Making Waves

Christiana Braun (left) and Jesper Johnson (right)

DCY Featured Swimmers

Jesper Johnson, 12, Gibraltar School: Swimming all best times at the recent Manitowoc Invitation swim meet, his times are dropping rapidly, and his goal of achieving State cuts is within reach in multiple events. He has committed to swimming two mornings per week, along with three to four night sessions. Traveling from Gibraltar, this is an impressive desire to improve.

Christiana Braun, 9, Sunrise School: A swimming star from the first year she swam at seven years old, Christy holds six DCY team records. Last year she was the State Champion in 25 yard breaststoke, 50 yard breaststroke and the 100 yard IM along with 2nd place in the 100 yard freestyle. This is her third year on the DCY Swim Team.

The success of both of these swimmers is related to a great practice effort and technical proficiency.

Notes from Coach Mike McHugh: There are two championship meets for the YMCA. The first level is the YMCA State Championship Meet. Each year, state cuts are determined by taking the eighth best time from the previous meet and using that time as the new cut time to get into the meet the next year. In this manner, the meet is limited to the top eight to 24 best swimmers in the state in each event. Some events have less swimmers because the cut time is incredibly fast. The competition level is unlike any other sport, especially at the younger ages. Our team typically has 35 to 40 state qualifiers each year. Last year we had a spectacular National meet with 14 individual and relay state champions.

The next level is the YMCA National Championship Meet. Once again, the cuts are determined from the year before, with the attempt at keeping entries below 200 swimmers in each event. Most events will have approximately 100 to 150 swimmers. There are approximately 1,800 swimmers each year that qualify to swim at Nationals. At this meet, a swimmer will swim prelims in the morning, exactly like the Olympics, with the top 24 swimmers swimming again at night. Just think about being the top 24 in the nation in an event. There are A, B, C heats. If you make one of these heats, you are typically a scholarship athlete. If you would look at the top heat, many of those swimmers and times are faster than the Olympic qualifying times. This is the ultimate goal, to swim at the Olympic qualifying meet, with the dream of representing our country in the Olympics.

Swim Terms: Heat – The term for one race, when there are too many swimmers entered in an event for them to all race at once. Winners of the event are determined after all heats have raced, and the times of each swimmer have been compared to those of the swimmers in all other heats of the same event.

Event – A race, identified by the distance and stroke. One event often includes preliminary heats and a finals race. An event can also be a series of heats, which are timed-finals.

Upcoming Meets

Tittle Town Freeze, Green Bay: Jan. 16 & 17

SPDY Underdog Meet, Stevens Point: Jan. 24

Schroeder A+, Brown Deer: Jan. 30 & Feb. 1

Northern Lights Meet, Escanaba, Mich.: Jan. 31

For more information visit the DCY website, teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=widcy.