Swimmers from the Sedona Race Pace Swim Club were in the water over the weekend, taking part in the Junior Olympics in Anthem, at the Anthem Community Pool. The experience brought some unique challenges, but also positive results.
The primary challenge came in the pool itself, which was a short course meter pool, compared to most events the Race Pace team swims in, which are short course yardage pools or long course meters.
“It was a little bit longer, so it was harder,” Race Pace swimmer Lucy Spielman said. “I’m a distance swimmer so I liked it. But it was different. Short course meter is just not what you normally swim in. It was different.”
It was a challenge on the deck, as well. Lauren Robinson, one of the Race Pace Club’s coaches, called the process of figuring out the adjusted times “a lesson in mathematics and patience.”
But once everything was figured out, the results were generally positive. Two Race Pace swimmers won an event, with Jillian Raab winning the 15-18 year-old girls butterfly in 3:05.18, adjusted to 2:46.83 in yardage time. Charlie Madeska won the boys 15-18 year-old 400 freestyle in 5:04.44, with no yardage conversion. Six other swimmers from the team, plus Raab, posted at least one top-10 finish.
“We did really well,” Spielman said. “Everyone did really well. I think everyone dropped some time. And it was just good to be with the team and it was a good bonding experience.”
Spileman finished second in the 400 individual medley but — in a lesson in persistence — also broke a state record in that event. After finishing second, Spielman’s coach, Sean Emery, texted her to tell her that her time of 5:38.06 was not far from the existing state record and asked if she wanted to run a time trial. Spielman swam again and broke the record, but was disqualified for gliding on one of her turns.
After that, Spielman was upset and didn’t want to try again. But she later changed her mind and Emery talked with the event organizers to arrange one more try, with Spielman swimming in an open lane during another race. The third time was the charm for her, as she touched the wall cleanly in 5:32.06, bettering the previous short course meters record by roughly three seconds.
“It was great,” Spielman said. “I was so upset after I got disqualified and I wasn’t going to do it again. But then I asked, ‘Do I want to tell people that I broke the record but got disqualified? Or that I broke it and it counts?’ I felt a lot less pressure going into it the second time. I knew I had already done it.”
Spielman also finished eighth in the 200 IM with an adjusted time of 2:30.30.
In addition to her win, Raab had three top-10 finishes. She was second in the 800 freestyle [10:49.38, unadjusted], third in the 400 IM [6:06.32, adjusted] and eighth in the 400 freestyle [adjusted].
Britton Broekemeier, Amira McCullough and Juni Spielman, all had a pair of top-10 finishes. Broekemeier touched second in the 9-10 year old boys 50 breaststroke and third in the 100 breaststroke, with adjusted times of 46.57 and 1:41.00. McCullough was seventh in the girls 9-10 year-old 50 backstroke [41.51] and butterfly [43.05], while Juni was sixth in the girls 9-10 year old 50 breaststroke [47.41] and fourth in the 100 breaststroke [1:53.27, unadjusted].
Rounding out the top-10 performances of the team were Pola Strzalka, who was third in the 9-10 year-old girls 50 breaststroke [44.01] and Sean Hunt, who was sixth in the same event for boys [48.95]
Juni said that for the younger swimmers, having to go through the qualification process gave this meet a bigger feel.
“It felt more important because I qualified,” she said. “It felt like a bigger meet. I time trialed a lot at swim practice [to qualify].”
Beyond the performance of the team, the Race Pace swimmers were also happy with the depth of it, showing how much the team has grown in numbers.
“We often don’t have a lot of teammates because we’re so small,” Lucy said. “But we’re starting to get a lot bigger and it’s fun to have a big group of people to hang out with at meets.”
