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RADFORD – Both Radford and Pulaski’s swim teams competed in what would be the Cougars final home meet on the season on Tuesday at Radford University’s Dedmon Center Natatorium. Both teams competed against Christiansburg, Blacksburg, and Auburn.
Natalee Roseberry continued to impress with her swimming ability for the Cougars. The sophomore finished first in both her 100 yard butterfly and 100 yard backstroke, finishing over eight seconds ahead of second place in the backstroke. She also helped guide the 400 yard relay team, alongside Sibley Brown, Sara Holston, and Emma Reeves, to a second-place finish with a time of 4:31.23.
The most impressive finish of the night for Pulaski came in the boy’s 100 yard backstroke. Both Jonathan Holcomb and Tyler Felts were strong in the event and finished in a close one-two finish. Holcomb would beat out Felts in one hundredth of a second, finishing with a time of 1:05.84. Felts finished at 1:05.85.
Holcomb, a freshman, was also impressive in his second-place finish in the 100 yard butterfly, with a time of 1:07.46.
In the 100 yard breaststroke, Derek Brown and Lee Edney finished extremely strong as well. Edney finished second with a time of 1:19.37, while Brown was just over a second behind in third with a time of 1:20.72.
“It is the best meet we’ve had this year and the best meet we’ve had in quite a while,” said Cougars coach Hank Hanks. “There were numerous personal best times and that was combined with a lot of people winning or finishing second or third in their events a lot. I don’t know that we can swim a lot better than that. I expect us to in about a month before the districts. For right now that excellent. Especially that backstroke event between Jonathan and Tyler. One one-hundredth of a second separating them and coming in one-two. You can’t ask for better than that. Jonathan had dropped his best time by a second and Tyler by two seconds. Lee and Derek did the same thing in breaststroke and came in second and third. It was very good. The women again had another good showing, just like they did at the invitational this weekend. If they keep improving and competing against each other and practicing hard like they are now, we will have several people make regionals and more than one or two that will go to state.”
On the Radford side, the Bobcat swim team tried a different strategy this meet than they did last week. Coach Heather Rowland had every swimmer for the Bobcats compete in two events, so that each squad could earn more team points for a chance for team victory.
“We stepped it up this week,” Rowland said. “I had most of my swimmers swim two individual events, plus relays. So a lot of my kids were swimming three and four events, which is something they aren’t used to. I usually swim them in one individual event and try to space it out so we can save energy. We picked it up this meet so we could get in some times before the long break, so they could see how things went and get a feel for some of the events that they aren’t used to swimming.”
Out of the entire meet for the Bobcats, Rowland was most impressed with the youngest members of her team and their abilities at such a young age this early in the season.
“The new kids are figuring out how to race, how to get up and race, how to push themselves, and make a race and make it well,” Rowland said. “They are dropping their times and starting to see a difference.”
In team scoring, Pulaski’s boys lost to Blacksburg (180-138) and marginally lost to Christiansburg (165-151). They picked up victories over Auburn (166-21) and Radford (152-135). The Radford boy’s lost to Christiansburg (184-138), Blacksburg (190-132), and Pulaski. They were victorious over Auburn (167-25).
In girl’s action, Pulaski defeated Auburn (146-76) and Christiansburg (154-90). They would lose to both Blacksburg (247-115) and Radford (174.5-145.5). The Lady Bobcats would win against Auburn (196-73), Christiansburg (201-91), and Pulaski. Their lone loss was to Blacksburg (255-141).
The Bobcats now have a huge break in between swim meets and won’t compete again in the pool until January 9, when they compete in the Gator Invitational in Roanoke. Rowland already has plans in place for how to handle the long break.
“We are going to spend our time over break, when we can get into the pool, really working on some distance events and really building that endurance,” Rowland said. “We are in a downfall because the Dedmon Center will be closed a week during that break. So we are going to work on some dry land, maybe some video clips to show them some different events and how different people swim different strokes that are champions, so they can get an idea of how to improve.”
While it is the final home meet for the Cougars this season, Hanks is already making a game plan for Pulaski’s next meet this Thursday against Hidden Valley.
“It was kind of how the schedule breaks,” Hanks said. “Yea, it is our last home meet. We have one more meet before Christmas, which is Thursday night at Gator Pond in Roanoke against Hidden Valley. We are going to kind of take a different approach. I am going to kind of relax with them. Tonight, I made some people swim some things that were pretty hard for them and they didn’t want to do it, but they came through with flying colors. They scored so much better than they did a week ago. The improvement in seven days time is just worth everything. You love nights like this. The kids are excited and that means a lot. It means they be enthusiastic over Christmas practices, which is kind of hard to do.”
(12-16-09)
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