Times of their lives

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Washington girls' swimming coach Megan Lewis leads her team into Saturday's regional meet at Linn-Mar Aquatic Center expecting to post times her swimmers didn't think were in them.

It's all part of Lewis' sophisticated tapering schedule, which begins at the start of the season when each girl is designated a 'championship meet” - the day a season's worth of training culminates in their peak performance.

For the strongest, toughest and fastest Warriors - including a number of freshmen seeking their first state berth - that meet is Saturday.

'For this team, this year, this meet here is going to be our time to really kind of shine,” Lewis said. 'I think we are set to have a great day.”

Tapering is a reduction in exercise leading up to an important competition, which allows arm and leg muscle recovery and an overall increase in power.

'There are a lot of moving pieces in it,” Lewis said. 'Making sure we have the right amount of kicking yards versus fast sprint yards versus drill work - all of that has to work together to make sure that it all works as well as it possibly can.”

A reduction in practice yardage will shift the focus to the little things it takes to be successful - starts, turns and sprints. But there's more to tapering than just the physical aspects. There's also a significant mental hurdle to overcome for so many freshmen yet to experience a full taper and who aren't sure how to interpret why they don't feel as strong as they think they should.

'We do a lot of that kind of discussion amongst my team,” Lewis said. '‘You know you've trusted me to this point. I haven't let you down. I'm not going to let you down. So you just have to believe in what I'm doing right now.' With as young a group as I have, that's been a hard time this year.”

Washington's young state qualifying hopefuls include Emily Nelson in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, Lauren Havertape (100 butterfly and 50 freestyle) and Caitlin Sievers (100 breaststroke). Lewis stresses to her group it's perfectly normal to not feel their best two or three weeks before their designated championship meet, reinforcing that they look strong and powerful in the water and what's important is swimming fast at the meet.

'For my team, a lot of what they're feeling right now is they're being told that they're going to drop time,” Lewis said. 'And we're giving some kind of estimations of what those times could be looking like on Saturday, and those are so far beyond anything that they've ever done.”

Washington will join Jefferson, Kennedy, Decorah and Tipton at host Linn-Mar for the regional, which starts at noon. The best 24 times across the state in each event qualify for the state meet Nov. 8 in Marshalltown.

Regional diving was Thursday night at Linn-Mar.

The Lions swept the top three places with Mikaela Lengwin, Alyssa Deuso and Georgia Sanderson. They were followed by Kennedy's Carolyn Simon, Jayden Lovell and Courtney Fisher.

All earned state-qualifying berths, as did Amara Taylor of Washington and the Iowa City West pair of Jacintha Thomas and Alex Aaberg, who finished 1-2 in the Clinton regional, also held at Linn-Mar.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com