Made the trek to Berkeley for the W swim Big Meet. Much closer than the men's meet yesterday. LSJU won the meet by 154-145 by winning the last event, the 4x100 relay, anchored by Huske, who also won the two sprint freestyles going away and anchored the medley relay. She didn't swim the individual butterfly races. Bell looked fantastic in the two breaststroke races, winning the 200 in 2:03, the fastest nationwide this season. She is over 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else at this point in the season.
An unexpected highlight was Huske swimming all by herself in the competition pool during the second intermission, staying loose for the relay, effortless gliding on freestyle and backstroke. Everyone else was in the warm up pool next to Haas Pavilion. I guess if you're a gold medalist and world champ, you get to warm up in the competition pool!
An unexpected lowlight was the lane 8 starting block literally falling apart after just two events, causing a near half hour delay as Cal staffers frantically tried to fix the starting block (running back and forth from the pool to the adjoining building) and then ended up replacing it with a new one. Lane 4's block, which Huske used in four races, was also a bit loose and Huske even pointed out the loose platform to the coaches. That block was not fixed or replaced during the meet. Sigh. With apologies to the small but mighty group of Cal alums who are loyal LSJU backers on this board, the equipment fiasco looked like a small example of the Cal athletic dept.'s budget deficit, in full public view.
An unexpected highlight was Huske swimming all by herself in the competition pool during the second intermission, staying loose for the relay, effortless gliding on freestyle and backstroke. Everyone else was in the warm up pool next to Haas Pavilion. I guess if you're a gold medalist and world champ, you get to warm up in the competition pool!
An unexpected lowlight was the lane 8 starting block literally falling apart after just two events, causing a near half hour delay as Cal staffers frantically tried to fix the starting block (running back and forth from the pool to the adjoining building) and then ended up replacing it with a new one. Lane 4's block, which Huske used in four races, was also a bit loose and Huske even pointed out the loose platform to the coaches. That block was not fixed or replaced during the meet. Sigh. With apologies to the small but mighty group of Cal alums who are loyal LSJU backers on this board, the equipment fiasco looked like a small example of the Cal athletic dept.'s budget deficit, in full public view.