Day 2 - Finals (Minn Grand Prix)

Coach Phil, Jeff and Matt at Finals

Grand Prix - Day 2 Finals

After having a very solid morning session, we were very hopeful for some good swims in our final session of the day. 1 full day into the meet, the swimmers seemed to be getting into the groove of things and as we would expect, they started to "raise their game" up a bit. We had 4 swims in the finals session tonight, 2 for Matt Tanchick and 2 for Jeff Williamson. Matt outraced Jeff this morning in the 200 Fly by going 1:54 in the morning heats, earning a spot in the A/B flights (which swims first in the evening session). This meant Matt had the opportunity to set the bar even higher for Jeff (whose strength is in the fly events, moreso then Matt). Matt did not disappoint and swam an awesome 1:53.92 in the night session, taking temporary team bragging rights as the GCOM 200 Fly record holder.

As fate would have it, Jeff had to wait almost an hour at his shot at Matt's newly minted record. Needless to say, there was much "smack talk" between the two of them during this period. Once Jeff's opportunity came, he made sure not to waste it. He took off like a shot and was out in 52.65 in the first 100 (faster then his 100 Fly swim yesterday). He, of course, paid the price for it in the last 100, but still managed to come back in a 59.58 for a total time of 1:52.23, which is right at his lifetime best. A very good swim for this time of the year.  Less then 4 minutes later (literally), Jeff had to get up and swim the D Final in the 50 free. It wasn't the prettiest swim, but he did manage a 22.74. Slow, but understandably so.

That left Matt Tanchick's 200 Breast as the final event of the night. Matt is fairly inexperienced at this race (compared to other distances in the Breast), but we knew he had even more in him from his big drop in the morning and he's been swimming great all weekend. Sure enough, caught up in the moment of things, Matt went out really fast in 1:00.23. A little too fast for this race, but he came back surprisingly well and managed to go a 2:08.53, which is much more in-line with where his times should be. This should really give his college recruiting coaches something to think about when considering him as a potential recruit. A very solid race for him. His best race, the 200 IM is in the morning.

Fun and games:

The highlight of the evening had to be the other great swims we saw through the night by Olympic greats like Lochte and Franklin, along with others. But our favorite moment by far was supplied by none other then our own Erick Burgwardt. We have been sitting all weekend next to Missy Franklin and the Colorado Stars Team. All the kids in the stands have been milling about above us waiting to for her, or anyone as it turns out, to sign autographs for them. At one point, when Missy was off warming up, Erick stepped in and asked if anyone wanted his autograph? Sure enough, a line of little kids started forming and Erick got to live the life of a "rock star" for about 5 minutes until they kids realized that they had absolutely NO IDEA who he was and didn't want his autograph anymore. Even Missy got a kick out of it when she heard about it. It was good for a few laughs.

Mihail Alexandrov on his way to a 1:55.38 in the

Men's 200 Breast.