State Bound (Again!!)

 Marissa is state bound for swimming once again.  This time it is for club state.

Because she is in high school, she would compete in the Senior State meet which took place last week (Thursday through Sunday) and the rest of the state qualifiers will compete in the age group state that takes place this coming weekend.  

Years ago, she set a goal to qualify for a state meet and this year she finally met that goal in the 50 freestyle.  That race was set to take place on Saturday morning so we would head down together on Friday night after she got home from practice.

We were able to cash in some reward points for a free hotel at a Candlewood Suites located about a mile from Pike High School where the meet was set to take place.  The hotel was really nice, but because is a suite style, they didn't offer breakfast so once we checked in and realized that, we had to run to an area Walmart so we could pick up some waffles and milk for breakfast the next morning.  Then we came back so Marissa could get to bed and I stayed up for a while longer until I knew that Morgan had arrived at the airport and was with Nate and Dawn.  Then I was finally able to sleep.

I accidentally booked a "single" suite instead of a "double" so we got to share a bed.  Thankfully Marissa is pretty laid back and didn't really care.

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After a night's sleep, we got up in the morning and headed off.  Marissa was met by one of the coaches from her former swim club (thank you to Scott and Jessica for letting her hang with you for the day) and I headed up to the spectator area for warm-ups.

It was a nice large facility with plenty of sitting room for the fans, but the deck and pools were really crowded with all of the swimmers participating.  

Warm-ups went from 7:30-8:45 and then the meet was set to begin at 9:00.

After her initial warm-up, she went back to the locker area to put on her tech suit and then she came back to warm-up again.

About 30 minutes after the meet started, she was up to swim her 50 freestyle.  She would enter the race seeded 55 out of 77 swimmers and would swim in the third heat.  I was able to catch a quick smile from her before the 50's were to begin, but then it was time to get serious.

Marissa is in lane three at the bottom of the screen wearing the grey striped suit and the black and orange swim cap.  She had a great start but unfortunately, she said something happened on her flip turn and she never fully recovered from that.  She still swam a 25.30 which moved her up to a 45th placing, which she was mostly happy about.  It wasn't a bad time, it just wasn't quite the time that she was hoping for as it wasn't enough to bring her back for the finals and it wasn't quite fast enough to qualify her for the Speedo sectionals.  Overall, it was a positive experience however and one we are both glad that she was able to take part in.

With the swim complete, we were both able to pack up and leave right after.  Since her season is now officially over, she didn't even cool down.  She just changed into her clothes and then we headed out. Since it was still pretty early, we made sure to stop by the Keystone Crossing mall and walk around for a bit before grabbing lunch and then heading home.