I'm probably more excited than she is, but that's the hope of all parents--that their child finds a sport they enjoy and if they excel at it--BONUS!! Plus I'd love to go to the Olympics with her some time down the line, jus' sayin'.
Though the meet is just 20 minutes away from us at a new facility (Jenks high school), it will be open to any swimmer in her age group, which means many, many swimmers. Since this is our first meet, too, I'm probably overthinking what we need to take with us. It's not like we are staying overnight or traveling a long distance, or even spending more than 5-6 hours at the pool, but I do want to take extra stuff (goggles/swim cap/snackies/water) just in case.
Parents are NOT allowed on deck during the meet, so the kidlet will need to have all this stuff packed in her bag. So I hope not to see any of those 'ugly' parents who yell at their kid or coaches or officials.
The Saturday AM events are all 12 & under--she's 10, which means she'll be competing against kids older than her as NT (not timed. This event will give her times, which will be used at the next meet to evenly sort the heats).
There were over 220 kids in this part of the meet. Some of the girl's heats had UP TO 133 ENTRANTS!! Teams came from several OKC clubs, several Tulsa clubs, Talequah, Wichita, Bartlesville, SWMissouri, NW Arkansas
Here are the events her coach placed her in:
- Coach Dylan placed her in a 200 yard freestyle relay--the girls placed 5th in their heat with a time of 2:41:98. The girls just learned how to DO a relay this week and have never competed as a relay team before today!
- 100 IM--individual medley 25
metersyards using each stroke--2nd place in her heat with a time of 1:40:05. Top time for her age group is 1:23:19 - 100 free--freestyle or American crawl--104 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 1:30:60. Top time for her age group is 1:12:29. She might have been DQ'd (disqualified) because she didn't touch with both feet during the flip turn. Hopefully, she'll learn to swim INTO the wall and this won't happen again.
- 50 back--backstroke--133 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 48:21. Top time for her age group is 38:19
- 50 breast--breast stroke--116 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 59.43. Top time for her age group is 41:99
- 100 fly--butterfly--56 entries--4th place in her heat with a time of 1:43:59. Top time for her age group is 1:26:69
Hopefully, I'll be back in sync with my blogs next week!
Later, peeps!
Good luck to the kidlet. Gosh, it's hard to realize that she's old enough to be competing in sports now. I still see her as the sweet little kid she was when I met her.
ReplyDeleteAnd you have fun sitting till your butt goes numb, Mags. :)
She had fun, which is the main thing. Heck, I think I was more nervous than she was! My hands were shaking, afraid she would miss lining up for her event! Parents are NOT allowed on deck, so we were up in the upper bleachers with a bunch of other parents.
ReplyDeleteShe will never, ever be happy with coming in second again.
ReplyDeleteMark my words. :)
At this point in her competitive career, she isn't THAT competitive, Jody!
ReplyDeleteWeird, considering her two competitive parents!
She actually swims quite fast for her age, but is losing serious time on her dive entries and flip turns. She just started to learn to dive off the blocks a few months ago and has to figure out how deep to go and how far to swim underwater before she pops up. She was told by her coach to coast into the flip turn instead of swimming into the wall and letting the momentum push her OUT of the turn.
I'm guessing that they do that so they don't pressure the kid too much at this level of the game.
In her next competition (when, I don't know), she'll be placed in a heat that has comparable times so that might cattle prod her into gear!
Here is one piece of advice I give to all my students that compete:
ReplyDeleteYou must never go in to the ring EXPECTING to win.
But you must ALWAYS go in to the ring believing that you CAN.
Great advice, Jody.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to both you and the kidlet.
ReplyDeleteI miss being a sports mom!
Thanks, Meg! I keep having visions of the Olympics running through my head . . . but I don't have to do the hard work to get there! :-)
ReplyDelete