Michael "Archer" Schroeder qualified for the State Swim Meet in San Antonio Texas in the 50 yard freestyle. He's the first Pampa swimmer to qualify under Coach Day and he is also Coach Day's first four year swimmer. Archer showed up ready to prove himself as one of the best in the state.
He started in the preliminaries seeded in 16th place. Warmed up and ready he got settled into the starting block. The deck referee started his cadence, "Swimmers take your mark." Pause, beep. Eight boys raced as fast as they could to the wall, turned and flew back to the other. The finish was hard to tell who took each spot. All the boys in Archer's heat touched the wall within 1.5 seconds of each other.
The official time and finish kept Archer at 16th and five tenths of a second from moving up four positions. We set a goal for the finals heat to move up to 12th position.
The second day came up and it was finals. It was show time. All the boys were getting pumped for their last opportunity in this race. Whistles echoed as the crowd became silent anticipating the start of the race. "Swimmers, take your mark." Pause, beep. The take off was electric and as the swimmers made their turn all were neck and neck. The leaders separated slightly from the pack, but the race was too close to call with the naked eye.
The touchpads and timers were tallied and Archer was unable to move out of his position. 16th was the best he had that day. From the state first place medal to 16th place were only separated by 2.5 seconds. He stood tall that day competing with the best of the best.
As team captain, Archer set the mark for future Pampa swimmers to follow. We will build from our experience.
