Although I've been swimming since just after h.s., I've never really competed on a swim team or in many organized meets. But my daughter swam in h.s. so I got in the habit of checking local meet results in the sports pages, and still do. I like to see how I would fair with my current times in the various races. Even at almost 56 years old, with a 500m free time of mid-6-minutes, I find that I'd at least be in the race occassionally against some high schoolers. The better times for the boys in this area (Rhode Island) generally tend to be in the mid-5-minute range. But today there are meet results posted in which I could have won all of the freestyle events. And possibly some of the other stroke races as well. But the thing that baffles me most about this particular meet are the winning times for all four of the 100m races. As expected, "usually" the 100 free is the fastest of the four. Followed closely by the 100 butterfly, then the 100 back, and finally the 100 ***. But in this meet the fastest 100 race was the butterfly at 1:03.66. Then, seven seconds back at 1:10.82 is the 100m backstroke. Nearly two seconds behind that at 1:11.9 was the 100m freestyle. Then eight seconds after that at 1:18.8 was the 100m breaststroke. Also odd was that the 200 IM, at 2:18.62 was faster than the 200 freestyle at 2:23.34.
I dunno...maybe all that isn't so uncommon to those of you who've swum competitively for years. I just find it odd.
Dan
Although I've been swimming since just after h.s., I've never really competed on a swim team or in many organized meets. But my daughter swam in h.s. so I got in the habit of checking local meet results in the sports pages, and still do. I like to see how I would fair with my current times in the various races. Even at almost 56 years old, with a 500m free time of mid-6-minutes, I find that I'd at least be in the race occassionally against some high schoolers. The better times for the boys in this area (Rhode Island) generally tend to be in the mid-5-minute range. But today there are meet results posted in which I could have won all of the freestyle events. And possibly some of the other stroke races as well. But the thing that baffles me most about this particular meet are the winning times for all four of the 100m races. As expected, "usually" the 100 free is the fastest of the four. Followed closely by the 100 butterfly, then the 100 back, and finally the 100 ***. But in this meet the fastest 100 race was the butterfly at 1:03.66. Then, seven seconds back at 1:10.82 is the 100m backstroke. Nearly two seconds behind that at 1:11.9 was the 100m freestyle. Then eight seconds after that at 1:18.8 was the 100m breaststroke. Also odd was that the 200 IM, at 2:18.62 was faster than the 200 freestyle at 2:23.34.
I dunno...maybe all that isn't so uncommon to those of you who've swum competitively for years. I just find it odd.
Dan
The times seem very slow for high schooler's, at least compared to the ones around here. Perhaps they were swimming short course meters. I agree the time spread was odd as well. Maybe some races were focused on JV swimmers (100/200 free for example) and others varsity (200 IM). Maybe the kids were swimming their "off" events? Sometimes in early season the teams do crazy things just to keep it fresh and fun for the kids.
Although I've been swimming since just after h.s., I've never really competed on a swim team or in many organized meets. But my daughter swam in h.s. so I got in the habit of checking local meet results in the sports pages, and still do. I like to see how I would fair with my current times in the various races. Even at almost 56 years old, with a 500m free time of mid-6-minutes, I find that I'd at least be in the race occassionally against some high schoolers. The better times for the boys in this area (Rhode Island) generally tend to be in the mid-5-minute range. But today there are meet results posted in which I could have won all of the freestyle events. And possibly some of the other stroke races as well. But the thing that baffles me most about this particular meet are the winning times for all four of the 100m races. As expected, "usually" the 100 free is the fastest of the four. Followed closely by the 100 butterfly, then the 100 back, and finally the 100 ***. But in this meet the fastest 100 race was the butterfly at 1:03.66. Then, seven seconds back at 1:10.82 is the 100m backstroke. Nearly two seconds behind that at 1:11.9 was the 100m freestyle. Then eight seconds after that at 1:18.8 was the 100m breaststroke. Also odd was that the 200 IM, at 2:18.62 was faster than the 200 freestyle at 2:23.34.
I dunno...maybe all that isn't so uncommon to those of you who've swum competitively for years. I just find it odd.
Dan
The times seem very slow for high schooler's, at least compared to the ones around here. Perhaps they were swimming short course meters. I agree the time spread was odd as well. Maybe some races were focused on JV swimmers (100/200 free for example) and others varsity (200 IM). Maybe the kids were swimming their "off" events? Sometimes in early season the teams do crazy things just to keep it fresh and fun for the kids.
