Members of the Aberdeen Swim Club wrapped up competition in the annual High Point Winter Meet Sunday at the Aberdeen Family Y.
The Sting Rays had a productive two days of swimming, according to coach Neil Romney.
“The kids swam well,” Romney said. “We had a lot of best times.”
Romney said that while it was nice to face different competition, the goal is not focused solely on placing.
“We want them to compete against others to help achieve their potential, but whether they win or lose that race against another swimmer is not the ultimate point,” Romney said. “The point is to use that opportunity, that context to push a hundred percent.”
Romney was pleased with the effort that his swimmers put forth during the meet.
“They raced hard. In some cases they might have been able to go a little faster had they had more competition,,” he said, “but we don’t have a lot of swimmers at a level where they were clearly dominating the events. In fact, I can’t think of one who didn’t have at least several close races.”
The Sting Rays will now gear up for the second half of their indoor season with state meets on the horizon in about six weeks.
“We will continue to practice hard, I hope, with a lot of focus toward our championship meets which are approaching at the end of February and early March,” Romney said.
A group of eight ASC members will be heading to all-star competition as part of a South Dakota team this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa. Those swimmers include Connor Borchers, Jackson Borchers, Lula Karst, Tigue Karst, Easton Ketterling, Alex Ottenbacher, Scout Rosendahl and Ryan Schmidt.
Romney said the competition there will definitely be a factor.
“That’s a situation where I hope they really will rise to that higher level competition, because they will be surrounded by kids as fast or faster than they are. That’s something that you don’t always get,” Romney said. “For the kids who are going, they’re some of our faster, more experienced athletes, so it should be a great opportunity for them.”
The next competition for the Swim Club as a team will be in February in Watertown.
In the meantime, practices will be focused on gearing up for the remainder of the indoor season.
“We’ll be integrating more speed-specifice activities into our practices,” Romney said.
The Stings Rays are planning on building some momentum gained from this past weekend as they look to the future.
“It was an encouraging result overall,” Romeny said of the High Point Winter Meet, “and I think it bodes well for us for the next several meets in the next two months.”
Here is a look at this past weekend’s results:
Individual High Point Scores – Final
