Transcript
With us on Coach's Corner here in KWBG, get a chance to wrap up. Boy, what a state swim meet Chris Mann joining us. We were just kind of talking about some of the stuff.
And I think, Chris, when you look back at this year, the expectations, I know when you and I talked off air and I'll I'll talk out of class when I say this. You had high expectations before this season barely was started. I think we were maybe even a couple of practices in.
Chris, have you ever had that kind of expectation for a group and then exceeded it by the end of the season? You know, I'm a realist and I like to keep my expectations in check a little bit for the teams, especially at the beginning of the season.
But yeah, I would say this team went far and above what I kind of expected. Swimming is one of those sports where you can kind of not predict the future, but within a within a realm of possibilities. And you can tell what kind of team you got coming in.
But man, the way these boys attack this season, I did not think we would take a step forward from last season with the quality of seniors and the year that we had last season. But take a step forward. We did. Well, and you did something at state, too.
And I know it can be always a little difficult because you guys go all out at districts, not that you don't at state, but you want to get as many kids as you can to state. You've told me this a million times, so I'll steal one of your quotes.
It's more fun taking a bunch of kids to state than just a few. And so you guys really go after it district wise. I know that makes it a little difficult then to cut more time at state just because and you would think, OK, more competition.
But man, you guys cut so much time when it comes to going in. And yet, Chris, you guys score points at state. You end up with, you know, a finish that, of course, we hope we beat some some year. But I mean, just one of the best finishes I can remember ever for Boone Boy Swimming.
Yeah, you know, as a smaller school in an unclassed sport, just representing Boone on the state level is always our number one priority, whether it be boys or girls season, just to just to have Boone up on the scoreboard at the state meet, you know, sends a message, you know, as well as a lot of other small schools.
That's our primary goal is to just be there. And so the way we attack our whole season, of course, is to put the emphasis on the district meet to get through to the state. Now, we have a couple of guys that we knew were going to be pushed through like the Isaacs and Carson's.
But you look at like Simon and Brady and Cooper all qualifying in individual events. They had to drop a lot of time to make it there. And and so going into the state meet, the we talked about expectations and being able to predict the future.
I kind of held myself in check big time and was was talking to some of the kids about relay expectations. And, you know, we might add a little bit of time, but I think place wise, we might move up because other teams will add time.
I did not expect us to cut the time we did at the state meet on Saturday. And that's just kudos to the boys and their buy in and just performing on a big stage. I know when I say this next thing, you'll understand what I'm saying. Hopefully everybody else will get it, too.
I know Friday maybe wasn't that. And I'll go ahead and throw the pun in there. Splash that it was on Saturday, Chris. But I thought you had some really, really neat stuff that went down on Friday with Simon and Cooper Brady was in there as well.
Isaac and we'll talk more about him here in just a second. But I thought you had at least a good maybe like I said, maybe not that ginormous cannonball. But I thought you had some good stuff on Friday.
Yeah, you know, anytime you take those and you have some amount of guys to compete in prelims on Friday night, you know, they're all there's 32 qualifiers and they're competing for 16 final spots, you know, eight in the A final and eight in the B final.
And you know, you're looking at Brady with his two events and Simon with his event and Cooper with his event. That gives us four events that we would have been kind of surprised if they would have made a final. You know, Brady was on the edge, Simon was kind of on the edge.
So it was a goal there to make it in there. But like I said, the time dropped to get to the state meet. Brady hung on to his feed times was right there. A couple guys moved ahead of him. But man, it's just tough competing against the best of the best in the state.
And yeah, it was good on Friday night. We had some ups and downs, but you know, we only walked away.
We had six swims that night and only one best time, one lifetime best, which was kind of to be expected, but it kind of left us maybe a little hungry for Saturday and that's maybe what fueled us.
So when you wake up Saturday morning and you know that this is it, this is, you know, day number two, what do you feel like going into today? Number two, are you feeling are you feeling good? Are you feeling I mean, you got to feel a little bit nervous because you're excited.
So I mean, that would be one thing. But what are you kind of feeling as a coach going in? As a coach, I'm feeling that I just chaperone 12 boys that hate me and at dinner at the hotel and that it was I was ready to be done.
No, we we just talked about how, you know, it's great to celebrate being at state and we've had teams before that have, you know, it's been more of a celebration than attack mode and more of a celebration than hey, this is still our job. This is our main focus of the entire year.
And I think a slight difference this year was that our boys really were like, OK, this is a meet like we're all whether we're swimming one race today or whether we're swimming four races today.
This is this is our be all end all of our season and just kind of went into that type of mode and built the excitement a little bit. And then man, the medley relay kick things off. And I think we were just off and running from there.
I was going to say the medley relay right away drops, you know, over a second of time goes 18th to 14th. And then Isaac has a chance to jump in the pool and. Well, I know you told me off there, you know, nerve wracking, you hate the 50.
It's, you know, a lot of things can go wrong. It's like the 100 meter dash, like you told me, and in track, you know, a little bit of a glitch and all of a sudden you're out. Boy, Isaac did not have a little bit of a glitch in that state runner up.
No, I just you know, first off with that medley relay, I was standing next to Isaac during that. I was like, you know, if I was to bet, I'd probably say they're going to add about .4 and you know, be close and maybe competitive in that first heat.
I did not know that each of them was going to go their lifetime best split and then win the heat and then beat a couple people from the heat behind them.
But their competitive spirit on that medley relay was just off the charts and that just made us so excited that that kept the thing rolling. I think that kind of fed into Isaac's 50 a little bit. Just a very different feel for him than his junior year.
His junior year, there were two of them that kind of separated themselves.
From the rest of the field and it was kind of a one-two finish was maybe almost predetermined last year and this year in prelims, he wasn't so happy with this one actually qualified fourth to finals with another couple guys right next to him and one of the guys he was going against, we watched him swim in the medley relay and anchor that medley relay in a ridiculously fast time.
And so he's like, geez, and I, you know, I turned to Carson right before the 50. I'll be like, I'll be happy if he gets third. But I wouldn't be surprised if he gets fourth or fifth.
And then, you know, he just executed a great race on the biggest stage and finished second place and distanced himself away from those kids kind of like it was last year again.
So just seeing his happiness and his celebration after that and a little bit of a sigh of relief after all those nerves.
And so, you know, the rest of his races, the other three races he had the rest of the day were just kind of icing on the cake and just the, we'll say the first fun races. Well, and the four fun is I throw the air quotes out there.
He gets six in the 100 freestyle and then we get ready for the 200 free relay. Chris, what are you thinking about that 200 free relay going in? You know, I had talked to the guys all week, you know, we were seated 11th. I said, this is still our best relay.
It's been our best relay all season long. It was our best relay on paper way back last March when I was just planning things out. I was like, this is our relay.
And I was pretty excited for Carson to be able to swim after his injury and he was feeling great and he was feeling excited. So I was like, this is going to feel like it normally does. You know, a lot of teams save their big dogs for the anchor leg and we put Isaac second.
And we kind of do that intentionally to give, we go Carson, Isaac to give Brady and Simon a little bit of confidence and a lead and some clean water. And then they just hang on for dear life and fight off all those other teams.
And I said, it's going to feel like we felt all year where you guys are way ahead and you're just running and everything went according to plan. Brady messed up his turn a little bit anchoring that relay, but still had a lifetime best. Blew away my expectations.
Our school record was 127-08 and I was like, let's just dip into the 126's. Let's get a new, you know, new school record 126 on the board. It'll look great. And then they just go 125-4. I was jumping up and down so much I had to hold my pants up. They're starting to fall down.
It was super exciting. Like I couldn't stop smiling. I couldn't stop cheering. And then we had to wait for the last seat to go to see kind of where we slotted in in that last because we knew we'd be a couple teams and yeah, just my goodness.
What an exciting relay and their faces and their hands in the air. Man, it was just so much fun. Well, and the kid who I know we had question marks about and I asked about Carson. I remember when I texted you and said that Carson have a little bit of a race goes 21-6 in that.
My gosh. I mean, it makes me wonder if he wasn't injured what it would have been done. Well, the rest of the boys were saying, well, now we know the plan for state next year is we just don't swim all week and then just show up at the state meet.
I know I'm not going to work like that. No, I just think a kid who knew it was his last swim meet ever and just wanted to go out with a bang and was so excited. Kind of like a little kid just excited to swim and excited to be a part of it. I can't even put it into words.
Just exceeded all expectations. You know, just one week earlier than that we thought his swimming career was over and for him to be able to step up with eight stitches in his heel and go a lifetime best to lead off our relay. I think that's what got me so excited.
I was like, geez, we're on to something and here we go. And just like I said, so much fun. And I can't and the crazy part is if we would just end things there, Chris, with what went down in the 200 free relay, that's a heck of a state meet.
I mean, that is one of those where you go, oh, maybe someday we can come close to that. I don't know. And we haven't even talked about the 400 free relay. You finish eighth there and then 10th place as a team.
I mean, like I said, we could take those last two things, not even talk about them. That's a heck of a state meet. Then I throw those on top. Chris, pinch me. We're dreaming here, right? Yeah. Well, we finished fifth in the 400 free. Fifth in the free. There you go.
We were seated eight, but the 400 free relay was a lot of fun because we actually swam in lane eight, which is right next to the wall. And so we could literally get down on the deck and be in their faces yelling and screaming at them while they were going.
And so they were just right there. And again, Carson leads off our relay in his lifetime best. So we knew we were on to something. Brady goes to lifetime best right after that. Simon is right on his lifetime best.
And then you get Isaac Clark to just finish off our season diving into anchor that relay. And he dove in at the same time just behind lanes one and two on the far side of the pool. And you just know, like, he's going to chase them down. We're going to get fifth place.
And again, our goal was just to make the top eight in that relay and to finish fifth. And then afterwards when there's no service in there, so I have to kind of go outside to get service to look at the results. And I was like, oh my goodness, we finished 10th place.
And then I went back and, man, they were so excited to have a top 10 finish because that was the goal of ours. And someone asked me what the ceiling was for our team at the meet. And I said, 10th place, but that's a reach. Like that's definitely a reach.
And man, you know, that last relay put us over the top and into 10th place. And Boone's best state finish. Back in, I think, 1951, we got fifth place. But there were only 10 teams at the state meet. So a little bit different atmosphere, but yeah, super awesome. I don't know.
I sing on the cake and more. Chase the waste. That's like double dessert is what that was. Yeah. Chris, we'll wrap up the season with you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for some time recap and state. Yeah. Thank you, Ryan. You bet. Chris Mannigan joining us.
Boone Boys Swimming here on Coaches Corner.
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