They Are Who We Thought They Were

Dennis Green, the former NFL coach, had an epic meltdown/quote after his team blew a lead in a game that they had dominated, and ended up losing. When one of the reporters asked him about how they could lose when their defense had been so dominant, he set off on his rant. The other team was better, and even though his team had played well for much of the game, the other team still found a way to win. He repeated the quote multiple times at the post-game presser, in a much more animated fashion than his normally stoic demeanor. "They are who we thought they were," he said, referring to their opponents.

Beware. Hungry Gator.

To be clear, I'm not channeling Denny Green here on any type of rant. But the words fit. We thought our swimmers were All-Stars and they performed that way. In fact, just about everyone pretty much hit the mark on their seeds within a place or two either way on Saturday. Hitting their seeds means that they finished in the place they were seeded. They performed as expected, and "They are who we thought they were."

That said, we did have a couple of our swimmers outperform a bit, which is worthy of special recognition. First, Clark Bayer, who was initially entered as an alternate for the 15-18 Free a week ago, then was moved up all the way to his final spot as the 10th seed after some scratches, and ultimately took 5th place in the event! That's quite a climb to glory. Natalie Crowther also kicked it into a higher gear in the 8 & under Fly. She cut 0.77 seconds off her time and jumped up two spots to finish 6th and come away with one of the coveted top-6 medals. And the BIG MOVER of the weekend was Sam Bruce. Sam crushed it in the 9-10 Fly, cutting 0.64 off his own team record to finish the race in 15.95 and jumped up 6 places to finish in 4th and earned himself one of those shiny top-6 medals, too.

Sam says, "I'll beat you with one leg behind my back."

Rounding out our other top-6 finishers were:
Donovan Kovalsky, 3rd place in 13-14 Free
Alex North, 4th place in 11-12 Free

Sheridan Phalen, 6th place in 15-18 Free

For those who like the stats, seven out of our 19 Gators swims were in Freestyle, and four out of our six top-6 finishers were Freestyle. We then had a tie with four swimmers each in Breaststroke and Fly, and then we had three in Back, and one IMer.

And in case you didn't read the last blog post, I'll mention it again... 19 swims at All-Stars is an all-time high for the Gators. And you want to know something else? Every one of those swimmers is coming back next summer. And... five of those 12 swimmers will be in the same age group again next year. Something tells me well be reading about them again in about 12 months.

"Who me?" Yeah, you know it. 

Five out of 12 coming back in the same age group next year? Maybe they aren't who we thought they were after all. Maybe they are even better. And that's saying something.... 'cause we already thought they were pretty darn awesome.

I only highlight the returning to the same age group thing because those swimmers are basically already below the All-Star cut for next year. In all likelihood, they will get even faster. And so will the other swimmers who are moving up an age. There's going to be a lot of fast swims to write about. I like the way next year's Gator summer season is stacking up already.

Full results are here and pictures are here.

Go Gators!

Last one. Cue the music.