Hannah Collins is 49th in the Nation!
Caitlin Conley
September 7, 2009
Filed under Sports
Our very own Hannah Collins is the 49th ranked swimmer in the nation for the breast stroke, but she didn’t get there over night.
In order to reach her goal of making it to Junior Nationals, she had two-a-days at the Augusta Aquatics Center all summer long. Hannah had one practice in the morning for two-and-a-half hours, and one in the evening for 90 minutes.
A week before Jr. Nationals, Hannah swam at the Senior State meet and had the B-cut times to go to Nationals, but her coach wanted her to have A-cut times. To prepare for the Senior State meet, Hannah tapered a week before the meet. This means she rested and did less intense practices to prepare. Also, she didn’t swim any breast stroke because she was worried she would mess it up. She swam breast stroke once in practice before the Senior State meet. Before going to Senior State, she needed to drop half a second off her one-hundred breast stroke (4 laps) and one second and a half off her two-hundred breast stroke (8 laps). Her goal at Senior State was to cut that time so she would be able to go to Junior Nationals and she succeeded.
Junior Nationals took place in Seattle, Washington on August 10-14. Senior State and Junior Nationals were about two weeks apart so Hannah didn’t swim breast stroke a week before Nationals. Two weeks is not enough time to taper, therefore the Junior National from the Augusta Aquatics Center (ASL) just practiced at a slower pace.
At Junior Nationals Hannah placed 28th in the 17-18 year old girls’ one-hundred breast stroke, and 33rd in the 17-18 girls’ two-hundred breast stroke. After everybody swims, the times are compiled to finalize every swimmers over-all placing. Hannah’s place was 49th in the whole Nation.
Given all this success, the most pressing question that everyone has is whether or not Hannah is going to go to the Olympics. Hannah laughed saying, “It would be great to go to the Olympics, but I don’t think I’m fast enough.”
As for college, she definitely wants to swim. Hannah doesn’t have a set school, but she is looking at Ohio and North Carolina.
