How to sum up our weekend…. Spectacular! We see a LOT of races and do a LOT of cheering through six sessions of a Conference Championship.
Claire got our night started off right with her Finals swim in the 1650. She undertook quite an unusual feat, breaking both our mile school record and our 1000 freestyle record on the same swim. She was six seconds under our 1000 record at that split and we knew she was on the way to a big swim. Later, Claire said she sensed things were going well during her race because one of her coaches was running along the side of the pool jumping up and down waving at her during the last few hundred yards. [Guilty as charged.] What a swim to begin the last night of Finals!
Josh followed-up with a lifetime best 1650 to keep our momentum going. And momentum is what we have as Cat jumped in for her 200 backstroke She made good on her top seed from the morning and absolutely ran away with the heat for the win!
We rolled along on the wings of these great swims right on to the end.
In the most highly contested placing of the meet, our women were holding a three-point lead over Whitman for 3rd going into the last relay. Describing the mood as electric as our relay team marched to the blocks would be an understatement. I very much had the sense everyone knew what was on the line. Our girls put together a phenomenal relay performance and locked in our team’s 3rd place finish in the Northwest Conference Championship.
After the meet, the men’s team serenaded Dave with a special rendition of “You’ve lost that loving feeling” a la Top Gun. Quite moving.
On the way home we swung by Dairy Queen to wave farewell to careful eating with the meet behind us. So many great ways to donate change to a good cause, and Josh and Rachel tried to find each one.
In a sly moment of inspiration, the team bought me an ice cream cake to celebrate as Women’s Coach of the Year. It was delicious. On the one hand it had worms on it, but on the other hand it was ice cream, so I don’t know if I should read into it. The writing was kind of a rush job and we enjoyed the “Congrates” the harried employee managed late on a Sunday night shift. Mostly I think it was a really nice gesture at the end of a long, long, fun-filled weekend. Also, I’ve eaten ice cream cake the last three nights after dinner. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
1 comment:
Coach Fantz--Thanks for all the posts and pictures during the conference meet. They were so fun to read and look through--especially since we cannot be there in person. Performing on such a big stage as a conference meet sure takes a lot of courage. Most people would not even attempt such a thing. Your swimmers are incredibly brave! Congratulations on being named coach of the year. You run a great program--success amidst fun.
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