Transcript
With us on coach's corner, KWBG, going to talk some boon girls swimming today, Chris Mann joining us, the Torridors. But I tell you what, what a fantastic start to the season, and I don't want to let the Mason City Invitational get too far away, and I know it's been, I know Chris is probably going to tell me, OK, that was a great meet, and we got to start looking ahead. But coach, I'm going to make you look back a little bit, because anytime you finish 20 points behind Waqui for first place, I know it would have been unbelievable to get a W there. But wow, what a fantastic day that was in Mason City. Yeah, I mean, we had a great first outing. You know, you talk about 500 points and only a 20-point difference, and we were right there all day. You know, they kept announcing scores, and usually they don't announce the scores, but it was close. They kept announcing scores every event, and you know, we would have the lead by a few points. Waqui would have the lead, and we had some better events, and they had some better events. And it just came down to the last few events, and in the last relays, they put their A relay ahead of our A, and their B relay ahead of our B relay, so they just nipped us there at the end. But yeah, kudos to our girls. Last year, Waqui beat us by 300 points. So the improvement, you know, it's hard to compare year to year, but the improvement is insane, and that's something that we can hang our hats on for that first meet, for sure. Did you have to pinch yourself a little bit, coach, walking out of there and keep looking at the score sheet? Because let's also mention that third place was Spencer, who scored 4-26. There were two big dogs that day in Mason City, and you were one of them. Yeah, I mean, you kind of look at the times going in, and you know, I thought Waqui would kind of run away with the meet a little bit, and when we got there, we were like, you know, we kind of have a chance to hang tight and possibly win this thing. And so maybe that got into the girls' heads a little bit, and got them a little more excited. But I'm just always glad that they can, you know, put up some times at the beginning of the season and put us on the right step towards those goals that we have at the end of the year. I need you to tell me a little bit about, I don't know, we got to come up with a nickname for Aliyah and Avery. I don't know what the cool, if they've got something yet, and actually what happens is, when adults try to come up with nicknames, it's terrible. So let's just scratch that, but Aliyah and Avery were fantastic in the 50-yard free coach. What was that like to watch? You know, you get two seniors who have a vast amount of state filming experience, and they come in with that confidence. You know, every year you go to the state meet, you build confidence, and as a senior, those girls that have been to the state meet for three consecutive years, you know, this is their year to shine, and hold nothing back. And Aliyah goes and blows the doors off of the time that we thought she was gonna go and hits her automatic qualifying time in her first swim of the season. And then Avery finishes behind her in second place, clearly ahead of third place, and goes about a little over three quarters of a second faster than she was a year ago at this time. And so just a really positive moment for them to kick off their senior year. It was both of their first swims of their senior season. So really set them on the right path. Well, and then you had an opportunity with all the great stuff that I know we just talked about with Mason City, and then it was like, okay, I know all jokes aside, what do we do next? What can we do for an encore? And so I saw who was gonna be down at Grinnell, and it looked like, okay, there'll be some pretty good competition down there. I could see them, you know, maybe we'll see. Well, you know, one of those wait-and-see type things. And then when I saw the final score, and you know, I look at the point totals, and I'm thinking, goodness gracious, Chris, you guys went down there and scored 339 points. What a night. Yeah, and you know, we, coming off of the Invite Saturday where everybody was swimming their prime events, we used Tuesday as kind of a chance to mix it around a little bit. We had some girls that are swimming events they never swam before, some girls that were swimming events that they hadn't done in quite a few years, but it gives them an opportunity for me to just challenge them to compete when they step up on the box, whatever race they do, good, bad, or indifferent. They need to compete, and they need to develop that edge to their swimming. And so yeah, we came out, we didn't necessarily win a lot of events. You know, we finished, but we had a lot of second, third, fourth, fifths. You know, we were running the table after that. We won our fair share, but our depth really showed up on Tuesday night, and it was nice to get, you know, all of our girls, JV Varsity, all of the water, and get them set towards those goals that they have at the end of the season, and showing them, you know, this is our first stepping stone on that way. Well, Clara Nabnet was one that I did want to talk about from Grinnell, and she ends up pointing the 100-yard back, and she just feels like that's a piece to the puzzle. Chris, if you guys want to get a bunch of individuals and a bunch of relays into state, which spoiler alert, you guys do, I think she's going to be a big key to that here this fall. She is, you know, she's one of those girls that, I mean, she's a lot like her brother, really, Simon, who plays any role you need them to play on a team. Yep. Very versatile swimmer, and the 100-yard back is actually an event that's not one of her better events, but she's just been working on it so hard to improve her IM and qualify for state in that event, that it's become a strong suit for her, and so you can just see, you can tell that she's a senior and has worked on things over four years, and it doesn't just happen overnight, and she's just a testament to, you know, you can commit yourself to something for several years, and keep working on it, you know, day in and day out, and she's seen reaping those benefits, and that's going to continue to pay off for her and our team all season long. I'd so funny that you said that about Claire, because I feel like you got another couple girls that kind of fit that same mold when it comes to where you could put them. I don't want to say anywhere, because that's, you know, never fair, but it feels like you could put them anywhere. How about that? And the two of them I wanted to talk about actually, Harper Houston was one of them, and I'll let you talk about Harper first, and I'll give you the second one, but I kind of feel like Harper's one of those girls you could do that with. Yeah, you know, I was kind of joking around with Harper. She put in a lot of great best times on Tuesday night that I wouldn't say they were surprising, but this early in the season, you know, definitely a welcomed surprise. And you know, I said, that's testament to your work in the weight room. You know, she's in the weight room year round, and that does pay off, and you know, she's swimming also, but you know, our girls are working on stuff outside of the pool to make themselves better athletes, and you know, more explosive and stronger, and you know, our weight program has really helped us out a lot, and that showed other swimmers like, hey, you put in the work in the weight room, especially when they go from freshmen and sophomores, they see quite a big leap in that, you know, they know what's going on, and they've been in the weight room a little longer, and so yeah, Harper's one that slots in just about wherever we need her to also, and that 105, she swam on Tuesday night, she got out, she goes, you know, that's actually a pretty good event. For being, going into it, I thought that was probably her worst event, and she came out of it with a pretty positive mindset, and a great time, so just to be able to see that ability out of her was fantastic. Finley Hauser was the other one I wanted to talk about too, Chris kind of feels along that same mold where you can kind of use her in a bunch of different individuals, and you can toss her in some relays maybe. Yeah, you know, and both those girls swam on some relays at the State Meet last year, so they have that experience, and Finley's a great one that will swim whatever, and has also, like Harper, been in the weight room a lot, and has definitely gained a lot of strength from freshening the sophomore year, and that's gonna bode so well for her down the line this year as we get into, you know, putting some more yards, putting some more yards in, and then tapering back down for that Conference Regional State Meet, they're gonna see huge gains with that, with the amount of strength that they have, and the explosiveness that they've gained over the last year. I'm excited to see where that goes. Chris, final thing for me, tell us where Boon Girl Swimming is going, and what's coming up next. Yeah, next two meets are actually at home, so next Tuesday we're home against Algon, and then the following week we're home against East. We got a new ribbon cutting for our new video store board in the pool, so come out and see that next Tuesday, and then the following Thursday we got a swim against Cancer Night put on by the Boone County Hospital Foundation. We got some cool things going on our home meets this year, and we're excited to kick off that part of our season. Any truth to the rumor that there's a Chris Mann highlight reel that's gonna play at this ribbon cutting? We'll unplug it.
Chris, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck here the next couple of weeks. Thanks, Ryan. You bet, Chris Mann again joining us. Boon Girl Swimming here on Coaches Corner.
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