This was the first time we've been at the Barshop Natatorium on the campus of the University of Incarnate Word, and this will probably be our last time. Their pool is 25 yards long and has 11 lanes. There is barely any room on either side of the pool for spectators to sit, let alone the 419 swimmers and their family expected at this meet. It reminded me of one of those houses that they build in popular areas like West University or Bellaire near Houston, where the houses are box-like in shape to maximize the square footage on the tiny lots. The warm-up/cool-down pool was only the two lanes on the end, lanes 10 and 11, where in other natatoriums, they have warm-up pools that are the same size as this competition pool.
The worst part was that to accommodate the swimmers and their supporters, they put up heated tents in the parking lot. That many people inside the Natatorium at one time would violate the fire code. Our swim club had the largest contingency of swimmers, over 180, so we got the largest tent, supposedly 5000 square feet. Unfortunately, there was another group of swimmers from the Wave swim club (over 80 swimmers) that were in our same tent. The tent supposedly held 500 people. At one point, one of the guys in charge came into our tent and told us that there was plenty of room for everyone and that we should stop complaining. Let's see--260 swimmers and their families and a tent that can hold 500 people. That comes out to less than one parent/supporter per swimmer. Someone can't do math and someone doesn't realize that many swimmers come with more than one parent and sometimes with extended family and other siblings, too.
On the plus side, we got to sit next to two of Natalie's good friends, Ally and Renzi. We also got to meet some new people, like Michelle and her nine-year-old daughter Paige who also swim with the same club. Michelle helped me to initially find space to sit. Some people ended up sitting in their car rather than try to find space in that tent, but I wanted to at least try to be social.
Natalie also did well in her races today. She swam the 50 yard freestyle first. She had a seed time of 31.17 seconds and had a time of 31.26 seconds today (+0.09 sec). We were pleased that there wasn't a hint of disappointment or pouting after this race. She was in a great mood. She said she didn't "expect much". She went into the 50 yard freestyle event knowing that she was number 30 out of 40 and that she would most likely not make it into the finals. Her final status was 31st place.
Her second race was two hours later, the 100 yard backstroke. She was seeded 9th out of 34 swimmers. Her seed time was 1:15.70 and she dropped 1.63 seconds for a new personal best time of 1:14.07. She was really happy after that race. That put her in 10th place for the prelims, which earned her a place in the consolation final. Being in the consolation final meant that she would not come in any higher than 9th place since the first eight places belonged to the eight girls in the championship final.
We went home, for a couple of hours then came back with Eric in tow. I think he wanted a change in scenery and/or wanted to play on my iPad that I brought with me. In any case, he was a good boy for the four hours we were there tonight. Natalie ended up first in the consolation final heat with a time of 1:11.25. That was about three seconds faster than she swam this morning and a total of over 4 seconds faster than her seed time coming into this meet! That time was actually the second fastest amongst the 16 girls in the consolation and championship finals in the 100 yard backstroke, but for the reason stated above, she was officially in 9th place overall in the 100 yard backstroke.
Natalie sort of hit a plateau in her swim times before this meet, so this improvement today was a very nice change. We're hoping that this performance will boost her confidence which can only be good for her swimming. In the meantime, we're back to that tent tomorrow. Wish us luck!
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