I knew today was going to be a good day when I bought a slightly overpriced mountain dew from the hotel pepsi machine and on the other side of the cap was a “buy 1 get 1 free” coupon.
I rocked our conference championship T-shirt this morning. After all, last time I wore it Amanda won the 200 back at PSAC’s…
We were the first team to arrive, something Amanda was very happy about (only a slight hint of sarcasm there). She eventually got into the pool and did a really solid warm up. Some build ups working the turns.
The first event was the 100 freestyle and the PSAC will be well represented by both men and women in tonight’s finals. The second event was the 200 backstroke. There were 4 total heats, and Amanda, seeded 8th, was in the 3rd heat, lane 3.
She swum a very smooth race. Going out slightly slower than she did at PSAC’s. Her 3rd 50 was too slow and hopefully she won’t let up on the gas as much tonight. She brought it home very well and finished with a time of 2:03.81 (another lifetime best!). Puts her in 4th position for tonight’s final.
After giving the announcer a slight dig in last night’s posting based on his messing up some of the bio’s, I need to give him some props today. He offered me a congratulations on the night before and during the race when Amanda was leading her heat (before the 3rd 50) he reminded the crowd that Amanda was the only LHU and first LHU swimmer at nationals. Maybe he does better without a script?
Going into tonight she is in a little better position than yesterday. There isn’t much to lose, she swam a lifetime best this morning and after taking another quick look at the top 8, I can’t help but to notice she is the only freshman in the championship final, (1 sophomore, 2 juniors, and 4 seniors).
Tonight is all about what Amanda does best…racing. Win, lose or draw she still gets another trip to the podium, a sweet trophy and All American status. Not a bad day.
We attempted to do lunch at IHOP again, but found the doors to be overflowing and so we decided to give Cracker Barrel a shot. We had a wait of about 30 minutes…time was spent playing a game of checkers. (I got my butt kicked!) We had a hearty, filling meal and headed back to the hotel.
Again, nap time and tredmill time await…4:30pm departure for the pool.
(just a quick note about the overall team race … we are 29th, not bad…but there is a tie between perennial swimming powerhouses Drury and Truman State and it is going to be really fun to watch the teams go at it. On the Men’s side, West Chester is currently in 2nd place and is probably not going to win it, but will be fighting to hold on to the silver medal)
~finals~
For those who didn’t get a chance to look at the live results, I will spare you the suspense. Amanda was third with a smoking fast time of 2:01.95.
We talked about a few things that needed to happen to make the final swim faster then her preliminary swim. The first being out in the mid 59 range (Amanda went 59.60), the next was not letting up on the 3rd 50, I was thinking to not go any slower than 31.99 (Amanda went 31.61) and finally kick in and out of the turns (I have no clue if this happened b/c I was a too excited to make mental notes of the turns).
We ended up arriving at the pool a little later than usual, which turned out to still be plenty of time before her race. There were 2 heats of the 1650 and then all the heats of the 100 free, awards and finally the 200 back.
By virtue of finishing in the top 8 twice, Amanda ends her freshman campaign a 2 time All-American.
Amanda swam 5 events this weekend, 50 free prelims, 100 back prelims & finals, and 200 back prelims & finals, each performance was a lifetime best. Awesome.
This season was very much a roller coaster for Amanda and I am so proud of the fact that she ended up on top! I think we can make some adjustments to how we train next season to build upon this year’s successes to continue doing some great things. Next years national meet will be in Houston, Texas…but we are going to take some time to savor this season before thinking about the next one.
Here is how all the PSAC institutions finished at the NCAA meet.
Women…
West Chester, 7th with 202 points
Clarion, 8th, with 190 points
Edinboro 18th, with 54 points
Lock Haven 26th, with 29 points
California 27th, with 27 points
Bloomsburg 30th, with 15 points
On the Men’s side:
West Chester 3rd, with 316.5 points
Clarion 18th, with 68 points
IUP 26th, with 15 points
Finally, thank you to all those who texted, emailed, called and facebooked us. Sorry if replies didn’t come fast and furious and most weren’t nearly as long or detailed as I would have liked (I was uncharacteristically short winded most of the time). Your support did (and still does) mean a great deal to us. Thank you.
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