We awoke today for the final day of the meet. Would we have anything left after 3 long days of racing? We had no time for the 
as warm up arrived very early. After warm up in conditions that were not great (our lane sounded like the whooping cough because of the air), we headed to the other pool where the air was great and it was actually cold. Of course Alex Hunter being Alex could not find the door to join us, GO FIGURE! The session started with the final relay of the meet, the 400 FREE RELAY which saw us swim to 7 best times with our splits out of 16 swims, and two of the relays; 11-12 girls A and 11 -12 boys swim to best times. Not a bad start for the final day.200 BREAST: Melissa K. was our first swimmer to hit the water and after a great effort in a long race she fell a little short with her time. Next in was Amy B who was entering her 13th race of the meet, but again she rose to the challenge in swimming to a best time and right into finals later in the evening, where she would drop her time once again.
100 BACK: We saw 4 from our group entered in this event, with Meg R. and Tyler S. having good races and swimming about the same times. James M. had an incredible race swimming right into finals with a best time of over 3 seconds. Logan M. swimming her 14th race also swam right into finals with the same time, but would come back in the evening to do her best time by almost 2 seconds.
100 FREE: Rachel R. swam a great first part of the race but fell a little short with her time. Matt J. in winning his heat dropped his time over 2 second and swam into final in the evening and finishing with a 51:98 after entering the meet with a 54:38.
50 FREE: It was now time for the pure sprinters to have a go at the 
. and in this race anything goes. We had 11 swimmers in this event (sprinters are a dime a dozen) and we had 8 best times including Amy B., Rachel W., and Leah R., who all made finals. We also had Kylie C., Meg R., MattM., Conor M., Tyler S., Elise B., swim to best times and Megan H., and Patrick M., swim great races that fell .03 and .3 off their best.
. and in this race anything goes. We had 11 swimmers in this event (sprinters are a dime a dozen) and we had 8 best times including Amy B., Rachel W., and Leah R., who all made finals. We also had Kylie C., Meg R., MattM., Conor M., Tyler S., Elise B., swim to best times and Megan H., and Patrick M., swim great races that fell .03 and .3 off their best.200 FLY: Katie S., and Lauren Y., were the first to attack this race and after a good effort they found themselves a little off their best times. The next 3 swimmers all found themselves swimming right into finals in the evening, beginning with Rachel A who drooped some time and then would return in the evening to drop 2 seconds in her last swim of the meet. Gillian C. would only drop a second in the morning but would return in the evening to drop over 2 more seconds. Matt J. had a great "Middle 100" in his fly and hung on to drop over 5 seconds.
100 FLY: The last event of the morning session saw Matt M. swim to a best time. James M., and Leah R. had 2 of the best swims of the session swimming right into finals dropping over 2 and 6 seconds. Later that evening they would finish with the exact same times of 1:05:48. You could tell the meet was starting wear on the kids as Katie C., Megan H. (making finals) Elise B. and David J all gave A valiant efforts but were a little off of their best times.
It was now time for our 10 and unders to enter their final day of swimming and we also started this session with the 200 FREE RELAY where they both turned in best times and out of 8 swims we had 7 best times with the splits.
100 BACK: All 4 of our swimmers in this event posted best times with Roman L leading the way dropping over 3 seconds and swimming right into finals. Gavin S. Noah C., and Kevin Xu all had great swims posting best times by over 1 second.
50 FREE: Our 10 and unders swam as well as our older swimmers in this event, with Gavin S., Laura G. and Roman L. all posting new personal best. Anna O. had a great race and finished .2 off her best.
100 FLY: The last event of the session saw Ann O., swimming a great "MIDDLE 50" to swim a best time. Kevin X. came up a little short after a great effort.
FINALS:
After a little rest and refueling of our bodies it was back to the pool for the last session of the meet. This session would see our group having having 18 splashes for the evening. All the kids who swam tonight had some incredible swims but the two that really stood out were Amy B. 200 Breast and Logan M. 100 back. The simple reason was that these girls were swimming their 15th race in the meet (Amy would finish with 16 races), but not once did they say they were tired. What they did was show up and take care of business. Another swimmer who showed a lot of class by never complaining was Roman L. who would also finish the meet with 14 races (maximum for 10 and unders), and what is incredible about that is the fact that he only had a couple of hours to rest in between sessions, and he still came back in the evening and rose to the challenge. Another event that stood out was the very final event of the meet which saw James and Leah both wanting to beat each other and they ended up with the "EXACT" same time, a most fitting end to a great weekend.
FINAL STATS; Now if my math is correct Sarah (if it's not I'm sure you'll let me know), as a group we had 190 Individual Splashes in the meet. We ended up with 140 best times, 39 times that were between .01 and .80 off their best, and only 11 that were over a second off. That is about 74% best times. As for relays we had 24 swim and posted 19 best times. This comes out to 96 individual swims in the relays that resulted in 68 best times on the splits.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This meet always brings with it a lot of excitement and a lot of expectations. As a group I look back and take a lot of pride in the way you conducted yourselves both mentally and physically during this very long weekend. You stared that "BEAST" right in the eye and you never once backed away, and all of you should be very proud of the effort you put forward. As a final thing I would ask you to remember to thank your parents and family for the support they showed over the weekend, because although they are not swimming they are there with every stroke and they continue to support you away from the pool, and this take a "GREAT" deal of effort, please do not take this for granted, as we sometimes do. 
MIKE
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