Friday, March 21, 2014

Nationals Day 3

Aside from being Karl's 21st birthday today, there were a few other notable things going on.  This morning, both Claire and Karl broke NWC and Whitman records in their individual events.  Karl struck first in the 200 butterfly, swimming to a 1:47.31 earning a second-place seed for tonight's final.  Claire followed Karl's performance with a 1:04.07 100 breaststroke and a 10th place seed for finals.

Tonight, the buzz on the pool deck was that the Men's 200 butterfly was going to be the best race of the night and it proved to be just that.  Karl, the University of Redlands' Jeff Depew, and Mary Washington's Hugh Anderson, battled it out in dramatic fashion.  Karl led until the 150 yard mark but couldn't quite match the finishing speed of Depew and Anderson.  In the end, it was Anderson who came out on top with a winning time of 1:45.36, just out-touching Depew, who finished in 1:45.38.  Karl was 3rd at 1:45.78, shattering his NWC and Whitman records in the event.  Any of this year's top 3 times would have won the event at last year's meet.  The best part: each of the top 4 finishers is a junior.

Claire's 100 breaststroke final was every great as Karl's 200 fly.  Claire was out a little slower than her morning swim at the 50 and finished the race even better than she did this morning.  Her finals time of 1:04.18 was just off her morning swim but the quality of her swimming certainly wasn't.  She had the 2nd fastest back-half in her heat, closing the race down in 33.37.  After watching her swim her 100 tonight, I can't wait to see what she can do in the 200 tomorrow.  I think we're in for another awesome race!


It was also senior night at the meet and Claire and all the other senior National qualifiers from all the other teams were recognized before the start of the finals session.  Needless to say, we'll all miss Claire very much.

Karl finishes up his meet tomorrow as well, swimming the 100 freestyle.  Because he didn't compete in the 100 freestyle at the NWC Championships, his entry time is from his mid-season taper at the Husky Invitational in December.  With his 400 free relay anchor split of 44.57 at Conference in February, it's hard to say what will happen tomorrow!


We had a nice team/birthday dinner with Claire's and Karl's parents after the meet tonight--all while watching our Women's Basketball team handle UW Whitewater and advance to the Championship game tomorrow!  It's such an exciting time to be part of Whitman Athletics!