Championship Meet 2015

We had our last swim meet of the summer league season yesterday. Every child on the team received a team trophy and they also received their ribbons (for 4th through 16th place) and medals (for 1st to 3rd place) from the Championship meet. Once again, Natalie only received medals (2 1st places, 2 2nd places, and 1 3rd place medal--see specifics below). Of course she didn't want any pictures, so I had to take a picture of her trophy and medals by themselves.

She swam up to the Girls 13-14 group for her two second place relays, which meant that she swam 50 yards each for those instead of 25 yards. She got a third place in the Freestyle, missing second by half a second. She easily got first place in the Backstroke, and just touched out her friend Kylie (on another team) in the Butterfly ( by 0.18 sec). Because of that one third place finish, Natalie missed having the highest point total in the Girls 11-12 category by one point. Her friend Kylie got the highest point total with 57 points to Natalie's 56 points.

Natalie admitted to some back pain during the meet, but she still did very well. It's tough to remind her that she still swims well (compared to others), even if she is not swimming at her best. She was most disappointed, however, because she and her Summerfield teammates (girls age 11-12) failed to win the banner for their age group for the first time since she has been on the summer swim team. There were quite a few swimmers whose families left for vacation and didn't swim in this swim meet, so it was tough for every team.

Still, there were a lot of swimmers from the five teams in our division, and with so many swimmers, I was pretty happy that Eric even got any ribbons. He got an eighth place ribbon in Butterfly (out of 11 swimmers, with two of those getting disqualified), and a ninth place ribbon in Backstroke (out of 24 swimmers, with two of those getting disqualified). His relay teams got fourth place (Medley) and fifth place (Freestyle) out of five teams.

When Eric and Natalie were presented their awards at the Team Party after the meet, Coach mentioned that although Natalie was still injured, she stepped up to do the relays when she was asked to. He also mentioned that Eric always wanted to go early to practice so he could help set up the lane lines in the pool. I'm just glad that both of them seemed to enjoy themselves.

Last Friday, after the last swim practice, Natalie and Eric got one of the "Swimmers of the Week" award. At first the signs had not yet been brought back by the kids who won the awards from the week before, so I didn't get a picture of Eric then. Yesterday one of the signs were delivered, and so I got a picture of Eric. He had already taken a bath, so he wasn't wearing his swimsuit anymore. Of course, in the heat of summer, he is still wearing jeans, with flip-flops no less. The first time Eric and Natalie won the "Swimmers of the Week" award two years ago, Eric was much more excited about it. This time, he was more excited about the ice cream sandwich snack.

The rest of this post will be stats about each of Natalie's and Eric's events. Summer swim league was fun, but we are glad that it's over!

Natalie's events:

Event #7 Girls 13-14 200 yard Freestyle Relay--2nd place with a time of 2:04.39. Riley and Lindsey were the lone 13 and 14 year old girls (respectively) that attended the meet and would not have been able to swim in a relay had the coaches not moved up Natalie and Rylee. First place won with a time of 2:02.22. Meanwhile, the Girls 11-12 100 yard Freestyle Relay team came in last (5th) place without Natalie and Rylee. They changed the order that they swam from the heat sheet we had, so we're not sure how fast Natalie swam her 50 yards, but Patrick and I think it was about 30 seconds, which was her time when she last swam the 50 yard Freestyle at this very same pool in September of last year. Patrick and I are amazed at how fast she still is, even with an injured back.

Event #17 Girls 11-12 25 yard Freestyle--3rd place out of 27 with a time of 14.85. First place had a time of 14.24. Second place had a time of 14.34. Fourth place had a time of 14.98. It was a pretty tight race.

Event #29 Girls 11-12 25 yard Backstroke--1st place with a time of 16.26. Second place had a time of 17.42, so she won this one pretty easily.

Event #57 Girls 11-12 25 yard Butterfly--1st place with a time of 15.37. She just out-touched her friend Kylie, who had a time of 15.55. After they got out of the pool, they gave each other a hug, which was nice to see. When Natalie starts swimming with Northeast AAAA (instead of Northside AAAA who she has been swimming with for the past two years), she will get to swim with Kylie, so it's nice that she already has friends there.

Event #69 Girls 13-14 200 yard Medley Relay--2nd place with a time of 2:22.99. Natalie was originally going to swim the Freestyle leg, but she was not confident at all, and then one of the other girls hated the stroke she was first assigned to swim, so they ended up with a double switch, with Natalie swimming the 50 yard Butterfly. It was a good thing I asked Patrick to video the whole race, because otherwise we would have missed her swim, since we were not expecting the switch. Patrick was not happy with Natalie for swimming the 50 yard Butterfly, because of the repetitive movement that requires. He is constantly worried about her aggravating her back injury. Interestingly, Natalie and her teammate Riley are both injured and getting physical therapy at the same place. Riley tore her ACL during basketball this year and had to have surgery. If they had both been as healthy as last year, they might have won this relay, since first place won with a time of 2:20.83.

Eric's events:

Event #2 Boys 8 and under 100 yard Freestyle Relay--5th place with a time of 1:38.07. Eric swam the third leg (Joshua, Ryder, Eric, then Cameron).

Event #14 Boys 7-8 25 yard Freestyle--17th out of 27 with a time of 26.70.

Event #26 Boys 7-8 25 yard Backstroke--9th out of 24 (with 2 DQs) with a time of 29.28.

Event #54 Boys 7-8 25 yard Butterfly--8th out of 11 (with 2 DQs) with a time of 38.91. He wasn't able to swim Butterfly (or Breaststroke) legally before this year, so we are very proud of him.

Event #64 Boys 8 and under 100 yard Medley Relay--4th place with a time of 1:56.32. Eric swam the first (Backstroke) leg as he has been all season. Eli swam the Breaststroke, Cameron swam the Butterfly, and Joshua swam the Freestyle. Cameron is a great swimmer, and can swim both the Butterfly and Breaststroke at least 10 seconds faster than any of his other teammates.