On January 4, 22 youth swimmers from Cook County attended a swim meet hosted at the YMCA. Also attending were swimmers from Superior and Duluth.
The Superior swimmers especially challenged our local team and there were many close events. “There were many firsts at the swim meet (and I’m not just talking about 1st places, although we had a few of those too!” says Executive Director Emily Marshall.
The Cook County swim team, which has almost 40 swimmers, is fairly young with the eight and under category being the largest. For many of them, it was their first swim meet experience.
“Even some of the older kids had nerves about being in their first competition,” said Marshall. “However, everyone gave it their all. Each swimmer participated in about five events.”
“After the first event, the butterflies seemed to fly away and were replaced by excitement. I think some of the swimmers really impressed themselves, their parents, and even the coaches. Since they had no official times yet from a previous meet, we didn’t quite know how they would do against the competition. We make it a point to focus on their own time and personal bests at this age and not worry so much about what the kid in the next lane is doing.”
“As they (kids) get a little older we start to develop goals about placing or dropping time. We were surprised that some of our eight and under swimmers almost made regional qualifying times in some of their events. As a coach, I’m really excited to see the program grow and get more competitive. There are always going to be some kids that swim for fun, exercise, camaraderie, or a way to improve swimming in general, which is also encouraged.”
“At least half of the team was at the meet and it left them hungry for more competition! Several have been asking about the meet in Superior, coming up on January 18, and are planning to attend.”
Swimmers must participate in three meets during the regular season to qualify for the YMCA sectional meet (which includes Brainerd, Grand Rapids, Duluth, and Superior); state (which hosts 25 teams from Minnesota), regionals (which is made up of teams from 11 midwest states), or the national meet at the end of the season.
Three of the Cook County swimmers have qualified for the sectional meet and are likely to advance to the state meet this year. Those swimmers are Jack Dragswiek, Mary June DeArruda-Wharton, and Raymond Young. The team is already preparing for next season (October- February) and planning to host three local meets so swimmers get a chance to qualify for sections right in their home pool. Listed below are all swimmers and relays that placed in the top three in their event:
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