Allie was especially excited because this was her very first swim meet. One of the things she kept wanting to do in practice was a longer event. They work on improving form and position one lap at a time for the most part, so when she saw that she could sign up for the 100 IM in the the meet, she jumped at it. I wasn't sure how that would go at the meet--100 yards, varied swim stroke, no breaks can be a long time for an 8 year old, but she was determined and she totally nailed it! She cycled through butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle and finished in 2 minutes 45 seconds on her first ever 100! When we looked at the heat sheet, we discovered that Allie was the only one that signed up for the 100, but that didn't phase her at all. She wasn't nervous about being the only swimmer; in fact, she LOVED it!! "It was so cool, because everyone was cheering, and the only name I could hear was Allie. Go Allie, go Allie. I was really out of breath by the end and it felt so awesome!" She truly has some of the BEST friends who were at the sides of the pool cheering her on the whole time. Besides being great swim competitors, Aimee, Natalie, Grace and Jenna were the best cheerleaders ever! For this particular event, Mrs Duzan, Allie's teacher from 1st grade, was one of her timers! Frosting on the cake. :)
Aimee also had a lengthy race this time. Whenever they pull out the plastic flip charts, you know it's time to settle in for about 10 minutes. If you're unfamiliar with swimming, the plastic numbers are to dip into the pool, letting the swimmer know how many laps have gone by; for this event, they have 20 laps to complete. Aimee swam the 500, which she hasn't done in a meet since early middle school. The upside to that is that she improved her time by 4 minutes!! Initially, she wasn't thrilled that her coach had put her in the 500, because she prefers shorter events, but in the end, she loved it. "I just got into a groove and it felt almost relaxing. When I sprinted the last couple laps it felt exciting." With a time of 8:23, she can definitely be proud of her improvement in a year of swimming!
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| Lap count numbers (awesome flip turn) |
Black or Gold? Who won?! After scoring all the events, a certain number going to to each place, the team with the most points was ... GOLD! The Gold boys had 389, Black boys had 308; Gold girls 339, Black girls received 295. (Those scores are estimates, since I didn't write them down, but they're close).
Whose team was that? Well, As I said, Aimee and Allie were on opposing teams. Allie was also placed on the team opposite her two besties, Jenna and Grace. But Aimee assured Allie that she had a great team because some of Aimee's fastest swimming buddies were on Allie's team. In the end, that must have paid off, because Allie's team, the GOLD team won. Of course, swimming is all about beating your own times, right? :)
Some of their other events: (each of the events usually has about 6 - 8 swimmers...I recorded the times for my kids and their best friends. :) )
Girls 8 & Under 50 Yard Freestyle
Allie (2nd place): 1:13
Grace (1st place): :56
Women 200 Yard IM High School
Aimee:
Girls 8 & Under 25 Yard Backstroke
Allie (2nd place): :29
Grace (1st place): :28
Jenna (3rd place): :33
Women 100 Yard Butterfly High School
Aimee: 1:39
Girls 8 & Under 25 Yard Breaststroke
Allie (2nd place): :38
Grace (1st place): :33
Jenna (3rd place): :39
Mixed 400 Yard Freestyle Relay High School
Jimmy, Patrick, Aimee, and Trish:
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