Dean Mason Quotations

We're going to gear up and make our lineup as strong as possible. It's always been a fun thing. It's more fun if you win, obviously. We know we're going to have some strong competition. It's always been a fun thing for us. We're going to get fired up for it and go as hard as we can.

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

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

We had it scored out quite a bit closer. We thought the girls would be a real tight meet. We stepped up.

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.

We were really trying hard for third in the medley relay. But right away, we came back and won a spot in the 200 free. And then we stepped up in the IM and the 50. We were definitely ahead of where we had planned to be after the 50. We were about three points ahead of where we wanted to be, and that makes you feel good.

Princeton always is a big challenge for us. The Nottingham boys we have to take seriously. We're down to crunch time now. There's still some areas we have to swim better in. We're getting a good effort from the kids. That's the most important thing.

It's been bothering him all season. We've been using him sparingly all year so far.

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.

It's going to be tough, but I'm excited about it. As long as we can get back to being healthy, I think we'll be OK.

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.