals.

With the conclusion of the IM events it was now time for the fly sprinters to head to the blocks.  Mako swimmers included Lyla, Anna r girls all the way through the race and with a great finish touching the wall at 30.06 a PB and winning the heat.  Also posting best times in the event were Anna 32.5, Rebecca 29.99 and winning her heat, and Blake posting his same time while qualifying for finals.  At finals Blake wound up in 3rd place posting his best time of 26.24.

It seems odd to say but it was now time for the 13&14 year olds to swim a rare 50 fly, so rare that is always hard to tell if they had best times due too the fact that the last time they swam this event they were a meek 12 year old.  For them this event is all about having fun, and racing to see who can get their hand to the wall first.  Qualifying for finals were Sophia, Sophie, Adrian, and Ben with all of the swimmers in their heats finishing within 1  second of each other, really great swims.  Skylar and Charlotte ended up winning their respective heats and Ashley finished 3rd in her closely fought race.

The next event , the 100 breast saw two Mako swimmers qualify for finals posting their same entry times.  Both Blake and Emerson would have great races at finals placing in the top 6 with best times of 1:06:48 and 1:07:56 respectively.

Sadie and Lexi would now close out their meets with the always exciting 50 free. Winning her heat in an exciting race and qualifying for finals with a PB of 30.89.  Also qualifying for finals and winning the event was Sadie posting her PB of 26.99

Finishing off the individual events of the meet was the 11 and over 200 freestyle and up first was Claire who qualified for finals placing 9th with a 2:04.91. Also swimming the 200 free were Charlotte  Dixon, Kitty, Jackie and Adrian all qualifying for finals and posting PB ion the evening of 1:57.96, 1:54.89, 1:56.21 and 1:54.52.  Winning both their heat were Sophia Cloutier posting a 2:05.10 and
Riley Miller with a 2:06.87.

As with our tradition we decided to swim all our relays in there morning to give the kids more time on the beach in the evening.  The 400 free relay saw are 11&12 and 13&14 B girls finishing 2nd in their heat while the 13&14 A girls won their heat finishing 4th overall just missing the p[odium.

All and all the Mako swimmers had a great meet at least in the eyes of this observer.

START SETTING GOALS AND MAKING PLANS FOR NEXT SEASON.   FOR THOSE 14 year olds  remember their is a meet here for you all 2 weeks before the little guys so all is not lost but you need to start today.