Regency Swim Meet

Yes, it's another Saturday in June, which means that there was another swim meet today. This one was an away meet at a place that we have never been to before. The Regency pool is a "non-standard 23.5 yards long", which is smaller than the other pools we have been swimming in so far this summer, which were all 25 meters long. They also have only four lanes instead of at least six, so there were more heats than usual for each event, to accommodate all the swimmers. The swim meet started at 8am instead of 9am, apparently so we could be sure to be done by noon. They must have some sort of restriction on their swim meets.

This meet was also unusual in that Natalie did not swim in this meet. She has admitted to her back aching more these past two weeks. For last week's meet, we talked about pulling her out of her events if her back started hurting. She said she was fine, so she swam in all of her usual events. Well, then we find out during her physical therapy appointment this week that she was hurting during last weekend's swim meet after all, but she wanted to swim and didn't tell us. Patrick and I have reminded her over and over again about being in this for the long term. Swimming in these swim meets are short term goals. She cannot re-injure her back again and be out of swimming for several months. So, instead of seeing how she was feeling today, Patrick just told her that she wasn't swimming in the swim meet so she can rest up for the Championship meet next Saturday. She came with us to root for her teammates, however, so she at least got to enjoy their company.

Meanwhile, Eric was a happy camper today. He didn't bring one of his Pokemon books, but he was fine without that or the iPad. Instead, he socialized with some of his friends. I took this picture through some criss-crossing pieces of wood on the side of a big gazebo/cabana structure at the Regency pool. It was a big covered area that they let the visiting team sit in. Eric decided to crawl/step in between the wooden pieces instead of walking all the way around--part of his recent pattern of climbing all over everything.

As for the actual swimming, Eric continues on his quest to swim a legal butterfly stroke. Unfortunately today, his goggles fell to below his nose when he dove in, and instead of just removing them, he tried to swim that way. His strokes did not remotely resemble the butterfly stroke until maybe the last couple of strokes before the wall, so of course he was disqualified. Everyone felt bad for him though, and I could hear lots of "Aww's" and people cheering him on to finish. Luckily he didn't seem too upset when he got out of the water, although he seemed upset when he first dove in and the goggles fell. Luckily also, he did not have to swim the butterfly in the Medley Relay this week. Coach Jesse had him swim the freestyle instead, and another boy who was able to swim the butterfly legally, swam the butterfly leg of the Medley Relay. Eric just barely out-touched the other relay team to get first place. He was excited about getting his first place ribbon.

I'm still not sure where they are getting the seed times, but Eric's results for today are as follows--(seed times)/finish time from last week/finish times today(place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (29.25)/ 36.34/ 33.11 (9th out of 12)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (34.34)/ 39.82/ 37.50 (7th out of 11)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ/ DQ

#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (2:06.39)/ 2:18.49 (1st out of 2)
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 4 (2:09.32)/ 2:25.10 (3rd)

As you can see the seed times are misleading. Eric is still getting faster and faster. One more meet to do in this summer swim season. Go Eric Go!