By Mark Scott
Special to the Times
December starts out hot and fast for the Morgan Hill Makos swim team at the Junior Olympics in Pacifica.
What do you say to a 10-year-old swimmer who just swam his way to his first ever Far Western Qualifying standard in the 200 free, set a new team record and scored seventh in his first Junior Olympics finals in the 500 free?
“Connor Dobbs, that was a great first day!”
The second and third days of the Junior Olympics Championships were almost as good. Dobbs nabbed two more Far Western qualifying times, in the 100 fly and 200 IM, and between preliminary heats and finals all but a few of 11 performances were personal bests.
Estelle Richardson, swimming very tired throughput this meet as she is focused on training for the Senior Champs coming up in mid-December, finaled with a 10th place in the 500 Free.
Her time came close to matching her personal best, and indicates she is on track for some fast times this season.
Rachel Cretcher, 13, and Macie Kerr, 12, both swimming in their first Junior Olympics Champs, did not seem to be bothered by the competition or nerves much. Cretcher swam to personal bests in both her events, and Kerr snagged PB’s in all three of hers. Both moved way up from their seeded times, and ended up in the top half of 1,000 competitors from over 100 U.S. swimming teams.
The Makos performed well at this meet, which is remarkable. Pacific Swimming hardly had time to update the database with their times from the last meet on Nov 18-19 when 43 Makos participated in the San Benito Aquatics C/B/A+ meet in Hollister.
During that meet, in 199 races, Mako swimmers managed 80 percent personal best times, 19 new ‘B’ times, 14 new ‘BB’ times, 12 new ‘A’ times, and one new ‘AA’ time.
Pacific Swimming recently instituted ‘BB’ times as ‘A’ times that are very fast, and hard to come by. The team was quite happy with all its new ‘A’ times!
Next up for the Makos is its C/B/A+ meet this weekend at the Morgan Hill Aquatic Center. The pool is recognized as a very fast pool, and with more than 1,000 swimmers are entered for the meet, this is one of the biggest C/B/A meets in Pacific Swimming this year. Many swimmers and teams are going after qualifying times for the Championship Meets remaining and the competition should be fast and fun.
