B Championships

We had yet another swim meet this weekend. Swimmers in this one had "B" standard times for all of the events. There were three sessions, one on Saturday morning, one on Saturday evening, and one on Sunday morning. Natalie only had one event per session, with her events occurring early on, so we didn't have to stay too long each time. This is a picture from Saturday evening. Eric came with us and he was busy with the iPad for most of the time. Patrick had gone to Anthony's soccer game (tournament) and had to meet us at the pool.

Eric is sitting with the brother of one of Natalie's friends. Lucas was also busy with his iPad. At one point Eric was just too tired and he started crying when the iPad turned off, its battery totally drained. That signaled that it was time to go. Luckily, Natalie was done swimming. We had only stayed to watch one of her friends swim.

This is Natalie with one of her friends on her team (Team Sidney). Devin is also 10 and sat with us for much of the meet. They swam together in adjacent lanes for the 50 yard Breaststroke. As they were swimming, we could all see that Natalie kept checking out where Devin was in the lane next to her. Devin's dad (who helps run the whole swim program) gave Natalie some advice after the race, "Don't check out your competition, let your competition check you out." Natalie had started out ahead but Devin caught up and both tied for first place in their heat and second place overall. Both knocked off over two seconds from their seeded times. The parents and coaches all agreed that they both pushed each other, and that was a good thing.

This is Natalie showing one of the two second place medals that she received this weekend. She got second place for her 100 yard IM (1:28.26) and 50 yard Breaststroke (47.19 sec). The last time she swam in the 100 yard IM was in August, and she dropped 12 seconds from that time! She now has "BB" standard times in both of those events. She also swam in the 100 yard Breaststroke and got a time of 1:48.25 for a sixth place finish amongst 10 year old girls. She was upset after that race, despite dropping two seconds from her previous time. She was hoping for another "BB" standard time, but she still has another three seconds to go. She really is harder on herself than we could ever be. We talked about how it's okay to push yourself, but you also put it all in perspective. She dropped all of her times this weekend by at least two seconds.

We have another swim meet next weekend, the "BB Championships". Patrick and I are continuously amazed with how well Natalie is doing in swimming. We just hope that she can be as proud of herself as we are of her.