Central Regions Saturday

So far so good...

HHBF has been well represented so far at the Regional Championships. This is always a strange meet to use as a measurement fo your club vs other clubs simply because you can over qualify for it... that means that most of the swimmers that finaled or medaled last season are over qualified either in their best events or overall for the meet (which is not bad at all). The only problem is that we don't get the points in those events and other club swimmers who weren't swimming so fast earlier in the season can still swim and get those points. It is, however, a great statement that we are represented by the largest team ever, but also some very fast swimmers.

The weekend officially started on Thursday night with the 800s. Elizabeth Skuriat was first up and came within 1 second of her personal best and JUST missed the provincial qualifying time by 0.72 seconds. Elizabeth finished in 6th place This was followed up fairly shortly after by 2 remarkable best times from Clancy Harris (first time under 11min) and Veronica Fong who finished 16th and 17th respectably. Britney Dortona finished up the night with a 52 second PB and her first provincial standard. She finished in 4th.

Friday night marked 200IM for 13 and overs and 400FR. Aaron Brautigam had a best time with 2:25.90 but Karl and Trevor were slightly off. Neither of the 3 finished in the top 20. 400FR was great. Nolan Haas dropped 14 seconds from his best for a time of 5:08.39 which placed him 7th. Britney Dortona won gold in 400FR with another provincial standard of 5:16.82 and Colleen Jarv finished 8th with a 12second PB, 5:32.18 (I actually predicted this time in warmup, just to prove to Colleen how awesome I am). Clancy Harris had another personal best of 5:25.70 and finished 14th.

Today was also a pretty solid day. Trevor was going into finals 2nd in 100FR with a club record in the morning of 55.15 and Karl Massey made it into 200BR (of all events) with a 3 second best time. Aaron had a best time in 100FR and a very solid 400IM (for which he placed 15th), Sam Ceci dropped 2 seconds in 100FR for a 1:04.86. Elizabeth finished with a 1:02.35 in 22nd place. She also had a personal best in 100BK with 1:10.73 which placed her 14th.

A very good afternoon as well. Emma Fender finished 8th in 200IM with a best time of 2:46.60. Britney Dortona came second in 100FR with a time of 1:09.53. She also finished 9th in 100BK where she had a significant best time of 4 seconds. Aurora Zuraw shed some time with a powerful 100FR as well (1:08.47) and a 1:19.56 in 100BK. Clandy Harris and Veronica Fong also had personal bests and finished in the top half of the 100FR. Clancy Harris' 100BK was great: 1:17.93 (PB of over 3 seconds) and finished in 10th place. Our girls 200FR relays finished 5th and 14th and were quite competitive throughout. Very solid 50s from each individual on each team and we were quite proud. Nolan Haas finished 4th in 200IM with a HUGE PB (2:42.85) and 2nd in 100BK with his 4th provincial standard of 1:13.12. He also had a significant PB in 200BR. Our guys relay finished 15th and beat some pretty significant teams. Quinn Jaggard also lead out with a best 50FR time of 30.03. A special thank you to Eric Siegfriedt, Quinn Jaggard, Michael Jans and Brooklyn Shelley for coming down today to make great relays.

Finals went well. Trevor Burwell won the 100FR with a new club record of 54.99. This time was almost a second faster than Trevor's previous best. It was a well fought race for Trevor, who was very focused and aggresive with the swim. Karl also moved up in the rankings, from 7th entry seed to a 4th place finish. Karl's time at the end of the race was 2:41.76, almost 4 seconds off of his previous best(2.45.62).

I am very proud of what HHBF has shown so far and we have a day left. Lots more great races and lots more cheering. Some still have their best events to come. Currently, HHBF is sitting in 20th place out of the 30 teams that have scored. There are currently 44 teams in the Central Region.