Dear Parents and Swimmers,
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What a terrific weekend!
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First of all, a huge thank you to Michelle Schwab, Dennis Jackson, Liz Solomon, Bill Clifford, Lisa Helmick and all of our parents who stepped up to help.
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Michelle collected the entries from all of the participating teams and assembled the meet even though for most of the time leading up to the meet she had no power at home. Then, when we were forced to cancel the Saturday morning session, she put together a time trial session, again with no power. Dennis and Liz spent the entire weekend ensuring that the meet came off without a hitch. Bill Clifford organized the officials and timers and worked all of the sessions. Lisa Helmick had collected all of our entries and then helped with communications to make sure everyone had an opportunity to time trial if they needed it to move on to Zones. Needless to say, it wouldn’t happen without everyone lending a hand.
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My colleagues at the various Y teams were very complimentary of the entire meet and really appreciated the hospitality! Congratulations on pulling off an extremely difficult feat and thank you! I think our swimmers rose to the occasion and I know they appreciate all we do—they often express their gratitude to me even though it is meant for all of you.
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Our new state champions!
Jack McCuiston (11-12 200 IM,100 breast, 50 fly, 100 free, 200 breast, 50 free) Brody McCuiston (10 and under 100 IM,50 back, 200 free, 100 back, 50 free) Will Quarrier (10 and under 100 breast, 50 breast) Mary Bailey (10 and under 100 breast,) Beckham Leith (10 and under 50 fly, 200 IM) Catherine Howe (11-12 50 fly,100 IM) Malin Murphey (11-12 400 IM, 200 back) Nolan Knudsen (11-12 100 fly,) Michael Bailey (11-12 50 breast,) Natalie Batey (11-12 50 breast,) Claire Tomasek (50 breast, 50 free) and Winston Lu (10 and under 500 free.) Quinn Norlander (13-14 400 IM,) Charlie McCuiston (13-14 100 free, 500 free) Charlie Michael (13-14 200 IM,) Demetra Bicos (15-18 500,) and Samantha Memmer (13-14 500 free).
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We also had a new state meet record from Malin Murphey in 11-12 200 back!!
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Of course, it is our depth that ruled the day with the final score having us with 3674.5 points to runner-up Flint 1242.5. Benton Harbor-St. Joe won the small team competition.
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We had a lot of very happy and proud swimmers, and very deservedly so. We had four eight and unders (Jack Palmer, Leyre Bonel-Muras, Teddy Howe and Reid McCuiston) qualify for the meet (and they all scored!) As we move through our championship season it is gratifying to watch our swimmers evolve. Good swimmers become great swimmers, great swimmers become stars and our swimmers never look at themselves the same way again. It was particularly touching to have so many swimmers tell me that they achieved their goals (or surpassed them) and that they did exactly the race they had visualized.
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For some of our swimmers this was their last meet of the season. It was a great culmination. For many we head on now to Great Lakes Zones, MAGS, and Nationals. Soldier on!!
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This weekend we have the “Day-After” Meet. The principal purpose of this meet is to give our high school boys a chance to swim their longer events the day after their high school meet while they are in full taper. Have swimmers check with Chris, Peter, Greg or me if they think it would be beneficial for them to swim.
Because we are running that meet on Sunday we will not have any other practices.
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Kevin