Day 4 Prelims @ Santa Clara Grand Prix

Sunday morning is always the hardest morning of a swim meet (unless its a mid-week trials... in which case it's irrelevant) and it was pretty evident that it was tough to get things going this morning. Most of Team Ontario was pretty serious about hitting the ground running and had some solid morning swims. Marni Oldershaw of OAK (& Michigan) had a PB in 200IM and made the A final. Martha McCabe is also in the A final for 100BR and Zack Chetrat made the A for 200FLY.

Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary pal around in the warm down tank.

Start of the fastest prelims heat for Mens 100FR. Can you spot Ryan Lochte & Matt Greivers?

Zack Chetrat of TSC will swim in the A final for 200FLY tonight.

Mack Darragh activates early on Sunday morning before prelims.

Warren Barnes loosens up before his 100BR prelim.

Santa Clara Day 3

Day 3: Today was a great day for performances. Marni Oldershaw, Annie Harrison & Vanessa Treasure all made the A final in 400IM, Matthew Meyers in 200BK & Chantal VanLandenham in 50FR. Aly Abdel Khalik, Blake Worsely & the Swanston Brothers made B finals. It was a great day for Team Ontario. I am really feeling comfortable working with my group of athletes and feel like they are swimming well overall. I got to talk with a lot of coaches and (oddly) met a couple of podcast fans. It was also kind of cool that a few American coaches recognized me and congratulated me on my new job... but thats neither here nor there. On to some pics for you...

Doug Freeman works on Blake Worsely after his 200FR prelim swim.

Frank Despond happy with his morning swim.

The crazy crowd watching Missy Franklin narrowly win 200FR.

The sea of fans lining up to have Missy sign something for them.

Matthew Swanston excited to finish up @ Stanford and come back to Ontario

National Team Coach, Randy Bennett talking with World Championship Relay member, Aly Abdel Khalik about his role on the relay this summer.

Chris Manning getting ready for 50FR final & Matthew Meyers recovering from 200BK final.

+Swim Ontario 

Morning Session Day 2 - Arena Santa Clara Grand Prix

Warm-up at the Santa Clara Grand Prix

A familiar face (although a more familiar voice) Chris Hindmarch-Watson announcing the event.

Canada's Olympic Silver Medalist Ryan Cochrane gets ready for 400FR

Marni Oldershaw excited to be part of Team Ontario

Heather Sprenger (CSI) measures Paige Schultz's hydration levels.

Ryan Atkison & Alan Wrigley of CSI doing race analysis.

Kennedy Goss (lane 5) ready for 100FR

Chris Manning, Frank Despond get blood lactates measured and Heather Maitland refuels.

View from the rear of the Aquatic Facility

Media Trucks parked for this event... Live Web Streaming Below:

Day 1

Bridget Coley finished 4th (out touched by. 07 for a bronze medal -  did not see the hard charging Brazilian from the outside lane) and Heather Maitland finished 7th in the 1500FR. It was Brigdet's 2nd fastest 1500 ever and Heather's 2nd best 1500 ever as well. Both girls noted that the sun was quite hot during the race and it was something that they were not used to. Coach Byron McDonald noted that they likely felt that they were overheating towards the end of the race -  the water temperature was cool but the sun  was at its hottest - something that these swimmers (particularly Heather who is participating in the Open Water 10km at FISU games) will have to get used to.

The action continues tomorrow. Follow the live results here.

Day Before the Meet

Santa Clara Grand Prix: I'm going to try to post some pictures daily and do as much tweeting as I can so be sure to check back here daily and follow me on Twitter. Currently, Team Ontario is prepping for the meet and learning about swimming at a high level. This is what our day looked like.

Team Pre-meet Meeting 

Morning swim around @ Santa Clara

Mac Darragh  & Annie Harrison packing up after a pre-meet workout

Foothills College: location of Swim Ontario's post Grand Prix Training Camp

Warren Barnes & Ben Titley discuss strategy prior to pace work

I'm not getting any closer to Ryan Lochte than this... I haven't been particularly kind to him on this blog.

Some of the Team Ontario guys enjoying the sun after warm-up

We've arrived

Just a quick post before I fall asleep. We arrived in Santa Clara much earlier today and hit the pool quickly to swim off the travel. Pics below. More Tomorrow.

Links of the day with Jocelyn Jay

I'm leaving for Santa Clara for the Grand Prix tomorrow and am going to be a little behind schedule for about a week... So I'm going to post this earlier than usual and hopefully have some stuff about Santa Clara up later in the week. Enjoy.

Thought provoking links....
Have American parents got it all backwards? Though parents around the world have the same goals, American parents like the author (despite very best intentions) have gotten it all backwards.  http://ow.ly/lr3Pz

Advice for Swim Parents: Give more to Get more - http://ow.ly/kKHue

How hard should parents push their children? - http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2013/04/29/how-hard-should-parents-push-their-children/
 
Design for hard work, not comfort - http://ow.ly/lr4HH