Fall Start-Up Write Up

The Fall Start-Up was the second meet of the season and showed the strength of the UCSC program. For most of the groups the two-session meet gave everyone the opportunity to show their early season racing fitness.

For the TREX groups, swimming only in the morning session, the meet was an introduction to competition that included older and faster swimmers. During the warm up the group held their own, and at the meet the TREX swimmers were, as expected, rising to the occasion of the excitement of the competition. There were lessons learned from a few missed races, several disqualifications and many opportunities to experience nerves that come with caring about performance. As a group TREX swimmers raced vigorously, putting together skills that they worked on during training sessions. For TREX swimmers the morning session ended with 4x50 free relay, for many the first relay of their swimming career.

The 12-stream swimmers were seeded together with their older teammates. It was great to see how well the groups carried themselves through the meet. Many swimming for the first time in short course since March, having done more training and growing since then, they have not only improved their best times, but also their starts, turns and technique. It was encouraging to see swimmers finishing races strong and fast, racing all the way to the wall.

The Regional, Provincial National groups and the UofC Varsity Team after just a few weeks of training, showed great strength and stamina, in many races swimming faster or very close to best times.

Overall it was great to witness the camaraderie among swimmers and to see swimmers being excited about racing and enjoying swimming.

Starting off the season with this level of performance sets up the stage for another great season for the whole team.