Junior Olympics Championships In San Ramon

Jeff and I had the pleasure to spend the weekend with 4 qualified Marlins swimmers and their families. JO's (as we call it) is no small affair. 90 teams participated with over 1350 swimmers competing over 3 days. Swimmers must qualify to compete and James Beard 10, Monica Sears 11, Jared Sears 14 and Alicia Vogelaar 12 managed to qualify in a total of 21 events. Just a year ago, the Marlins were represented by just one swimmer in 6 events.

Our athletes put on a great show: 17 best times (81% improvement) and one new team record for Monica in the 400 IM. Monica manage to qualify in the ultimate age group meet (the Far Western Championships held in Morgan Hills in April) in the 400 IM, Jared qualified in the 200 back, and both will be joining James who will be swimming the 50 and 100 back. I have posted the results for our swimmers here. For an overall meet result, go here.

This meet confirms that we are on track with our training and that we did a much better job with preparing the kids to race. Now, we need to build on that success and shift our focus on the month of July when we will be competing in the Redwood Empire Swim League Championships (RESL). We hope that the growing success of these swimmers will get their teammates to work hard to join them at the top. We have a bunch of talented swimmers in group 3 and 4 that are ready for the next step.