The Day Before It All Starts

Well its here after 4 years of work and play the USA Olympic Trials start tomorrow morning. We are lucky as a team to have 9 qualify and 8 competing for a chance to make the team that goes to London.

On the deck today you can feel a "lot" of nervous energy. Its contagious and its the only time I get that feeling. Its a natural high,  a giddy feeling and worth the wait. The last time I felt like this was waiting for my future wife to make that walk down the aisle.

First I hope the Trials live up to all the hype, there will be great stories unfold, not all uplifting, but all necessary to be told. It will be a week where everyone here will always remember.

Second I know the 8 athletes we have here will represent our team fantastically. They have all worked hard, but have had one great organization support them.

2012 Trials - General Thoughts

The RAYS will be sending 9 swimmers to compete for a place on the 2012 USA Olympic Team. This is not only a great individual honor, but a great honor for us all.

Without our organization from Mom & Dad, our volunteers, officials, sponsors, coaches and ALL swimmers, these individuals would not have had the tools to help them realize their dream.
Trials comes around every 4 years and only 1% of all USA Swimmers get the opportunity to compete. I know each one of them deserve this chance, so lets show our support to all of them.

2012 - Samantha Bosma, Kristine Polley, Shannon O'Malley, Melissa Postoll, Rebecca Postoll, Alec Cohen,  Bryan Lundquist, Marshall Seedorff, Jimmy Yoder

SC Sectionals 2012 Day 1

Well the RAYS arrived for Day 1 and were awesome in the 800 meter Fr.

The pool here at Greensboro is a beautiful Olympic size venue. Plenty of seating and a very fast tank. We started the night with Becca Postoll recording a best time and a 2nd place finish with a 9:01

SC Sectionals 2012 Day 1

Well the RAYS arrived for Day 1 and were awesome in the 800 meter Fr.

The pool here at Greensboro is a beautiful Olympic size venue. Plenty of seating and a very fast tank. We started the night with Becca Postoll recording a best time and a 2nd place finish with a 9:01 which qualifies Becca for Summer Junior Nationals. Then we had Melissa Postoll swimming a best time of 9:21; Lila Best with 9:30 and wrapping up the girls 800 Rebecca Justus with a 26 second drop 9:34. The Boys only had one swimmer compete in the 800 and we had a winner with Jimmy Yoder recording a 1st place and a US Open cut of 8:18.

The Men's 800 Fr relay placed 5th with all 4 swimmers recording their Best time or close to it. The relay of Jimmy Yoder, Michael Dugan, Chris Lohff & Nathon Burwick had the honors.

Sectionals Day 3 & 4

Well I found it hard to keep up the blog from day to day, wow coaching is such an emotional roller coaster.
The last two days of the overall went well, although we were a little flat on Day 3, but bounced back on day 4. As the RAYS coaches always say "Sunday is our best day"

Some of the many highlights was Becca Postoll finishing 3rd in the 400 Fr with a great race, then in the next final our Alum Alec Cohen finished 3rd in the same event. Then Jimmy Yoder was 3rd in the 1500 Fr and we finished with two more 3rd's with Melissa Postoll in the 200 Bk and our Men's 400 Medley Relay of Jarrod Blanton, Chris Lohff, Jimmy Yoder & Michael Dugan.

Overall a 4th place finish was an excellent result from us. We took 19 swimmers and 17 scored a great team effort. Kids were great, atmosphere great and the parents behaved :)

Sectionals Day 2

Well things got better with some amazing RAYS swims. We had 10 swimmers make finals tonight and they represented us amazingly. For starters we had two new Olympic Trials qualifiers today which runs our total to nine.

The Postoll sisters are both heading to Omaha in June. Melissa made the 200 Bk cut with a 2:17.1 & then tonight her sister Rebecca set a new 13/14 GA Record in the 200 Fr with a 2:02.7. Finalists tonight include Gabriel, Jimmy, Nathon, Chris,  Alec, Michael, Taylor & Lauren.

To cap off the night the Men's 400 Fr relay finished 3rd. The RAYS are simply swimming great, with great support from the parent group too.

SC Sectionals 2012 Day 1

Well the RAYS arrived for Day 1 and were awesome in the 800 meter Fr.

The pool here at Greensboro is a beautiful Olympic size venue. Plenty of seating and a very fast tank. We started the night with Becca Postoll recording a best time and a 2nd place finish with a 9:01 which qualifies Becca for Summer Junior Nationals. Then we had Melissa Postoll swimming a best time of 9:21; Lila Best with 9:30 and wrapping up the girls 800 Rebecca Justus with a 26 second drop 9:34. The Boys only had one swimmer compete in the 800 and we had a winner with Jimmy Yoder recording a 1st place and a US Open cut of 8:18.

The Men's 800 Fr relay placed 5th with all 4 swimmers recording their Best time or close to it. The relay of Jimmy Yoder, Michael Dugan, Chris Lohff & Nathon Burwick had the honors.