What a weekend!

This weekend we traveled to our first overnight, away-from-home swim meet.  It was at Concord High School in Elkhart, IN (about 1hr 45mins from our house).  Spencer was signed up to swim two events on Friday afternoon, so we pulled the kids from school around 12:30pm on Friday and headed up to Elkhart.  He was swimming in the 200y freestyle and 200y IM, both of which he had never swam in at competition.  He placed 4th in the 200y freestyle, but unfortunately got DQ'd (disqualified) in the 200y IM because he stopped about halfway through when his goggles fell off.  He managed to finish the race through encouragement by the SWAC coaches on the sideline, but he was devastated.  Had he not been DQ'd, it probably would've put him on top (more on that in a minute).

We finally left the pool around 8:30 Friday night, all of us pretty exhausted.  We stopped and picked up some sandwiches before getting to our hotel, ate and then crashed for the night.  6am was going to come early the next day, as Spencer had to be in the pool by 7:55am and we wanted to ensure good seats for Saturday's events.

Spencer must have gotten some good rest and the hotel breakfast seemed to pay off, as he had a stellar performance on Saturday.  Here's what he swam, all in yards, with place finishes:

100 IM - 3rd
25 free -- 3rd
25 back -- 3rd
50 breast -- 1st
100 free relay -- 1st

And, to top it off, he qualified for a 3rd divisional cut in the 50 breast!  His personal best to date was 52.25 seconds and the divisional cut time was 50.99 seconds.  He ended up swimming a 50.76 seconds. Here's the video of that race:

 http://youtu.be/GZJCvEVKYo4

We finished up at the pool around 12:30 and grabbed some lunch.  Then we headed back to the hotel for a little rest, although the kids wanted to swim in the hotel pool.  I guess it's in their blood now!  We planned to meet a couple of other swimming families for dinner around 5:30pm.  At 5pm, Spencer started complaining of an upset stomach.  Yikes, I thought he was gonna miss a day of events on Sunday.  So Spencer and I stayed at the hotel while the others went to dinner.  I gave him some Sprite and animal crackers.  After about an hour, he was feeling much better.  By the time Christine and Sydney got back, he was back to normal.  Not sure what happened, but we're glad it passed.  Everyone was in bed by 8:30pm, resting up for another early start on Sunday.

Sunday morning rolled around and everyone was up by about 5:45am.  We packed up, grabbed some breakfast and headed for the pool.  Today would be similar to Saturday, with Spencer swimming in 5 events.  Here's how he faired today:

100 free -- 4th
25 fly -- 4th
50 back -- 5th
50 free -- 5th
100 IM relay -- 2nd

I think it was a combination of not feeling well on Saturday night, not much to eat for dinner and him not eating that much during the meet today that prompted some slower times.  However, it didn't seem to matter much when awards time came at the end of the meet.  We almost left to make the trip home, but decided to stay anyway.  When they got to the 8 & under boys results, we knew it was going to be close between Spencer and his buddy Gideon, who also had a great meet.  So, they announced 2nd place overall for the meet and they called Spencer's name!  (sidenote: had he not DQ'd on Friday night, his coach thinks he might've won 1st place overall)  We were very surprised and obviously extremely pleased.  He walked down from the stands to the scoring table to get is award, this trophy:

He was grinning from ear to ear!  He made his rounds, looking his coach, but couldn't find him in the crowd of people.  We finally caught up with Coach Cody as we were walking out and many high fives were exchanged.

Coach Cody with Spencer and Gideon

Coach Cody with Hans and Franz

Now the real work begins.  Because Spencer and Gideon made 3 divisional cuts each and they're Barracuda team is finished for the season, they will both be practicing with the next highest age group, Tiger Shark, this week.  They'll work with Coach Cody and the Tiger Shark coaches, Brent and Megan, to prepare for this weekend's divisional meet to be held here in Fort Wayne.  We're looking forward to some good practices and an exciting finish to their winter swim season with the upcoming meet. 

Stay tuned for results next week!

Way to go, Spencer, Gideon and Coaches Cody and Rachel for all your hard work!

You made the cut!

I guess a little bribery goes a long way with an 8 year old.  Back to that in a minute.  We got up early today for day 2 of Spencer's swim meet.  He was swimming in 6 events today, including a 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle.  If he was going to make a Divisional cut, it was going to be in one of these events.  Although, if he didn't make a cut today, there are still 2 more swim meets in the next couple of weeks to complete the cut. 

There is a local mexican restaurant that has a Sunday brunch/buffett that we sometimes attend.  Spencer really likes to go there, especially since we don't do it that often.  Back to the bribery.  I told Spencer this morning before we left that I would take him to Cebolla's (aforementioned mexican joint) if he made one of his Divisional cut times today.  He was excited about the possibility of having his favorite meal after swimming today.  On the flip side, I told him that if he didn't make one of his cuts, he would have to buy lunch.  Now, I had no intention of actually making the boy pay, but it was worth his reaction!

So, fastforward to the swim meet.  His first event was the 50m backstroke.  It's a good event for Spencer, but not quite as good as his 50m freestyle.  We thought he'd do well...and he did.  Not only did he shave over 7 seconds off his personal best, he beat the Divisional cut time by almost a full second!  What a great way to start the day.  Spencer was really excited, as well as Coach Cody.  It seems all the hard work was paying off.  Here's the video from his 50m backstroke.  He placed 1st in his heat and 1st overall for this event.

http://youtu.be/DF1OdWt3dZM

Next up were a couple of 25m events, the butterfly and breaststroke.  He killed it on both of these too, scoring personal best times in both.  Then came the fourth event, his 50m freestyle.  This is the one I had been waiting for all day.  The Divisional cut time was 37.29 seconds and his personal best was 40.32 seconds...he needed to shave over 3 seconds off this personal best to make the cut.  He's been working hard in practice on improving his flip turns and breathing, along with stroke technique. 

He was waiting on deck for his heat and I saw him give me the thumbs up, so I knew he was feeling good about this race.  He got up on the blocks, adjusted his goggles and waited for the starting sound.  The starting horn went off and away he went.  He had a strong stroke, good breathing and made a great flip turn.  After it was all said and done, he finished 2nd in his heat and 2nd overall with a time of 37.26 seconds, just 0.03 seconds faster than the Divisional cut time.  More importantly, he made his Divisional cut time in a second event!  According to his coach, no other Barracuda swimmer (his swim level) has ever made two Divisional cut times.  And all Spencer cared about was the fact that Dad was going to buy lunch today!  Here's the winning race.

http://youtu.be/oVtl01ocuMc

More updates to come in the next few weeks on his progress.

Polar Bear Plunge swim meet

This weekend is the first of 3 in a row where Spencer has swim meets.  He did okay today, placing 2nd in the 25m free, 3rd in the 50m breast, 3rd in the 25m backstroke and 4th in the 100m free.  Unfortunately, he had a disqualification in his 50m butterfly due to a false start.  He's still improving his times which is a good thing.  Tomorrow (Sunday), he will be pushing to achieve his Divisional cut times in both 50m free and 50m backstroke.  If he makes the Divisional cut times, he'll go on to swim at the Divisional meet in March.  If he doesn't make the cut times tomorrow, he can still try at the meet next weekend and the meet in Elkhart the last weekend of February.  When (not if) he makes his cut times, I'll be sure to post those races here.

Here's his 25m freestyle, which he took 2nd place in today.  His time of 17:20 seconds was very fast, and we would expect him to turn a 35-36 second 50m freestyle based on today's time.  The Divisional cut time for th 50m freestyle is 37.49 seconds.  With some good sleep and a carb-loading dinner tonight, he should do well tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0f26CzN4lY

Syd's Kindergarten program

Syd's kindergarten class had their winter program last night.  It was called The Big Snow Show, all about things related to snow.  Ironically, it was snowing like crazy when we left to go to the school.  All the kids had to make a snowman costume in a theme they chose.  Syd was a Snow Doctor.  She didn't really talk about the rehearsals leading up to last night, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  To our pleasant surprise, she and the rest of the kids sang 8 songs and Syd even played the xylophone for one of them!  She did great, not forgetting any of the words.  Here's a link to a video for one of the songs:

http://youtu.be/OVkUVci3GCI

And here's a photo from last night:



And here she is with her kindergarten teacher, Ms. Boyer: (sorry about the focus...it was a quick photo)