RESL Championships 2011

I say it every year taking the risk of repeating myself, but when an event is this good, I really don't mind. Few meets bring the team together the way RESL does, no other meet has swimmers race up to 16 events in just two and half days and no other meet requires as much parent support. And although exhausted, everyone was very excited at the team's performance during the weekend. I feel that it was the perfect end to the best swim season ever. Jeff and I got to watch our swimmers swim honest races (over 370), each athlete stripped down to the basic feelings of determination, physical discomfort and a boost of self-worth. What a meet!

Happy Marlins

42 swimmers participated in this year’s Championships in El Cerrito competing in a total of 370 races.  Although our numbers were not as high as in years past, we definitely made up for it in quality. Knowing that we were very light in the younger age groups, I made the decision to have all our swimmers enter 2 races instead of the usual one race on Friday evening. I think it paid off, the kids had the training to handle the extra load and the 83% best times over the weekend confirmed that. Again this year the team finished 3rd, but a lot closer to 2nd!

Waiting for the relays.

The Marlins were the most improved team with 83% best times.  We received 8 disqualifications, half from last year and well below the teams’ average for the meet. 29 swimmers improved their time standard with a total of 15 new "B" times, 38 new “A” times, 41 “JO” times (20 in 2010), 11 “FW” times (12 in 2010), 2 “PRT” times (2 in 2010) and 1 Sectional time (0 in 2010).

Most amazingly, 28 team records were broken in one single meet, congratulations to Coco Berkenfield, Monica Sears, Ava Salmi, Alicia Vogelaar, Annalise Schlafer, Kate Claman, Tyler Welty, Jack Berkenfield, Ian Chow-Ise, Anton Zahradnik, Aidan Cumming, Jared Sears, Alex Claman, Tommy Davis and Justas Reskevicius. All 15 swimmers helped break 5 relay records and 23 individual records.  In addition, Tyler Welty matched a RESL meet record in the 13-14 100 breaststroke.

Overall, the kids improved their times by a total of 1148 seconds, almost double last year’s improvement. That's 19 minutes shaved off their entry times ... I don't really know how to explain this, but I could get use to it! Out of the 42 Marlins swimmers participating, 40 helped score points for their team. Our swimmers did a great job and Jeff and I are certainly proud of their achievements.

I have posted the results (swimmer / meet) at the pool and the ribbons are filed in the team folders. You can stop by the pool anytime during business hours and the lifeguards will be happy to bring the folders out for you.

Team Meeting

Special thank you to all the families for doing their part in helping run the meet. To Jackson Miller for supporting his team and helping the coaches on Sunday. There are some great pictures available for download on the team’s website (you do need to log-in). Lester Ng took some very nice pictures of the kids, it's a different look at our sport and certainly a break from the usual yellow cap sticking out of the water. Click here to take a look at them. Thank you to all the parents who participated in the Friday morning breakfasts at Drake over the summer, who again helped put together a great Doughnut Breakfast and a fantastic team BBQ, who were generous enough to give great gifts for the coaches, who take the time to give me feedback on the team, who counsel and assist me when needed. Again, thank you all for giving Jeff and I the opportunity to work with your children.

Marc