The Morgan Hill Swim Club is very young and most team members
are quite inexperienced. Typically, it takes about two years for a
competitive swimmer to develop the conditioning and skills to go
fast and it takes a lot of patience for the swimmer, parents and
coaches.
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill Swim Club is very young and most team members are quite inexperienced. Typically, it takes about two years for a competitive swimmer to develop the conditioning and skills to go fast and it takes a lot of patience for the swimmer, parents and coaches.
The Makos, competing in the Coast Valley Aquatic League Championships this past weekend, did not have to exercise much patience, as their young, inexperienced swimmers had a great meet while the older, more experienced swimmers did too.
The first day of the meet set the pace. Estelle Richardson, 14, locked into a great race in the girls 13-14-year-old 500 yard freestyle, the longest event of the meet. The lead changed five times during the race, and Richardson, while she was touched out for first, swam to her first Far Western Championship qualifying time with a 23-plus second drop over her previous personal best.
As the meet continued, the Makos had swimmers that dropped as much as 15 seconds in a 25 yard event.
Warren Richardson, 16, dropped almost 30 seconds in the 200 individual medley while Evan Richardson, 8, scored in four of his five events.
Gabrielle Smith, 10, new to the team, reached the finals in four of five events, placing as high as third. Her younger sister Grace Smith, 6, recorded a first-place finish to go along with two seconds and a third-place in her four events and was in the running for high point for her age group.
Andrew Kim, 7, placed in all three of his events and older sister Janice Kim, 10, dropped more than eight seconds in the 100 IM to place in the consolation finals.
Connor Dobbs, 10, had a great meet, winning the 50-yard backstroke and placing second in the high point honors for his age group.
His mother, Laura Dobbs, is the Makos novice coach, and one of her swimmers, Connor Tran, 6, won the 25-yard breast and took home high point honors for his age group.
The rest of the list of highlights is a long one.
Missy Miller, 17, having just completed the Junior Olympics, Far Westerns and now the CVALs is one tired swimmer, but took either first or second in all of her events and was second in the high place chase.
Lauren Akin, 8, also won first, second or third in each of her events and was second for high place.
Laura Shope, 17, had a perfect day. She swam in three events and won three events, topping the field in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 breast.
Christiana Bridges dropped more than 40 seconds in her 200 free score and secured four new ‘B’ times.
Missy Wilder, 15, proved to be an excellent finals swimmer, with personal bests in every consolation final and a new ‘A’ and ‘AA’ time.
United States Swimming has established divisions with time standards so the 200,000-plus registered swimmers have goals besides Olympic Trial times. The clubs competing were excited to have more than 30 new ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘AA’ and one new ‘Q’ time recorded over the weekend.
Next up for the Makos is a heavy recruiting season as it starts work for the short course season, which has its first meet in early September.
