The Georgia High School Association state swim meet is changing venues this year. Swimmers, including representatives from Winder-Barrow High School, will compete at Georgia Tech Saturday. WBHS coach Jennifer Blevins said the new venue should be a positive change.
“The feel of such a high caliber facility, where many Olympians have swam, should raise the already spiking adrenaline levels and produce some fast times,” Blevins said this week as she prepared her swimmers for the event.
Sophomore Mitchell Buttler is repeating his trip to state in the 100 Backstroke and freshman Brittany Litke is making her debut in the GHSA state meet in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke.
“The goals start out the same: come out of each event ranked higher and faster than when you went in,” Blevins said. “Brittany is in a unique position to qualify for the Sweet 16 in the backstroke and could possibly make it in the IM. The problem with setting initial specific goals is that the psych sheet is published and we can only use it as a motivating tool. The psych sheet lists every competitor in each event and is ranked by time.”
Going into the meet, Litke is ranked 15th in the backstroke and 21st in the 200 IM and Mitchell is ranked 42nd in the 100 backstroke.
“I like using the ‘psych’ sheet to see who else is entered, scout times for each swimmer and to set goals,” Blevins said.
“The problem with the psych is that everyone has access to it and every swimmer is working hard to swim smarter and faster. I just hope that our swimmers are outworking the others and will show great improvement
when it comes down to competition. I know that Mitchell can definitely swim faster than his entry time and I know that Brittany has been working hard enough to do the same. All I can ask of Brittany and Mitchell now is to continue to work hard this week, set personal goals, visualize the race and how it should be swam and to just swim hard. I know they both will be ready and are excited to give the State meet everything they’ve got.”
Regardless of what happens at Georgia Tech, Blevins said earlier this week, the 2010-2011 season has been a record-breaking one for the Winder-Barrow High School program in terms of personal swimming bests and new school records established by varsity team members.
