Travel Meet, Olympic Treat!

In July, the 13 & over Kingfish headed off to Kansas to attend the Air Capital Invitational Swim Meet in Wichita, Kansas. Although many swimmers had a great meet and made qualifying times for sectionals and championships, the purpose of the meet was two-fold.  Little did the swimmers know that Coach Craft had some alternative plans to help benefit the team and their training process. 

On Monday morning the team woke up being lead to believe that they were putting in a very hard workout beginning at 4:30 a.m.  As they headed to lobby, a very enthusiastic Coach Craft, greeted them with “The pool we will be going to today is in Omaha, Nebraska, so pack your bags and get in the vans.”  Kingfish Swimming was heading to the Olympic Trials to watch the prelim and final events of that day.  Five hours later, Kingfish gathered in the stands of the Qwest Center in Omaha and began to watch and there was no leaving! 

The 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials were a spectacle unmatched by any other swimming competition held on U.S. soil and Kingfish was there for a day! The highlight to the day was watching back-to-back world records broken by Hayley McGregory and then Natalie Coughlin both in the 100-meter backstroke.  They saw swims by Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Amanda Beard, and New England’s own Erik Vendt and Elizabeth Beisel.  Then Brendan Hansen broke a meet record in the 100-meter breastroke and Ryan Locthe set a meet record in the 200-meter freestyle.  Later the swimmers walked around the arena and were able to catch autographs from Cullen Jones, Kaitlin Sandeno, Jessica Hardy, and Peter Vanderkaay. Souvenirs were purchased, hands were shook, and lots of photographs were taken.  It was a trip that will never be forgotten!!!)