Just a few comments on Sectionals underway in CS now. I know the big boys and girls (Cielo and Coughlin) are racing in Austin, but the swimming at Sectionals is amazingly fast. These are the kids who will be fighting for Olympic Trials next round and earning D1 scholarships.

Most of the meet records have been broken - without tech suits.

How about a 15 yr. old girl swimming 4:44 in the 500?

- Two 16 yr. old boys go 4:24 in the 500

- Six girls under 2:00 in 200 back, only one is 18

- Gray Umbach (15) wins 2 of the 3 back to back races he swam - 1:47 200 back and 1:48 200 fly.

- John Murray (15) from San Antonio won the 100 free with a 44.82

- 15 yr old Jasimine Tosky from Palo Alto won 200 fly with a 1:56.

Two more days to go.

youre right Spice, there was some seriously fast swimming going on tonight. Lots of HS seniors who have committed to the big dogs, some that havent committed at all, and then a bunch more underclassmen setting the pool on fire (Umbach, etc). The future of the sport (in the state of Texas at least) looks very bright. Some of the kids swimming lights out fast are so raw its ridiculous. Once a decent college program gets their hands on some of these kids they are going to have a field day.

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- Two 16 yr. old boys go 4:24 in the 500

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WOW!

I happened to be sitting behind tu's assistant women's coach (Jim Henry) last night. He was obviously watching Moldenhauer and a few others.

I felt like stealing his heat sheet - but I didn't. After each race he was watching he texted someone with the times.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/6/2010 3:41p).]

Holy cow. I know I ask this a lot, but any future Aggies that you noticed?

The outstanding swimmer of the meet has to be Jasmine Tosky, 15, and from Palo Alto:

200 free - 1:46.07 - 1st
100 fly - 52.84 - 1st
400 IM - 4:11.01 - 1st
500 free - 4:44.05 - 3rd (Hannah Kinder 1st with 4:43.05)
200 fly - 1:56.29 - 1st

She still has one day to go.

Lily Moldenhauer looks like someone racing post-taper.

what does swimming "post taper" mean?

thanks

Most swimmers change their training to reach a performance peak at their most important meet of the season. The taper is typically a 2-3 week period where training volume is reduced and the focus of training changes from fitness and power to speed and attention to detail.

The swimmer's body typically responds to the taper by improving speed several percent in races. They feel it by being to finish races stronger than they can during in-season races. They have speed they never had before.

After the taper period though - the drop in training causes a loss of fitness and strength. Also add the mental part - racing two championship meets back to back is difficult - it is hard to stay motivated to push yourself to the limit.

At Sectionals you can see some fantastic swims - and some kids that I saw race just the week before at the high school state championships. Most, but not all, of the state swimmers did not do best times at Sectionals. The ones that did either didn't peak for state - or are just better at maintaining peak performance for longer than one week.



[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 3/9/2010 1:19p).]

Not just racing back to back weekends (which is tough enough), but the fact that most kids were racing at Districts, Regions, State, and Sectionals, 4 meets in a 5 week period. That is rough mentally and physically on a swimmer.

The elite high school swimmer in Texas (example Moldenhauer or Umbach) probably trains right through district and regionals (two weeks apart). They may begin their taper just before or after regionals so they peak at state (another two weeks later). A few may attempt to peak right after state because they are fast enough to win at state without a full taper.

Moldenhauer had only one really good race at Sectionals - her last one - 100 back. Umbach was very fast, but I'm not convinced he was at his best. Jasmine Tosky (Palo Alto CA) was clearly on fire - as a 15 year old she was close to NCAA A cuts in probably five or six events.

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The elite high school swimmer in Texas probably trains right through district and regionals

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True, but just racing has a tremendous effect on swimmers, rested or not. Thats all I meant.

Yup. I agree. It is very difficult to race HARD three-four times in six weeks.