(Photo: Matt swimming to the end of the 200 Freestyle and winning that race with a new best time for himself.)
Preliminaries Friday were a good thing. Always nervous when he goes in seeded so high that having two good weekends in a row for meets will just not be there, but Friday the times were there.
(Photo: 100 Freestyle was quite the race, he was seeded 4th in that and ended up winning it with a new best time.)
He got a new best time in both his individual events, the 200 Freestyle and the 100 Freestyle, and now has Junior National Times in both those events.
Harrison, unfortunately, had a goggle malfunction in the 100 Freestyle that cost him his first place seeding in the 100 Freestyle on Friday, which was really unfortunate.
Harrison, unfortunately, had a goggle malfunction in the 100 Freestyle that cost him his first place seeding in the 100 Freestyle on Friday, which was really unfortunate.
(Photo: Matt and Harrison stepping up to the block before the 100 Freestyle, and before the goggle misfunction costing Harrison precious seconds. Matt always steps up and makes The Sign of the Cross before he swims, just happened to catch him mid action with that in this photo.)
Harrison goes to another high school but has been swimming with Matt in USA swimming for too many years to count, maybe like 10, and is one of Matt's best friends, so while Matt was excited to get the first place seeding for Saturday, he was also disappointed for Harrison because the malfunction slowed Harrison down and cost him a top heat seeding. Very disappointing for a swimmer of Harrison's caliber.
(Photo: The relay team getting ready to defend their first seeded position, Mike, Nik, Jonathan, and Matt. The boys are sporting special new state swim caps, gray with a blue greyhound on them, instead of their traditional blue with the large yellow "C" on them. Quite fancy.)
Matt's relays did well, they were both seeded first Friday night but the 200 Freestyle Relay ended up seeded second going into Saturday, Matt swam a 20.9 on his 50 leg, which might have been one of his best in that, so they were hoping to get back into the groove of that one and take first again. The 400 Freestyle Relay went in seeded first and came out seeded first. All in all a great day for Matt. Will it continue? We shall see.