Well, school is out for the summer. Do you know what that officially means? Swimming is back! I wanted to start this year’s swim season with something different. I was visiting with someone recently about how excited I was to be able to keep up with the swimmers and how their times change for the season as they get better. That individual said they don’t read the articles or attend any meets because they don’t understand swimming. I decided to break down a few things before I give you the results of the Big Sandy swim team’s weekend in Shelby.
Swimming is an all-day event. In fact, the swim meets last all weekend, and the swimmers can compete to make it to the finals on Sunday.
The size of an average pool is 25 meters, but Shelby’s pool is 25 yards. The different events involve four different techniques of swim; I will break those down for you as well so that way when you attend a swim meet this year, you will be able to know what event is happening, even if you’ve never been to one before. There is the “Free”, the freestyle technique, alternating your arms overhead while doing flutter kicks with your legs. Then there is the “Fly”, the butterfly technique, where both arms move symmetrically accompanied by the butterfly kick. Then there is the “Breast”, the breaststroke technique where the arms are pushed forward and swept back in a circular motion while the legs move in a corresponding movement. Lastly, there is the “back,” which is the backstroke; this technique is performed on your back with the arms lifting alternately out of the water in a backward circular motion while the legs kick.
All these techniques are accompanied by a certain distance. The events are 25, 50, 100, and even 200. All these measurements are usually in meters, but once again in Shelby, in yards. There are also different age groups: 8U (which is 8 years old and under), 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and the senior division 15-19.
This is last weekend’s results from the Shelby meet. So many swimmers stepped up and did great in the pool, dropping time already across the board. I am going to give results by individual to start the swim season stats, which may change over the course of the season. These are also “finals” times for each athlete.
Girls Results:
Lena Ray, age 5 (8U) ~Scored 3 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 11th place 1:59 ~dropping an amazing 47.62 seconds off her time
25 Yard Back: 12 place 52.05
Dorothea Merrill (9-10) ~Scored 36 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 2nd place 27.63 ~dropping 6.83 seconds
100 Yard Free: 2nd place 1:33 ~dropping 9.02 seconds
50 Yard Back: 2nd place 47.88 ~dropping 4.73 seconds
Mackenzie Werk (11-12) ~Scored 40 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 2nd place 30.76 ~dropping .26 seconds
100 Yard Free: 1st place 1:08 ~dropping .78 seconds
200 Yard Free: 1st place 2:40
Bentlee Parker (11-12) ~Scored 2 points for the team
100 Yard Free: 12th place 5:00
50 Yard Back: 12th place 1:02
Eden Panch (11-12) ~Scored 9 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 11th place ~dropping 1.69 seconds
100 Yard Free: 8th place
50 Yard Back: 11 place ~dropping .08 seconds
Harley Labuda (13-14) ~Scored 36 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 2nd place 29.39
100 Yard Breast: 2nd place 1:37
100 Yard Free: 2nd place 1:07
Jai Baumann (15-19) ~Scored 38 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 1st place 29.47
100 Yard Breast: 1st place 1:29
50 Yard Fly: 3rd place 35.67
Boys Results:
Kayden Parker (8U) ~Scored 30 points for the team
25 Yard Free: 4th place 26.52 ~dropping .86 seconds
50 Yard Free: 4th place ~dropping 1.63 seconds
25 Yard Back: 2nd place ~dropping 3.47 seconds
T’Gan Ketchum (11-12) ~Scored 31 points for the team
50 Yard Free: 4th place 36.55
100 Yard Free: 2nd place 1:23
50 Yard Back: 3rd place 47.20
Coach Travis Baumann said about the first meet, “Everybody did really well. It was a lot of fun to see how it turned out. “We’re a smaller team than we’ve been in the past, obviously, 23 kids. Sometimes smaller can be more effective. They’ll get more one-on-one time.
We only have one senior swimmer, Jai Baumann. Harley and Raya are the only 13-14 year-olds. We’re 12 and under, pretty hardcore. I only have 20 kids, 12 and under, so that’s good. They’re going to get stronger. It will be a fun summer. I was impressed with what everybody did compared to last year.
Matt Louvar will replace Cam Schwarzbach as an assistant coach, who got an internship in Idaho, where he’s attending college. So we were super excited for Cam. Matt decided to step up and help out. I don’t know how many years Matt swam for Big Sandy; before that, he had been swimming in Fort Benton. We’re really excited to have him. On Friday, he talked to the kids about the importance of being able to tread water, what he did in the Coast Guard, and how much time he spent in the water treading and swimming. He’ll do great. He’s got a lot that he can teach the kids about work ethic after being in the Coast Guard.
Next week’s swim meets on June 8th-9th at Cut Bank.
