GRAND PRIX

Over the weekend of November 11-13, six Potomac Marlins swimmers and two coaches traveled to the University of Minnesota to participate in the Minneapolis Grand Prix.  This was a weekend of many lessons for the athletes and coaches.  The first lesson came when the psych sheet was posted and we realized that this was not going to be your average November meet.  Rarely, do we go to meets where the top seeds include names like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Hoff and Dara Torres.  Just looking at the psych sheet made us realize it was going to take some incredibly fast swimming just to finish in the middle of the pack.

The second lesson we learned was that TSA is serious when they say you can’t travel without photo identification.  It’s an important lesson.  Enough said.

Once we got to the pool, the swimmers had their “Olympic” moments.  When I came out the coaches meeting, the swimmers were very quick to point out that Ryan Lochte was swimming in the lane next to them.  I told them to race him, but no one took me up on the challenge.  It was nice that we had Natalie on the trip because she was able to identify every Olympian and we gave her the title Head Stalker.  The swimmers had fun over the course of the weekend in the warm up/warm down pool swimming back and forth with such incredible talent.  At one point, I looked in the pool and I saw Natalie, Stephanie, Sierra and Laura warming up in the same lane as Michael Phelps, Katie Hoff and Dara Torres.  I guess if you are going to get run over in the warm down pool, it may as well be by a gold medalist.

As far as the in water performances, the Marlins did not disappoint.  Out of 18 individual events, our swimmers did a best time in 13 events.  Not too shabby for a meet in the middle of hard training.  The highest finisher of the weekend was Laura Schwartz, who made finals in the 400 IM.  Making finals was a huge accomplishment at this meet considering there were Olympic medalists swimming in “B” finals.  Laura finished in 21st place at finals, just missing the USA Junior National cut by half a second.  Laura also finished in the top half of the field in 100 and 200 breaststroke, the 200 fly and the 200 IM (where she finished 31st).  The biggest mover of the weekend was Stephanie Clarke who went from seeded 92nd to finishing 48th.  Laura and Stephanie combined with Sierra Higinbotham and Natalie Obando to finish in the top 20 in both the 400 free and 400 medley relays. 

The boys on the trip were not to be out done.  Caleb Meindertsma swam three best times and Eli Bass swam one best time.  Caleb had big drops in the 400 IM (-7.32), the 200 fly (-11.02) and the 400 free      (-12.13) and Eli’s best performance came in the 400 IM where he dropped 6.72 seconds.  Again, pretty good swimming in mid-November!

Another big lesson we learned (or had confirmed) on the trip was how the top athletes in the world conduct themselves before and after their races.  We saw many swimmers carry water bottles to the blocks and start rehydrating immediately after their races.  They carried their drinks to the warm down pools and continued to rehydrate during their warm down.  Speaking of warm down, we saw the swimmers go directly to warm down.  They did not spend time chatting or deciding if they should cool down.  They went to the pool, took care of business and then got ready for the next race.

Overall, the swimmers and coaches learned a lot and had some fun.  The trip to the Mall of America was a nice distraction on Saturday night.  The swimmers spent most of their time in the indoor amusement park.  Hopefully, we can take a few more swimmers in the future.  It’s all up to you.

Coach Kevin Ahearn