OK, so the ODAC Championships finished last Sunday and I have yet to write about it. My bad. Here's a recap of how the meet went down for R-MC:
The ladies on the team swam very well and finished firmly in 2nd place as a team, 169 points clear of 3rd place Sweet Briar. As a team we put up 30 new lifetime bests during the weekend. While we didn't win any events, we did have 10 2nd place finishes. Leading the way was the 200 medley relay team of Hallie, Kellianne, Shafer, and Sarah, who shattered their own school record - as well as the previous conference record - in a time of 1:50.95. Sarah's split on the end of that relay was the fastest of the meet at 23.82. She also put up the best 100 free split of the meet in anchoring our 400 free relay in 53.09...all that while swimming in a suit held together with duct tape and nail polish! I'm already excited about what our relays are going to look like next season.
The biggest time drop of the weekend for R-MC came from Tracy Spurrier, who has just made some enormous improvements as a distance freestyler this year. Tracy's previous best in the 1650 was the 20:56.43 she put up at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in November. Last Sunday Tracy slashed nearly a minute and 5 seconds from that PR, finishing in 6th place overall in a time of 19:51.65.
The R-MC highlights weren't just contained to the pool during the weekend, however. On Sunday night, Shafer Busch became just the 2nd swimmer in R-MC history to grab top honors as the ODAC Scholar Athlete of the Year. Shafer beat out all other juniors and seniors in the conference for this award, which recognizes both academic and athletic accomplishments. It was a great way for Shafer to end her career as a swimmer.
All in all, it was a good championship meet for our team. The meet as a whole was much improved from last year, and our team was definitely a lot stronger than we were a year ago. We're making progress, and will continue to move forward next season.
