First Meet of the Season

Natalie had her first swim meet of the short course season today. She hasn't been in a meet in two months--that's the longest period of time she hasn't competed in a meet since she started competitive swimming last October. The time standards go down as the kids get older, so Natalie didn't have qualifying times in the 50 and 100 yard breaststroke events since turning 11 two months ago. Her coach also put her in the 200 IM where she does have a "B" standard time, probably because the 200 IM was "open" event that anyone could enter. We feel like it's more worth our time to go to a meet when she swims in at least three events anyway. Below are her times for today:

100 yard Breaststroke--Seed time= 1:46.01; Time today= 1:40.49

50 yard Breaststroke--Seed time= 47.19; Time today= 45.69

200 yard IM--Seed time= 2:55.33; Time today= 2:53.76

They've been practicing basic skills at swim practice since they started back up in September (one month ago), so they really haven't been doing anything besides freestyle and maybe a little backstroke. When she swam her first event, the 100 yard breaststroke, I asked Patrick how she looked since he's the expert in our family. He replied, "She looks like they haven't been working on the breaststroke." Apparently, among other things, she was diving too deep with each stroke instead of going forward. Honestly, we had no expectations for this meet. We just wanted her to swim in a meet again for the experience. Because of that, of course we were still pleased that she dropped time in all of her events. She understood that, but she still has higher standards for herself than we do. She wanted "B" times in the breaststroke and so naturally she was a little disappointed.

Natalie's best friend Margot came to this meet. That was super nice of Margot, since she has no personal interest in swimming. I went early for warmup with Natalie, and Patrick brought Margot when he came with Eric just before Natalie's first race. Having Margot there really helped Natalie relax and have a little fun. The rest of her swimming friends were either at another meet or not at a meet at all.

I hope to have more pictures to post here after I figure out how to get pictures off my new camera.