Nationals

We just got back from Nationals in Minneapolis! It was an awesome week for us!
Congratulations to Jenny VanEtten, Shawn Merlin, and Eric Messina - they represented us well with great performances and brought home 6 All-American Awards.
Jenny started things off for us with a school record performance in the 200 IM with a 2:08.77.
Things only got better from there.
In the 100 breast, Jenny came in with a best individual time of 1:07.17, and was seeded somewhere around 32nd. We were hoping for at least a best time, she shocked us all with a 3 second drop, clocking in at 1:04.16 and grabbing a spot in (top 8) Finals and her first All-American award! The swim was also a new conference record by almost 2 seconds.
In the 200 breast, the event that she qualified in for the National meet, she was seeded 10th. Jenny swam to a new school and conference record in the prelims, qualifying 8th to make Finals. In Finals she again lowered the school and conference record with a 2:20.29, finishing in 7th place for her second All-American performance.
For the Men, both Shawn and Eric qualified for the meet in Diving.
The first Diving event was 1 meter. Shawn finished in 7th place to earn his first All-American award of the meet. Eric just missed out on the top 8 and finished in 9th for an Honorable Mention All American award. Not that I know a lot about diving but they both looked great, and I am pretty good at guessing scores now.
The second diving event was 3 meter. Shawn finished this event in 5th place for his second All American honor, while Eric once again narrowly missed out on top 8 (by less than 2 points) and finished in 9th and picked up his second Honorable Mention All American award. On a sidenote after the first dive on both boards Eric was in first place, that will be his claim to fame until next year, when he moves up the ranks.