Since we've moved here, May and June have been dictated by neighborhood swim team. Daily practice begins in May and carries on through June, with at least 5 swim meets (practice meet + 4 dual meets). Both kids love it and seem to want to continue on indefinitely. We like it too, but it is a commitment for the parents. And it's HOT. Kids mostly like the team because their friends are on it, I think.
This year we moved up to Division I and got our butts handed to us every meet. It was a tough season, but we tried to focus on improving our own times. Our meets, which are totally volunteer-run, started on weeknights at 4:30pm (when swimmers were asked to arrive), 75 swim events officially started at 6pm, and often ran until midnight. Here's the team picture. They rescheduled it to a day that Owen was gone to camp, so he's not in the picture, but Hadley is above the R on the 4th row from the bottom.
Swim team is interesting because the kids are grouped by two years, 7-8, 9-10, etc. So one year, you are the big kid on top, and the next year you are the youngest competing against older kids. Hadley was a 9 year-old, swimming against 10 year olds this year. She did great and worked really hard. Unfortunately, she did not have a great turn out at the practice meet, so the coach did not put her in breaststroke or butterfly for the rest of the season, which stunk because she never got a chance to improve her time and get placed into the racing group. I guess they were trying to trim time where they could, so those two events had limited heats.
She did get called out to be an example of how to dive in to the water during practice, and her dives were beautiful to watch.
It's hard to get a good picture of your swimmer, especially when you're volunteering, but I did grab this one when I was timing, and she was getting lined up nearby! She still had a strong season and improved her freestyle and backstroke times, worked hard, and contemplated giving up gymnastics for year-round swim.
Owen was on the flip side of the age curve, being a 12-year old swimming in 11-12. He had a terrific season and swam in every event at every meet, minus one he was out of town for, plus Meet of Champions and the All Stars meet. I managed to get some action shots of him doing breaststroke and butterfly, but his specialty ended up being breaststroke. He competed with that stroke in the Medley Relay, and they had an exciting first place, come-from-behind finish in one of the meets, and finished a close second in the other meets.
Owen swam in all events (except the relays which were cancelled due to a lightning delay) at the Meet of Champions (best of Division I). His breaststroke there was fast enough to earn 7th place overall and garner points for the team! He also won his heat.
That swim also earned him an invite to the All Star meet, which combines all 33 teams in the league from 6 divisions and takes just the top 24 swimmers in each stroke. His friend Jonathan also had that honor, so it was fun for the two of them to share the experience!
Teen coaches opened the meet with a silly relay, dressed in costumes, paddling kayaks and giant floaties, etc. It was a funny ice breaker and good for some laughs. One of our coaches did a pretty successful backwards freestyle, which was quite a sight.
We had to be in Rosenberg at 4:00pm (on a Friday) for warmups, but Owen wasn't slated to swim until 8:30! So we had some time to kill.
Finally, it was time for the swim! He was in the second heat, Lane 1 (farthest away).
Another swimmer's dad had a fancy camera and got some good shots of Owen.
He started off the season with a 46.37s to take first at the practice meet, and shaved off a second or so each meet to finish with his personal record of 41.98s at All Stars (although apparently he was DQ'ed for two strokes underwater, which he disputes!). We are so proud of him and his swimming this year, but he is not at all interested in giving up football practice for year round swim!
All in all, it was another great swim season for these Killer Whales!
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