February 15, 2012
2011-2012 ODAC Women's Swimming Review
-Courtesy Alta Sky
The Pride Sports Information Department sat down with head swim coach Scot Budde to get his thoughts on the ODAC Championships. Greensboro College finished fifth among nine schools in its inaugurall ODAC Championship season.
Overall
"Our women had a tremendous meet. We are very grateful for the opportunity to compete as ODAC members, which made the meet even more exciting for us. Having the meet in Greensboro was a big plus, too, since many friends and relatives were able to attend the meet. We had some great individual swims and relays that far exceeded what I thought they could do."
"Our 200 Medley Relay was our best relay performance, where Dani, Lauren, Emma, and Taylor all swam incredible splits to come within two-tenths of a second of our team record. The 200 Freestyle Relay was also within two seconds of our team record."
"Emma Phillips had a great meet overall to earn ODAC Swimmer of the Year, but her 200 IM on the first day got everyone's attention. She qualified second in the morning, but swam six seconds faster in the evening, blowing away the rest of the field by three and a half seconds and establishing a new ODAC record, a first for a Pride swimmer. All of her work this year to improve her butterfly and backstroke paid off as she split two seconds faster halfway through the race than she did in last year's championships. Emma also swam the second fastest 50 Butterfly split in the 200 Medley Relay, and swam a time trial in the 100 Butterfly upon the completion of the meet that was faster than the first place finisher Saturday night. She defended her other two championship titles from last year by swimming the 400 IM and 200 Breast in career best times."
"Taylor White had a swim that I will remember for a long time. After setbacks during preliminaries caused her to qualify 16th in the 100 Butterfly, she swam over five seconds faster and a career best at finals to move past four other swimmers who qualified faster than she did. She showed tremendous heart and proved that she will be challenging for top eightfinishes next year. Taylor also showed how important she was by scoring in two other events that she did not swim last year. Her 13th place finish in the 200 IM and 12th place finish in the 200 Butterfly ensured that we would retain our fifth place finish. Taylor had some great splits in relays as she swam 26.33 to anchor the 200 Medley Relay and 59.92 in the 400 Free Relay. Taylor's hard work earned the attention of several other coaches who were impressed with how well she improved over the last year."
"Dani Horne had a great meet, and was a good example of how the conference is getting faster. She swam career bests in the her 50 Free in the preliminaries, but it was not enough to crack the top eight. She dropped a little more time at night to win the consolation heat. Likewise, she swam her 100 Free over a half-second faster than she did in last year's preliminaries, but qualified 9th. Like in the 50, she chipped two-tenths of a second off her morning time to win the consolation heat and place ninth. Dani also earned a top-eight finish in her 100 Back on Saturday. Before last year, Dani did not swim much Backstroke, but was willing to swim it more as the team needed someone to swim Back in the Medley Relays."
"Lauren Fisher followed Taylor's example and scored points in each of her individual events. Like her teammate, Lauren swam the 200 IM for the first time at a championship meet, swimming a career best in the morning and chipping away another second at finals. Lauren's 100 Breaststroke was another example of the increasing depth of the meet. Her time of 1:24.37 last year placed her 11th. She swam six and a half second faster this year with a time of 1:17.78 and placed 12th. Her 200 Breast placed her 15th, but was 17 seconds (yes, 17 seconds!) faster than last year when she got 14th."
"Meredith Colon seemed to really enjoy the atmosphere of her first championship swim meet. And I do mean first. Meredith had not swam a competitive race before November of this year. She worked diligently to try to catch up, and was able to place ahead of ten competitors in the 50 Free, five in the 200 Free, and ahead of ten in the 100 Free. All three swims were her personal bests, and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do next year with more experience."
"Sarah Smith fought through a tough injury that she suffered after Thanksgiving. Like last year, Sarah showed strength and determination (and stubbornness) that I do not see in many of the swimmers at the meet. Despite the disruption in training and the pain that her injury causes her, she was still very close to personal bests in her three events."
