South Bay Swim Team's First Junior Olympic Team Success
SOBA Team Members were amazing at Junior Olympics
We had seven team members qualify for and participate in the Southern California Summer Junior Olympic swim meet! Bridgette, Breana, Leana, Nick and Yen all qualified for individual events; and Bridgette, Lauren, Leana, Patricia and Yen participated in relays, too. Way to go, swimmers!! Coach Dede was there to lead the charge for our swimmers, and she has provided a summary of the FANTASTIC RESULTS, below…
The goal for going to Junior Olympics was for the experience and for those who qualified to say they are Junior Olympians. Boy did we get experience!!!
I expected this group of 10 yr olds to be so nervous that they would crumple and make mistakes. I also thought we had a CHANCE to get 2 or maybe three to the consolation finals. Maybe. No medals, no team points I thought.
Prelims are in the morning and those who qualify in the top 16 spots have to come back at 5pm. You pretty much HAVE to do a best time to have a chance.
South Bay Swim Team had more than one swimmer each and every evening!!!!! Holy Cow!!
First off our relays scored team points!
Patricia Rodriguez beat 3 other backstrokers and Lauren Kelly had the best relay exchange I’ve ever coached – it was college level quality!
Yen Nguyen’s 100 fly was seeded 37th and she moved up to 30th
50 fly was seeded 36th and she moved up to 27th
50 Br she dropped 1 second and qualified for consolation finals then dropped 2 more seconds to WIN the consols that evening!! Her time beat one of the finalists!
Breana Jacobs struggled so hard to qualify for JO’s and being only 11 in the 11-12 age group, I thought she had no chance. She however dropped a full second in the 50 Br to also WIN the consolation finals!
Leana Jabobs 100 Back went from 31st seed to 24th
50 Fly 26th to 20th
100 Fr qualified her for 13th in the consolation finals
50 Bk qualified her as an alternate for the consolation finals
50 Fr she dropped a full second and landed in the FINALs and medaled 7th!!
Bridgette Alison dropped 1.5 seconds in the 50 Br to go from 30th-21st.
Her 50 fly was a surprise dropping 3 full seconds to qualify for the FINALS!! (Right after she told me how much better everyone else was...hmmm.) She still did another best time in the finals to place 7th while choking on water most of the way-ouch!
Her best time as lead in the free relay qualified her for both summer and spring JO’s!
Saturday night I was thinking "I think our team has a few points!" The standings listed only 35 teams scoring points so I started at the bottom and started up, thought I missed it and started again at the bottom but we were indeed 25th out of 50 teams and moved up to 24th after the relays!
On to the boys "team" of one 10 year old Nick Paz who will now be known as "Powerhouse" Paz, I think!
His 1:16 100 Fr time was only 22nd/40 but he dropped to 1:14 to qualify for the consolation finals and he dropped to 1:12 to place 11th.
50 Fr dropped another full second to go from 19/45 to qualifying for the consolations AGAIN and do ANOTHER best time to get 9th.
50 Back be was seeded 18th/38 but again dropped over 2 seconds to get to the FINALS and medal!!
I looked at the boys team scoring and only about 38 teams scored points. I again started at the bottom, thought I missed it and started up again and our one man team placed 26th out of 50 teams!
I don’t know if any future team could surpass my expectations as much as this one did. I am truly amazed at what they accomplished in their first JO.
Congratulations. Coach Dede
