His best performance was the consolation final of the 100 back. He was 16th coming out of prelims and only the top 16 make it to finals, so he just squeaked in! He had been pretty nervous that first day. I mean, it is the high school state champs! Pretty intimidating. Something changed between the prelims and finals though. Troy realized that it was really just a glorified club meet. The competition is basically the same that he sees at his club end of season meets. Don't get me wrong, this meet is fast, but Troy has competed in a lot of fast club meets too. This totally got rid of his nerves and he swam so much better the 2nd day.
He moved up from 16th to 11th and took almost a second and a half off his best time. He also qualified for Sectionals, which is a fast regional club meet! The other thing that was notable about this event was that as he was getting ready for his race, he pulled his cap on and SNAP! It totally split apart. He ran away from the blocks to get another one and Kent and I were thinking "What is he doing? He's going to miss it!" Apparently he had the same thoughts because he turned around and headed back to the blocks. Decision made: swimming in finals without a cap. Clearly, it didn't hinder him in any way!
As swimmers say, "Outside smoke!" Troy is in lane 8. Love Kent's howling at the end. It was a great moment!
Enough talk... here's the proof!