The Yeronga Yo-Yoers entered the chat with drama!! At approximately 4:23am this morning our Bromance of the meet was shattered. At 5:32am the coaches woke up in tears as we learned that Leon had been struck down with a cold. At 6:56am Svet facetimed me crying, concerned about how the day was to unfold. BUT NEVER FEAR, at 7:45am Jake stepped up, shouldered both guys’ performances and assuredly proclaimed, “Svet, don’t worry, I’ve got this.” 8:45am hit and Jake climbed out of the pool after his 100 Free, kissed the sky, and said, “That was for you, Leon.” After smashing his PB by 2 seconds, he came over for his debrief and said, “I took a second for each of us.” Great work, Jake. Moved by Jake’s work, a teary-eyed Macca decided to step into yet another 100!! Swimming .04 off his PB, he said to me, “I didn’t want to take away from Jake’s performance.” What a man. Confused by all the emotion, Grace and Maggie were up next. True to their toughness, they raced hard and without emotion. Grace grinded out a nice PB in a great bounce back after yesterday while Maggie showed she’s in red hot form on Day 2, swimming within 0.5 of her PB. Archie had a solid hit out, dropping into the 55 barrier but doing it with 4 strokes less than what he did 2 weeks ago, which is an amazing feat and exactly what we look for with our technique-driven approach. To round out the morning, Vickee had a cracker of swim with high rates and low stroke counts—exactly as we’ve been practicing.

Svet arrived for session 2 and ohh boy did it start raining PBs. Did someone say ✨superstitious✨? In true State Target fashion, we went 6 for 6 PBs in the 50 back, including 4 State qualifying times! The Silent Assassin crept into the warm up pool and had his warm up completed before we knew what was going on; the Bandit continued his backstroke dominance, and Jake continued to impress us with his development of all 4 strokes! Maggelicious continued to show why she’s our backstroke queen, dropping a 34; Sophie’s own race analysis of where she could’ve swam better was spot on and a great reflection of her newfound maturity; fresh off her 200 fly, Lizzie decided to float on her back and join in on the fun. Great work, you 6!!

Archie—reminiscing of the good old days where Lewis and him were in the 200 Free final together—stepped up in his newfound role of the Lone Ranger. His heat featured 2 national medalists and 8 of the 10 finalists from December last year, resulting in a fierce and fiery battle. Archie took 14 strokes less than when we raced this at the Prep Meet, which is an awesome achievement with a nice PB to go along with it. Jake, like Archie, continues to uphold his Bromance-high standard of performance, smashing another 3 second PB and taking 10 less strokes than he did at Jnr short course!!

To round out day two, we had the yo yoest of events—the 100 fly. Vikkeye loves this event and was happy to be swimming it—she said she can’t WAIT to do it again in December!! And walked away with a 2 second lifetime PB and another medal! Jake owned his 100 fly, using 3 strokes fewer to do another 3 second PB. That rounds out his 8 events in two days, 7/8 PBs, and 3 top 10 placings—absolutely awesome for his first ever state championships. Backstroke Qween versus Butterly Qween were up next with only .04 separating their PBs. Maggie was 7 events deep, while Lizzie was 5 events deep (but one’s a 200 fly so it counts for like at least 10). Both girls took off hard and saved the best til last. The duo obliterated their PBs by 3 seconds to round out a fantastic SC championships for them both. Well done girls!!

We’ve done so much breath patterning this weekend with our Lone Ranger that I think I finally broke him. For his 100 fly the 1st 25 we breathed 1s, breathing 2s by the 3rd 25, and going into the last 25 we went 8 strokes no breath into 1s for the last 10m…..good work bud—that one’s on me, my bad. Finally, enter Layla Bourke in true last minute fashion. With only a 10 minute warm up, she was ready to attack her pet event…well, the last 25m of it, at least. Great backend as usual, Layla—and the goggles stayed on, so all signs point to a win!!

Only 1 day to go, coaches almost delusional but enjoying every minute, championship Sunday here we come!!

YP Coaching Team