The Psych Sheet

Colorado Swimmers Once Again Victorious

The team representing Colorado at this year’s Midwest All Star Meet in Lawrence, Kansas, nabbed first place once again. This marks at least the third year in a row that Colorado has won the Midwest All Stars, which pits the top 14 and under swimmers from Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Missouri.

This year’s team swam to victory behind several first-place finishes and also set two meet records in the process. Michael Loyd, 12, set the 11-12 Boys 100Y Breaststroke meet record with a time of 1:05.26 and Matthew Sima, 12, set the 11-12 Boys 50Y Breaststroke meet record with a time of 30.69.

The Colorado team is comprised of the top 10 swimmers each for boys and girls from the following age groups: 10 & under, 11-12 and 13-14. Those swimmers are determined using a high point system based on the CSI database top 10 lists through roughly mid December. The Age Group coaches may also assign automatic spots, which in the past have been given to the top one or two swimmers per an All Star event. It should be noted that at least a few of the state’s top swimmers who were selected this year opted instead to attend other meets. But that didn’t seem to make much of difference. The 2^nd-place team, Missouri Valley, finished more than 450 points behind.

Kudos to these Colorado swimmers who took first place:

Riley Hoffman, 12 (1 relay)
Annie Ochitwa 12  (1 relay)
Leah Roberson 12  (1 relay)
Abby Kochevar 11 (2 relays)
Nathaniel Forbus 14 (1 relay)
Connor Croan 14 (1 individual, 1 relay)
Daryl Turner 14  (3 individual, 1 relay)
Jacob Davis 14 (1 individual, 1 relay)
Shelly Drozda, 12 (6 individual, 1 relay)
Tyler Lis, 12 (1 individual)
Abbie Houck, 14 (2 individual)
Michael Loyd, 12 (1 individual)
Jennae Frederick, 10 (1 individual)
Santana Garcia, 12, (2 individual)
Delaney Lanker, 14, (1 individual)
Dominique Schiffman, 10 (2 individual)
Mary Saiz, 14 (1 individual)
Andie Turner, 12, (1 individual, 1 relay)
Lexie Malazdrewicz (1 individual)
Matthew Sima, 12, (1 individual)
Jolene Norton 12 (1 relay)

To view complete meet results, click here.

Busy Travel Weekend for Swimmers

Many of Colorado’s top swimmers are scattered across the country competing in various meets this week. First and foremost, the state’s select All Star team, made up of many of the leading 10 and under, 11-12 and 13-14 swimmers in the state, are representing Colorado at the Midwest All-Stars in Lawrence, Kansas. Our swimmers have fared very well in the past, grabbing first place and bettering teams from Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri Valley (Missouri and Kansas) and Midwestern Swimming (Nebraska and Iowa).

For a complete list of those who were selected to go, click here. Note that some of these swimmers choose not to compete so several alternates and even swimmers not listed as alternates ended up attending. More meet info. can be found here including the psych sheet and eventually results.

Meanwhile, at least four Colorado clubs are in Austin, Texas, at the New Year’s Classic at the University of Texas this weekend and at least two more area clubs have made the trip to Minneapolis to compete at the Winter Classic at the University of Minnesota, which will host the 2011 NCAA swim championships. Both venues have reputations as being great places to compete, and from the initial results posted so far, it looks to be true with many best times.

Personally, I think it’s great that our kids have a chance to swim at or near sea level. It’s just plain harder to compete at altitude so this offers a nice change of pace.