.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:when States was introduced, it took many years for swimmers to really take it seriously. Metros is still the king, but States is taken much more seriously than it used to be. The kids swim really fast and sometimes even faster than at metros because the UMD pool is great.
regionals remains the dumbest and least liked meet on the calendar
States the competition is a bit lower than Metros, but it is a fun meet and kids swim way faster at that meet. It’s just timed finals so they don’t wear themselves down with a prelims, and coaches probably don’t back off the training enough for metros. They are better rested for states. Those factors combined with UMD being a faster pool leads to some crazy fast swims
Anonymous wrote:when States was introduced, it took many years for swimmers to really take it seriously. Metros is still the king, but States is taken much more seriously than it used to be. The kids swim really fast and sometimes even faster than at metros because the UMD pool is great.
regionals remains the dumbest and least liked meet on the calendar
Anonymous wrote:That's just how the public calendar is. For our area (MCPS), Metros is the really big deal and swimmers/teams care way more about those results. Regionals (especially) and States are very anticlimactic.
Best of both worlds is the private schools that are done at Metros.
I can't speak to other areas of the state, but I imagine a State Championship is more meaningful to them. However, MCPS swimmers still dominate state meets.
One thing we do notice at the national meets in March is that kids who come from fall HS swim season areas sometimes perform a bit stronger (on average) than our run down kids. I am sure it is very challenging for coaches to deal with missed practices and up and down taper from January-February in our area. In the end, I don't think our kids would give up the experience of Metros though, it's the best!
Anonymous wrote:That's just how the public calendar is. For our area (MCPS), Metros is the really big deal and swimmers/teams care way more about those results. Regionals (especially) and States are very anticlimactic.
Best of both worlds is the private schools that are done at Metros.
I can't speak to other areas of the state, but I imagine a State Championship is more meaningful to them. However, MCPS swimmers still dominate state meets.
One thing we do notice at the national meets in March is that kids who come from fall HS swim season areas sometimes perform a bit stronger (on average) than our run down kids. I am sure it is very challenging for coaches to deal with missed practices and up and down taper from January-February in our area. In the end, I don't think our kids would give up the experience of Metros though, it's the best!