Hegwein Family Blog

West Florida Lightning Aquatics "Halloween Open"; Results, and commentary!

Largo: The annual WFLA "Halloween Open" has ended after 3 grueling days, and both Karl and Natalie had outstanding swims! The meet featured 27 teams from around Florida, including a large contingent from Brandon Sports & Aquatics, Clearwater Aquatics Team (CAT), TBA (Tampa Bay Aquatics), Gator Swim from Gainesville and a powerful team from Orlando-lake Brantley (Highlands Hurricanes). The biggest squad was our own Sarasota Y Sharks (SYS), with 1015 individual and relay entries In all, there were over 825 swimmers competing in 2 separate courses at the same time; one 6 lane for boys and one 10 lane for girls, both morning and afternoon sessions. To say the meet was "hectic" is an understatement!

Now for the results. Natalie swam several "firsts;" the 100 and 200yd Free, 100 Fly, and 200 IM. Her results in the 200 Free indicate more endurance conditioning is needed, but she was only 4 seconds from a Junior Olympic (JO) in the 200 IM, finishing in 2:59.36. She "flew" through the first 50 of the 100yd Fly, but faded a bit on the back 50 to close in 1:32.25. On a brighter note, she dropped 1.23 in the 50 Free (33.29) and placed 33rd/118! In the ever-competitive 9-10 yo girls, there were 4 nationally-ranked swimmers making life miserable for Natalie...and everyone else! Nevertheless, she again swam well in the breaststroke events, finishing 18th/95 in the 50 (43.02) and 17th/58 in the 100 (1:35.01). All told, Natalie has moved up the pecking order on the team, as demonstrated by Coach placing her on the "C" freestyle relay team and "B" Medley relay team. You can see her efforts in the 50yd breast HERE!

Karl picked up where he left off from the Daytona Meet, dropping time in every event! He first had to overcome a disappointing Friday night: a DQ in the 200 IM followed by his first distance event; the 500yd Free. His time of 7:17.81 placed him 29th/31, not what he wanted, to say the least. He will undoubtedly improve on that swim the next time, as he will learn pacing and split progression. Things got much better on Saturday and Sunday, when he busted out in the 50yd Breast, finishing in 40.17 (-3.84 from previous) and good for 9th/50! Other results are: 50 Free; 31.48 (-1.25) 30/66, 100 Free; 1:13.58 (-4.32) 39/61, 50 Back; 36.89 (-2.66) 12th/49, and 50 Fly; 37.14 (-4.02) 26th/57. The best race was the 100 Breaststroke on Sunday, when Karl swam a 1:26.19, knocking off 4.74 seconds to place 10th/45. Overall, he finished in 23rd place out of 72 in the 11-12 yo boys. You can see his efforts in the 50 yd Free and Breast HERE!

There are only a few meets left this year (SYS "Turkey" meet in November and the "Jingle Bell" Invitational in Clearwater) and we will be looking forward to a nice 5 day break during the holidays. Things will get very serious come January, as the team will be training hard for Winter Junior Olympics in February. Hopefully, Karl will join Natalie in making a "cut" so both can attend. Our fingers are crossed!

Oh, and we DID celebrate Natalie's birthday poolside, with Halloween Cookies for all her teammates (sugar-high be damned!).