Sometimes progress in sports is difficult to measure with the naked eye.
A pitcher can add a couple miles-per-hour to his fastball, a basketball player can learn to improve his court vision, a quarterback can quicken his reads and the average observer may not notice. On Wednesday, Madison Lee’s improvement in the pool was clear to all of those in attendance at Iola’s season-opening swim meet.
Through her first couple of races, Lee competed as an assisted swimmer in the 6-and-under division with Seahorse assistant coach Fryendz Wallace walking beside her in the pool. But before the meet came to an end, Lee decided to make the leap and swim on her own.
“Lee started off as an assisted swimmer and by the end she didn’t need any help and that was awesome to see,” Iola coach Chelsea Lea said. “She did it all by herself.”
It was also very beneficial for Lea’s older swimmers to get in the water competitively again and shake off the rust.”
“It is nice for us to get this first meet done with,” Lea said. “It gives us a good starting point and now we have times to work with and we are going to keep working to get those times down.”
Lea was very pleased with the development that several of her older swimmers have made this season.
“I am definitely looking forward to Ursula and Elka Billings building up their stroke technique,” Lea said. “They are really strong swimmers and they just need to build up their kicks and their pulls so I am very excited to watch that happen.”
An addition to the team this season is Franklin Kerr and Lea is anxious to see what he can provide the squad this year as he swims in the seven and eight year old division. Kerr’s brother Ben is a very strong swimmer for the team in the nine and ten year old division.
“I’m really excited to see Franklin,” Lea said. “He is in the water for the first time in the last couple years and I’m really excited to see how he pulls through and if he catches up with his big brother.”
WEEKENDER
Times from all of the races on Wednesday will appear in Saturday’s Weekender as well as online.
