Finals - Day 1
After a decent morning start, we headed to Jeff's favorite lunch spot on the planet (Noodles & Co.) for some lunch. Then it was time for a much needed nap to get ready to improve on our morning swims in the Finals session. After a nice rest we got back to the pool around 5:40 PM and started warming up. We have been sitting next to the Colorado Stars all meet so far, so Matt took a little time out of warm up to make a few friends.
Matt with 2012 Olympic Champion Missy Franklin
Once we were warmed up, we had about and hour before our first swim and during that time we got to watch some of the best in the world do their thing. First up was 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Missy Franklin (pictured above) in the 200 Free. She turned in a 1:42.28, which was the 5th fastest female 200 free in history and set an USA Swimming Age Group record. Next up was Ryan Lochte in the 200 Free, who cruised to a win with a 1:35.15, followed almost immediately by his 100 fly at 46.73. I'm sure he is not impressed with those swims, but they were fun for us to watch.
Soon enough it was time for us to swim. We were swimming the 400 Free Relay first, which was the first relay for us ever at a National level meet. Jeff, who had a bit of a rough start this morning, was leading us off and got us out to a phenomenal start at 46.81. He was followed by Erick, who is a relative newcomer at this level. Erick, who has never been faster then a 52 in the 100 Free (its not his thing) swam a very respectable 49.76. He was followed by Tommy (48.51) and Matt (48.44) for an overall team record time of 3:13.52. A very nice start. A new team record the fellas
Next up, was Jeff Williamson's 200 free. He didn't swim all that well in the morning and was hoping to improve quite a bit this evening. The only problem was that this race was less then 15 minutes after the relay. Still, not to be deterred, Jeff went out like a champ in 49.6, but started feeling that 46 relay split a bit in the back end of this race. He finished a very respectable 1:43.75 (2 seconds faster then this morning). It's about 4 second off his best, but a very good swim considering the circumstances and a new team record. About 15-20 minutes later, he had to swim the 100 fly for his 3rd race of the night. He made a good swim of it (considering the circumstances), but at 53.04, it was about a second slower then this morning. All in all, considering the back, to back, to back nature of the night, Jeff rebounded very nicely from his shaky early start.
Matt just had one swim tonight (other then the relay) and that was in the 100 Breast. It was about 20-25 minutes after the relay so he was in pretty good shape. He was seeded 18th overall and was in a great lane for this heat. He went out in a blistering 27.19 and was in a great spot to take the heat. Unfortunately, he was in a bad stroke cycle at the end and took a short stroke that hurt his overall time just a bit. This is a very typical early season miscue and that's exactly what these meets are for (to work out those kinks before more important meets later in the season). Still, his time of 58.67 was a touch faster then in the morning and still his 3rd fastest time ever in this event. It was also good for 19th overall in the meet. A very nice swim for this point in the season.
All in all, a great day for the boys and after a few more group shots with Missy Franklin, it was off to eat some pizza and then get some rest for tomorrow's races.
Tommy. Matt, Missy Franklin, Jeff and Erick.
More to come tomorrow.
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