I'm very happy with the way a lot of the younger kids have stepped up to this point. Nick Carey, Brendan O'Brien, Ryan Shields, Ryan Schmid, Rob Mills ? quite a lot of kids who were waiting in the wings have gotten stronger. We're asking them for a lot more swims this year. So far, they've responded. We know a lot of our tougher meets are ahead of us.

We've all taught our kids to 'just say no!' but we've never taught them what to say next when the peer pressure starts.

It was a very big switch for us. By her winning it, Julia and Stephanie Greenfield having a great swim there in the IM, I felt like we could still take 2-3-4 in the 500. A girl like Shannon Kemp, our third swimmer in the 200 and 500, she's really stepped up and she did it again today. She took a fourth in the 5, and a fifth in the 200. That is very helpful to us.

Now we'll focus on the states. We'll use these great performances to build on and prepare.

With the girls, we though we had an outside shot of winning. The girls swam extremely well at Friday's trials and during Saturday's finals. South stepped up.

Because we lost so much quality to graduation, everyone thought we would drop off. We know South was strong coming in.