Swimming in the Ocean
So this past weekend was the Indiana Age Group State Swimming Championships. Both Anna and Will qualified in two individual events and Will was swimming two relays as well. The good news is that the kids are achieving their goals. The bad news is that the events are spaced out enough on the schedule that we got to sit through many, many hours of swimming to see the six events (it's key to understand that USA Swimming meets last not for hours, but for days).
After Will seemed to be focused more on triathlon than swimming, we (I) took the opportunity to remind them that the goal isn't just to get there, but go out, swim their hardest, rock their swims, and try to move up from their seed. That, and banning triathlon training for a few days seem to bring their focus on track.
On Friday, Anna kicked things off with the 200 fly. There were some ghosts in her closet from the SC championships when she failed to swim the cut time, and boy did she exercise those demons! She took the race out fast, and won her heat with an 8 second time drop. Will continued on Friday afternoon with the 50 Breast dropping a few tenths.
Saturday we got to sleep in as Will was the only one swimming. He swam the 100 Breast first, again shaving a few tenths. He then swam the breast in the 200 medley relay. The team didn't quite swim their added up seed time, but did match their seed place with a 14th place finish.
Sunday was the brutal day. Both kids had one event each, in the second to last heat of the session. That meant we had to sit around for about 6 hours for Anna to swim her 1500 and another 3 hours for Will to swim in the free relay. Anna swam a nice evenly paced race and dropped a little over 20 seconds, but was a little disappointed that she just missed breaking the 20 minute barrier. That was buffered a little bit since she did achieve the 1000/800 winter/summer state cut. Will swam the 3rd leg in the 200 free relay and swam a personal best 50 free.
The end result? Both Anna and Will swam awesome. Individually they swam all personal bests and placed higher than their seed. In the relays, Will contributed to the team, equaling their seed in one race and moving up 4 spots in the other. The smiles on good memories made the early mornings and all the hours in a hot pool environment worth every second. It was a great way to end the long course season and shift into a break from the pool.
Notice I said break from the pool. We will be transitioning to cross country for Anna and triathlons, football, and cross country club for Will. There is a never a dull moment at our house!
Artist for Song in Title: David & David
After Will seemed to be focused more on triathlon than swimming, we (I) took the opportunity to remind them that the goal isn't just to get there, but go out, swim their hardest, rock their swims, and try to move up from their seed. That, and banning triathlon training for a few days seem to bring their focus on track.
On Friday, Anna kicked things off with the 200 fly. There were some ghosts in her closet from the SC championships when she failed to swim the cut time, and boy did she exercise those demons! She took the race out fast, and won her heat with an 8 second time drop. Will continued on Friday afternoon with the 50 Breast dropping a few tenths.
Saturday we got to sleep in as Will was the only one swimming. He swam the 100 Breast first, again shaving a few tenths. He then swam the breast in the 200 medley relay. The team didn't quite swim their added up seed time, but did match their seed place with a 14th place finish.
Sunday was the brutal day. Both kids had one event each, in the second to last heat of the session. That meant we had to sit around for about 6 hours for Anna to swim her 1500 and another 3 hours for Will to swim in the free relay. Anna swam a nice evenly paced race and dropped a little over 20 seconds, but was a little disappointed that she just missed breaking the 20 minute barrier. That was buffered a little bit since she did achieve the 1000/800 winter/summer state cut. Will swam the 3rd leg in the 200 free relay and swam a personal best 50 free.
The end result? Both Anna and Will swam awesome. Individually they swam all personal bests and placed higher than their seed. In the relays, Will contributed to the team, equaling their seed in one race and moving up 4 spots in the other. The smiles on good memories made the early mornings and all the hours in a hot pool environment worth every second. It was a great way to end the long course season and shift into a break from the pool.
Notice I said break from the pool. We will be transitioning to cross country for Anna and triathlons, football, and cross country club for Will. There is a never a dull moment at our house!
Artist for Song in Title: David & David
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