It’s getting down to crunch time for Wooster swimmers

  • brian questel
  • January 5, 2011
  • 285
                        
011011 WHSswim Promo: Swim championships up next for General tankers It’s getting down to crunch time for Wooster swimmers By Brian Questel Throughout the country, students looked forward to Christmas break as an opportunity to sleep in and relax a little, getting away from the grind of books, homework and tests. Students at Wooster High School are no different, but for the Generals’ swim teams, that break was a time for extra work and a trio of meets. While it was a period that went well for the boys as they improved to 7-2 overall, the girls went 1-2 as they dropped to 6-3. Records aside, though, the point was to make final preparations for today’s NEAC Conference Championships (Jan. 7) at Wooster and the Ohio Cardinal Conference Championships (Jan. 15) a week later at Mansfield Malabar. Girls coach Chris Matthew wasn’t happy with her girl’s performance as they dropped meets to Brunswick and Medina before rebounding with a win over Wadsworth. “Tuesday (against Medina) there was very little racing going on,” said Matthew. “Medina was pretty strong and I was down two swimmers, but we didn’t swim very well. I’m sure we’ll turn it around and swim well. We turned it around Wednesday (against Wadsworth) and won, so that was better.” Matthew is hoping that improvement continues through the next two weeks and that the losses over break served as a wake-up call. “The girls will tell you they are tired, but we did less (yardage) than in the past,” said Matthew. “We had a meet Thursday (on the first day of break), had one practice and then Christmas, so we were off Saturday and Sunday. We practiced Monday, and had meets Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday we had two good practices and then it was New Year’s. “Honestly, it didn’t seem like we did that much … so I’m not going to attribute that to being tired. We were in the medium range of yardage, only 5-6,000 yards. We’ve done 8,500 yards (in the past), so I’m not going make excuses. We’ve had teams that have trained harder in the past. We didn’t do as much yardage as in the past because of the way the holidays fell. We had two full days off when normally we would have one.” Both teams faced North Canton Hoover Thursday (Jan. 6) before NEACs. “We’ll swim through that,” said Matthew. “We don’t rest for a lot of things. Rest is for February and we’ll swim three mornings this week.” With three wins, the boys improved their record, but the focus remained on preparation for the postseason in February. “We were working hard, doing weights and dry-land stuff twice a week instead of one, so that was good,” said boy’s coach Jeff DeHaan. “To do well in meets and get personal-best times was unusual. Over break we normally don’t get many PBs. “The win over Medina – that was one was sweet. It was one we shouldn’t have lost last year. The guys were gung-ho for that meet and swam well. We wanted to revenge that loss. Their pay-to-pay is $600 … so they didn’t have the depth we do. “During break we would have a 3-hour workout and then come back four hours later and swim a dual meet,” DeHaan added. “Our primary goal was to win, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. … To come back after four hours bodes well for the end of the season.” Wooster faced Hoover Thursday before hosting the NEAC diving Friday night at 6 p.m. The 8-team Northeast Aquatic Conference swimming began today at noon. Wooster will host the OCC diving Friday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m. with the swimming competition beginning at 10 a.m. at Mansfield Malabar.


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