Pool of Tears at Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials

(From the Toronto Star)

An emotional Annamay Pierse weeps after finishing a disappointing fifth in the women's 200-metre breaststroke and failing to qualify for the London Games at the Canadian Olympic swimming trials in Montreal on Saturday.
STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR

By Randy Starkman Olympic Sports Reporter
MONTREAL—Oakville teenager Tara Van Beilen promised herself she’d keep her tears inside this time. World record holder Annamay Pierse was not so fortunate.
The women’s 200-metre breaststroke lived up to its billing as the event to watch at the Olympic swimming trials, pitting Pierse against world bronze medallist Martha McCabe of Toronto and the deepest world-class field here, including the fast-rising Van Beilen.
Pierse has struggled since setting the world record at the 2009 worlds in Rome. She had trouble adjusting to the change in swimsuits and suffered serious illnesses, including dreaded dengue fever at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
She’d been unable to push herself in training the way she wanted and her worst fears were realized in finishing a distant fifth behind the 1-2 performance of Van Beilen and McCabe, who posted the second and third fastest times in the world this year.
Pierse was inconsolable. Tears streaming down her face, she talked to the reporters in the press room afterwards with her boyfriend, Olympic kayaker Mark Oldershaw, at her side.

Canadian Swimmer Julia Wilkinson

Breaking the 1-minute barrier

By Julia Wilkinson

Posted: Friday, March 30, 2012 | 10:30 AM

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Julia Wilkinson celebrates after winning the women's 100-metre backstroke at the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials on Wednesday. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

I am no stranger to delayed gratification.
It's the life of a swimmer, at least after your 13th birthday when you stop dropping time every time you hit the water.
Every year, I spend countless hours training, but I am only in peak race preparation maybe twice every season. I spend a long time working on the details, with my fingers crossed that what I am doing will translate to my race by the time I taper.
That is why, after four long years of waiting, it was so sweet to finally break the one-minute barrier in the 100-metre backstroke en route to qualifying for my second Olympic team. That's right: I'm officially London-bound!
It's only day three of the six-day competition, and we have seen what Olympic trials are all about. In the first event on day one, my young (18-year-old) teammate from the Victoria Academy of Swimming, Alec Page, won the 400m individual medley and saw his Olympic dream come true. When I saw that he had defeated the field and qualified for the team, I thought my heart was going to explode with pride. Alec is a swimmer who loves to race, works harder than almost everyone I know, and has so much talent it's scary.

Senior Practice Reminder

Just a reminder regarding practice schedule for the remainder of the week:
Tuesday & Thursday:  4:15pm – 6:30 (ish)pm – brief dry-land before getting in water
Wednesday:  4pm – Water first to free up pool space for the TOTS
Due to OH Tim Myers Senior Champs – NO SATURDAY PRACTICE

Ohio Senior Meet Information

Many of you have been asking what time warm-ups are, what you have entered, etc.  Listed below are warm-up times and instructions to view your entries:

Preliminary - Warm ups 7:30 – 8:45 a.m.; Meet starts at 9:00 a.m.

Teams will be assigned lanes and times for warm-ups.  We do not yet have a time / lane assignment.  Since we are a local team, plan on 7:30 unless we hear otherwise.

Finals – Warm Up – 4:30 – 5:50 p.m. Meet starts – 6:00 p.m.

To check your entries, log in to our BKYS site (bkyswim.com) and check your entries online.  Enter your name and enter “ OHTim Myers “ for the meet.

Psych sheets have not yet been posted.  Please remember that the top 30 will return for finals – bonus, consolation, and championship heats will be swum.

High School Meet Progression: Sectionals, Districts, States

There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding the meet format and qualifying to the next level of high school swim meets.  It is hoped that this will help you understand how the system works.

We will use one of our former BKYS swimmers, Taylor McCabe to demonstrate how the progression works.  First, here are some background facts that you need to know to understand how to qualify to the next level:

OCC's - timed finals; has nothing to do with Sectional or District meets

Sectionals - timed finals; everyone swims (teams are limited to 4 entries per event); ONE person advances from each Sectional (3 spots - Marysville, Worthington, UA) to Districts - the remaining 27 spots are "at-large" qualifiers based solely on time (you could be third at your Sectional and not advance to Districts).  Seeded with your season best time.  If you advance to Districts, you will be seeded with your time swum at Sectionals.

Districts - 30 swimmers per event; timed finals; seeded with time swum at Sectionals; the 3 automatics from sectionals (1 from each of the above mentioned sites) are combined with the 27 at-large qualifiers based on times from Sectionals.  The 30 swimmers at Districts are swimming to qualify for States - TWO automatic qualifiers advance from each of 4 districts leaving 16 "at-large" spots for states based solely on time.

States - 24 swimmers per event; prelims (Friday) / finals (Saturday) for the top 16; seeded with times swum at Districts

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Now, let’s look at Taylor’s progression in the 100 Breaststroke:

Season Best (entry time for Sectionals):  1:11.62

Time at Sectionals:  1:10.00 (seeded 8th / 6th place finish).  Only the first and second place swimmers automatically advanced to Districts (1:07.14 / 1:07.97) so Taylor was competing for one of the 27 “at-large” spots.  Here are the other times from the Sectional meets:

Place	Worthington	Upper Arlington	Col. Academy	Athens	Overall Ranking / Seeding	Place at Districts	Time swum at Districts (TIMED FINALS)
1	1:07.14-A	1:09.37-A	No D1 Teams	1:22.03	1:07.14-A	3	1:05.25
2	1:07.97-A	1:09.42-A			1:07.97-A	2	1:05.18-A
3	1:09.02	1:09.57			1:09.02	4	1:06.02 – QAL
4	1:09.41	1:09.62			1:09.37-A	1	1:04.98-A
5	1:09.67	1:10.73			1:09.41-A	7	1:07.07
6	1:10.00*	1:11.23			1:09.42	8	1:07.27
7	1:11.65	1:11.55			1:09.57	10	1:08.89
8	1:14.23	1:12.26			1:09.62	9	1:07.62
9	1:14.54	1:12.59			1:09.67	11	1:09.55
10	1:14.72	1:12.73			1:10.00*	6	1:06.94 – QAL
11	1:14.81	1:13.04			1:10.73	5	1:06.41 – QAL
12	1:15.64	1:13.21			1:10.94
13	1:16.47	1:13.31			1:10.98
14	1:16.67	1:14.50			1:11.23
15	1:17.59	1:16.29			1:11.55
16	1:17.83	1:18.16			1:11.65
17					1:12.26
18					1:12.59
19					1:12.73
20					1:13.04
21					1:13.11
22					1:13.14
23					1:13.21
24					1:13.31
25					1:14.23
26					1:14.50
27					1:14.54
28					1:14.72
29					1:14.81
30					1:15.64

A= Automatic Qualifier (last year was top 2 – the addition of Marysville decreases that to 1 for each Sectional meet); QAL – Qualified At Large for States

Time at Districts: 1:06.94 (seeded 10th / 6th place finish). Only the first and second place swimmers automatically advanced to States (1:04.98 / 1:05.18) so Taylor was competing for one of the 16 “at-large” spots. Here are the other times from the District meets:

Now let’s look at qualifying to States:

Place	Central / Southeast (3)	Southwest (4)	Northwest (1)	Northeast (5)	Overall Ranking / Seeding @ States
1	1:04.98 - A	1:04.58 - A	1:04.39 - A	1:03.84- A	1:03.84 - A
2	1:05.18 - A	1:04.60 - A	1:05.36 – QAL	1:06.51 - A	1:04.32 - A
3	1:05.25 – A	1:04.91 – A	1:06.32 – QAL	1:07.37 - A	1:04.58 - A
4	1:06.02 – QAL	1:05.16 – A	1:07.40 – QAL	1:07.59 - A	1:04.60 - A
5	1:06.41 – QAL	1:05.43 – QAL	1:11.11	1:07.91 - A	1:04.91 - A
6	1:06.94 – QAL	1:05.48 – QAL			1:04.98 - A
7	1:07.07 – QAL	1:06.84 – QAL			1:05.16 - A
8	1:07.27 – QAL	1:07.64			1:05.18 - A
9	1:07.62				1:05.25 - A
10	1:08.21				1:05.43
11					1:05.48
12					1:05.86
13					1:06.02
14					1:06.32
15					1:06.41
16					1:06.51 - A
17					1:06.84
18					1:06.94*
19					1:07.07
20					1:07.27
21					1:07.37 - A
22					1:07.40
23					1:07.59 - A
24					1:07.91 - A

Times in Italics indicate who would have qualified on a straight time basis

Exam Week Schedule

 

Some of you have asked if you could switch your high school practice day or your day off this week due to exams.  The answer is “Yes.”  Please adjust your schedule to allow you to study for your exams.  Academics is more important to the coaches than your attendance at every practice.  You will do better on your exams, be more focused at school and at the pool, and accomplish more in the long run by adjusting your schedule to accommodate your exam schedule.

Remember that you are always welcome to attend practice and bring homework / study materials for before or after practice (and swim for a shorter time period).

Superpower Energy Bars for School Days and Work Days

From Chow.com

Here are some great snack bars that you can make to have after school, after practice, and at meets.  These are a great way to get something that staves off your hunger, provides some fuel, and raises your blood sugar to allow you to feel revived enough to keep going.

 

Once you get to the recipe page, click on the picture of the bar that you think sounds good and it will take you to the recipe and instructions.

Recipes here