Final day at AGN

I don't think that everyone understands how exhausting a 5 day meet is until they've been through it. I'm not even sure what day it is (kidding, its Sunday) and I am exhausted. I cannot even begin to think how tired our athletes are.

Men were in the East pool again today which, honestly, is a sub par pool. It's much smaller, the blocks aren't as good, it isn't as deep. Very little fast swimming happening there throughout the week, even when the women were in it on Friday and Saturday. Our swims today were strong, but as I said before, a week long meet is exhausting!

Karl lead off in 200IM. Very strong 150 mark but had a hard time holding on at the end. Even still, Karl equaled his best time of 2:26 and had a very good week overall. He finished 39th.

Kyle's 200IM was also a bit of a struggle. Breaststroke was a little off and Kyle added a little over a second to his best. He finished 21st.

Matt Fox's 400FR was deceivingly well done. At first I was puzzled with his splitting, but Matt was the closest to his best time today with only adding 3 tenths of a second. I think Matt handled himself very well this weekend considering that he is one of the youngest athletes here AND the youngest Blue Fin. Matt qualified as a 12 year old in a 13 year old category and that needs to be applauded.

Mitchell's 400FR was faster than he was a provincials AND he held on VERY hard at the end for a solid finish. I was pretty proud of the way Mitchell turned around his week!

The end of meets is always a bit sentimental and sad for me, especially since this marks the official end of the season. I have no idea why I feel sad, especially since I'll be seeing all these athletes in Sudbury at Ontario Summer Games (Kyle is going for Triathlon, the others are going to swim). I guess when I think about it, I am just so proud of what we have achieved as a team in the past 2 years that I have been at the helm. We have come a LONG way from the 46 member club I joined in 2004.

Most of you will be interested to know that I have signed on for 2 more seasons as head coach of HHBF (at least I hope that you will be interested to know...). Changes to what we do and how we do them are inevitable, but trust that they are all for the betterment of HHBF and the development of all its pieces.

The past 2 years have been some of the most fulfilling I have had. Lets continue on in our quest for excellence.


Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF

Kyle Haas 5th in 100BK -- HHBF sits in 50th place

Kyle Haas was 5th tonight in 100bk in a PB of 1:01.00. 4th place finisher was 1:00.95... Who says finishes don't matter!!??

Kyle was in it the entire race and was out touched.

"I'm happy with the race'" says 15 year old Haas. "everyone who beat me is older than me." Kyle just turned 15 at the end of June. "I'm better than (silver medalist and soon to be 16) Zac Zandona was last season and its a good benchmark."

Congratulations to Kyle for an outstanding week so far. He will finish up the season tomorrow with 200IM.

HHBF is also sitting in 50th place. With something like 178 teams present from across the country, I think HHBF is sitting quite nicely with 1 day to go. Congratulations to our athletes and good luck with our last day.

Day 5 tomorrow -

Kyle Haas and Karl Massey in 200IM
Matt Fox and Mitchell Krafczek in 400FR

Go Blue Fins!


Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF

Morning of Day 4 @ AGN

100BK was a great event for everyone. Mitchell started the day with a pb of 1:08.26. Mitchell placed 30th overall. Matt followed with a decent 100BK which was just a little bit slower than his best at 1:11.27. Matt finished 24th... don't forget that this is also a 13 and under category and Matt is only 12.

By far the race of the morning was Karl Massey's 100BK where he took off 1.22 seconds and swam almost perfectly! The video of this race is above. Please note Karls start, turn and finish were textbook as well as his ability to regulate and maintain his stroke rate on the second 50. Karl's final time was 1:03.24 and he JUST missed the final by 6 tenths of a second. He finished 13th. I am very proud of this race!

Kyle's 100BK was good enough to make it into the final in 5th place. 1:02.14 was his second best long course time ever, but we have a few things to tighten up for tonight if we want to move up the ladder from 5th to medal position (which is a possibility).

Matt and Kyle's 200FR were both pretty flat. They both added time, but both had to wait around for almost 2 hours between 100BK and 200FR.


This will likely be HHBF's last final this weekend so PLEASE tune into the webcast tonight. Coverage will start around 6:30pm eastern time and Kyle will swim at about 6:40 - 6:45. This should be a very exciting race, so please tune into for 6:30pm and think powerfully positive thoughts for Kyle!

Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF

Winnipeg Pool

I have gotten a lot of emails asking what the pool in Winnipeg is like. Its a very nice pool! I swam here quite a bit when I swam. This is video of the pool deck in the west (competition) pool. There is another 8 lane 50m pool on the other side of the warmdown pool in the shallow end.

A quiet day, but a couple of great 50FR races

Matt Fox and Mitchell Krafczek had today off from racing (they will practice tonight at finals), so all we had today were 2 50FRs by Karl and Kyle (video above). Both races were very well done and continued our trend of solid races through the meet.

Karl was very quick and nailed his start and finish for a half second best time of 27.32. About a month ago, Karl had never been under 28.11 so the advancement we have had in sprint FR is outstanding. I was really happy with this race and proud of Karl. This was a bonus race so we didn't expect much in placing. Karl ended up 61st out of 66 in his age group.

Kyle was going in 18th in 50FR this morning and was faster than he was at provincials. As you can see in the video above, Karl had a better than usual start and a great first few strokes to set his pace. He was able to gain some ground into the finish (which is obscured by a doofus with a big head) which is not the usual way that Kyle swims 50FR. Best time and new club record of 25.77. He finished 19th overall.

I can be heard in saying in Kyles video "this is going to suck". To clarify, I was saying that because the view of the finish was obscured, not because the race was going poorly.

No finals tonight. Matt and Mitchell will workout tonight from 4 to about 5:30, then we're done for the night. Tomorrow is going to be a HUGE day! 4 people swimming 100BK (a good event for all 4) and then Matt Fox and Kyle Haas both swimming 200FR (325 men swimming 200FR in total).

I am still very proud of what we are doing out here. Stay posted to this blog for more details. Click on some adds on this page. Listen to D-Moos Radio, our newest bunch of supporters (http://d-moos.com/). I'll update again tomorrow.

Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF

Kyle Haas 8th in 100fr and 4th in 50bk

Wow! What a 50bk we just saw. Kyle was less than .2 seconds out of 3rd place with a blistering time of 28.31. I am super proud of Kyle and that race. He did everything he was suposed to do and deserves the great finish he got. A half second best time in a 50bk is a huge thing! Good work, buddy!


The 100fr was a gift (a lot of slow 100fr's resulted in kyle's 8th place spot in finals). We certainly made the most of it with a best time of 55.91. Great racing today... And can you believe that the meet isn't even half way done yet!!?? 3 more days of competition.

Tomorrow is a little bit quiet, only Kyle and Karl swimming 50fr. Not sure if we'll get any finals out of it, but I am sure to keep you all posted. Stay tuned!

Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.

Kyle Haas squeaks into 8th place in both 100FR and 50BK... Should buy a lottery ticket.

Today was MUCH better than yesterday. As of the end of finals last night, HHBF stood in a 3 way tie for 64th place, ahead of both Markham and Milton. Today was even better than yesterday.

Mitchell's 100FR started the day. It was a little rough, but a big improvement on yesterday's events. Mitchell finished 52nd.

Kyle's 100FR was next. He actually looked great this morning and raced to a .02 best time... and squeaked into finals by .02 seconds. He'll swim again tonight.

HHBF then had a 2hour and 45min break (there were 29 heats of 400IM between 100FR and 50BK). Or guys all took of for a while and came back to re-warmup at 11:45. 50 back was Awesome! Karl was first and went under 30 seconds for the first time ever. 29.87 was his time and he finished in 13th place. A great race!

Matt Fox was next with a time of 33.98, also a bets time. Matt's start was significantly better today than yesterday, and that is where a good chuck of that speed came from. He finished in 30th spot.

Mitchell's 50BK was also fantastic, breaking 32seconds for the first time. Mitchell went 31.95 and finished 26th. A great sign for Mitchell for the balance of the weekend.

Kyle's 50BK was a little flat (could have been the almost 3.5 hours between events). It was good enough for an 8th place spot in finals. All we need is a lane.

Don't forget to check out the live finals feed tonight at 6:30 eastern time. Kyle is set to swim 100FR at 6:42. 50BK will be approx an hour later.

Stay posted, I will post again tonight after finals.

Mike Thompson
Head Coach
HHBF