Saturday, July 30, 2005

Championship Meet and the close of the swim season

Last night was the Championship Swim Meet for our summer swim league. I think the final team standings had: Crafton, Scott, Lebo, Green Tree, South Fayette.

Green Tree and Mt. Lebo were in a tight battle for third headed into the final relays. In the dual meet, Green Tree won out in the relays and was able to win. The same fate might have played out in the Championship meet too.

Last year, Green Tree won. But Coach Mike S., last year's coach, went to Crafton for this year. There was a bit of movement among the team's stars and that was all healthy as Green Tree had lots of new swimmers on its squad this year. Anne, a Green Tree assisant from 2004 went to Scott in 2005.

It is a great league and the kids, by and large, had a great season of summmer swimming.

South Fayette did a wonderful job of hosting the championship meet. The All-Star meet was today, since it was rained out in the early part of the week. Storms stopped three meets this summer -- more than they had for the past decade.

Erik, 10, won the breast event and was second in the relay and near the top in the free. Grant, 7, scored in the top 5 in fly and free and was second in the free relay. They both wore swim caps -- to go with their tapers. Next year we'll shave! (half joking)

The officials were tough on the DQs, and that is great -- IMNSHO. (in my not so humble opinion) We need to teach the kids that you gotta follow the rules. One bad pull, one bad stroke, one bad touch -- and you're done. Poof. That lesson alone is a great one for the kids to realize.

Next year, it would be great to get an additional team or two into the league. Perhaps a city-based squad could materialize or else another from the south burbs.

Jason Miller, a Pitt swimmer who is headed into his senior year, was our first-year head coach. He did a wonderful job. Jason is swimming at Senior Nationals next week in Irvine. Best of luck to him there. Thanks for all the work with the kids -- and with the line-ups.

The funny story of the night: Sophia, 5, was called into action. She is a good little swimmer and her older sister was in the meet. Sophia was only entered in the All-Star Meet -- not Championships. But, when a swimmer didn't show up -- we needed Sophia for the 8-and-under free relay. Thankfully, the lost-and-found had a suit that fit Sophia perfectly. She did a :32 split, dropping 4 or more seconds, and keeping her team right in 3rd place, going anchor.

Moments like that make swimming magical. Plus, we don't have the same heat stroke considerations!

3 comments:

Mark Rauterkus said...

There is one more swim meet that would be nice to get the boys into -- the Pittsburgh City Swim Meet. But, we are not going to enter that. We tried to sign-up for a swim team this summer at one of the city pools (Highland Park). But that was unsuccessful under any decent terms. Two years ago Erik was entered in the meet and swam for the Highland Park team. But this year the coach (and I use that description in a general kinda way) was insistant that the swimmers attend all the practices unless at "camp."

We had other practices to attend on most days.

Consider what it would be like to have the Citiparks' Great Race but only allow it to be open to runners who were on RUNNING TEAMS in the city.

jipzeecab said...

I had a girl confess to me in a bar 2 years ago that she was playing on teams in three separate softball leagues at the same time..and when one of her teams wasn't playing she went looking for a pickup game.
You would think the coach would have been happy to have Erik show up for HP's meets as long as he didn't have to displace swimmers who were working out with the team. Might be an ego thing on his part with you having a coaching background too..

Mark Rauterkus said...

The coach at Highland Park, a female, was just out of touch for my tastes. We're too busy and too much on our game in swimming to dink around with individuals like that. But, the structural issue is what I'm digging at too with the city. The city championship swim meet is in need of an overhaul.