50 Backstroke – 2014 US Nationals
Rachel Bootsma dropped .11 seconds to win the 50 backstroke tonight. That should secure her spot on the World Championships roster, but that will not be official until later. Cheyenne Coffman was second at 28.42. Olivia Smoliga was third with her time of 28.49, and Ali Deloof followed in fourth at 28.70. Liz Pelton finished in fifth with her time of 28.85. There was a tie for sixth at 29.00 between Courtney Bartholomew and Hannah Stevens. Sarah Denninghoff was eighth with her time of 29.01. Clara Smiddy dropped .31 seconds from her morning swim to improve to a 28.95 for the win. Madison Kennedy was second at 29.15. Taylor Garcia won the C-final of the women’s 50 backstroke with her time of 29.35.
Cal’s women’s results have been a little disappointing this year.
1. Mind-bending talent
2. Teri McKeever is a great coach
= Below-average results?!?! ***
= Maybe, they have more studs than they are equipped to develop.
= Maybe “Concentrating talent” maybe isn’t always the best environment.
= Maybe, swimmers get discouraged when they never feel like they can rise to the top.
Maybe that’s unfair for these women (all of whom are more talented and successful than I and 99.9% of swimmers will ever be). But it’s a pretty strong data point against the idea that: “more competition in practice” = “everyone gets better”.
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Good to see Bootsy happy and with the fire again, and her explanation of things makes sense. I tend to forget how hard it must be to adjust to college social life and especially, academics, in conjunction with elite level swimming. Beisel mentioned something similar this year about the relief of finishing her degree, and now she’s having her best non-Olympic summer in years. Beisel will be continuing academics, studying on her post-grad scholarship, but I think that is a more flexible/easier schedule.
Rooting for a Cal 1-2-3 tonight in the 100 back: Franklin-Bootsma-Pelton. Go ahead and downvote me for that, I don’t care! 😉
I wonder why Bootsma hasn’t swum a very fast 100 back race since the 2012 olympic trials.
I also wonder why Bootsma, Pelton and Leverenz who train together, have a pretty average meet (Bootsma, in terms of times) and pretty bad meet (Pelton and Leverenz) and overall not a very good season.
Perhaps they have already reached their perfect weight/ power/ training / lifestyle peak as related to swimming .