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2018 ESSZ Senior Short Course Sectional - Triangle Aquatic Center, Cary, NC - March 8 - 11
Bear and I will head out this afternoon on our way up to Cary, N.C. I want to get him as far north as I can so he isn't cramped up in the car prior to his first race of the meet late Thursday afternoon. The lead up to this meet has been a bit odd. Bear is much more reserved and a bit grumpy. Not sure if this is just a teen thing or if he's up tight about the meet. I hope he isn't putting to much pressure on himself because that will likely be counter productive. I was hoping to wait on the psych sheet before doing to write up to get an idea of where Bear stands, but it hasn't been published yet. It's not really all that important because he's swimming in open events now and he'll be competing against all sort of swimmers from around the region. In long course last year there were several college swimmers competing. That could be the case again this weekend, especially for swimmers that didn't qualify for the NCAA Championships in their division.
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Bear
# 2 (d1/s1): M Open 1000 Free (9:41.74) - He only swam this even 1 time this season and that was at Senior State - where he dropped about 15 seconds. Any improvement here would be a big deal for Bear, but I'm sure he's targeting the national cut time.
# 6 (d2/s2): M Open 200 Free (1:45.91) - time is again from Senior State, and since there he swam a 1:48.01 at the high school meet with a slight drop taper. So only a couple seconds off his best time. With a full taper he could drop a bit more.
# 12 (d2/s2): M Open 400 Medley (4:11.59) - hasn't competed in this event since Senior State in December. I have no idea how his breaststroke looks because he almost never competes in that event. The breast leg will likely be the key to his time.
# 16 (d3/s4): M Open 200 Fly (1:57.01) - another event he hasn't raced since Senior State.
# 24 (d3/s4): M Open 500 Free (4:41.77) - Here's one he's done a bunch off, given that he swam it almost every high school meet. Unfortunately those high school swims were untapered and some came after his bought with the virus that really adversely impacted his training. At High School State in February he only managed to go a 4:49 with a drop taper. A time he wasn't completely thrilled with even through he still wasn't back to full speed following the cold he had. I'm hoping he can drop time and maybe challenge the national cut time.
# 30 (d4/s7): M Open 1650 Free (17:08.10) - the last time Bear swam this event was at this very same meet in 2017 and at that time he was dealing with walking pneumonia. He managed to slightly improve his personal best that day from his 2016 swim at this event, but he was really in a position where he could have challenged for the team record and he was disappointed that his health didn't allow him to make a run at it. He could drop a good bit of time here, and if he does it would certainly help his recruiting profile. He's actually seeded with a different time than the one listed above, I'm not sure where it came from - but I changed the seed to match his real personal best.
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