After a month without any competitions, the IWU swim team was back in action this past weekend. Marissa and the team traveled to Grand Rapids, MI this past Wednesday night in the middle of a winter storm advisory with white-out conditions and quite a bit of snow falling. Thankfully, they made it to Calvin University safely on Wednesday night and then they settled in and prepared to kick off the Winter Invitational on Thursday morning.
Marissa would swim the 50 individual freestyle during the Thursday morning session and she raced to a Season's Best time of 25.40 and finished in 34th place out of over 60 Division II and NAIA swimmers. She needed to finish in the top 32 to advance to the Thursday night finals however, so she wouldn't have a chance to improve upon that time. Although it is a fast enough time to make the provisional "B" cut for Nationals, there are limited spots at the National Championships, she will have to wait to see if it's fast enough to receive an invite after all of the "A" cuts are entered. She knows that she can swim faster than that however, so she was pretty disappointed and really wanted to have that one back.
Marissa did still come back for the evening session to swim in the 200 freestyle relay. We aren't sure of her splits because the timing pad wasn't working correctly, but the relay team would finish 2nd in their heat - 10th place overall - and that relay missed the school record by just a half of a second so she seemed to be a bit more excited after the evening session.
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On Thursday night, after the sessions were complete for the first day, Marissa texted to tell us that she would be swimming in the 200 individual freestyle during the first session on Friday. Since she hasn't swam the 200 regularly since her sophomore year in high school, she considers it one of her "weaker" events so she said that she would understand if I decided not to come up on Friday as I had originally planned to do. Maybe I should just wait for one of her better events on Saturday? Obviously, we always want her to swim to the best of her ability and to feel good about how she swims, but we would never come to an event or not come to an event based upon her performance or how we think that she should place. She wasn't going to talk me out of coming, no matter how hard she tried. LOL
So on Friday morning, I dropped Nolan off at school at 7:30 and then I made the drive up to Grand Rapids and arrived on the Calvin University campus just in time to watch Marissa come out to the "ready area" with her other teammates in preparation for the 200 preliminaries.
Despite the fact that she had told me not to come, she still started scanning the stands from the deck and I could see that she said to her teammate that she was "looking for her Mom" and then when she saw me, her face just immediately lit up and she started jumping up and down in excitement. "There's my mom... there's my mom!" and then both girls looked up and started waving to "Marissa's Mom". LOL But then it was time to get down to business and to get in the mental space to race, so she would look away and focus on what was about to happen.
She's the girl in the black suit and white swim cap standing back near the chairs - the lane closest to me.
She waited through two heats and then it was her turn to go.
When she touched the wall at the end of the race and looked up, her face was one of complete disbelief as she had just finished 3rd in her heat and finished with a new lifetime PR of 2:01.83. She just kept looking away and then back at the timing board again as if she was afraid that it would change... but it didn't. She really did swim a new PR and she would finish in 24th place during the prelims with another provisional "B" National time and a chance to swim in the finals later that night.
About an hour later, she would come back to swim another 200 freestyle, but this time as part of the 800 freestyle relay. When she first came out with the relay team, she was really pale and she didn't look very good. Then she looked up and motioned to me that she had gotten sick seven times after her individual race ended due to lactic acid build-up. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she still managed to swim a decent split of 2:05 and the team finished 1st in their heat with a 9th place overall finish. Overall, Marissa was very happy with the morning session.
The first relay leg is in the water and Marissa is standing straight up behind the starting blocks in lane 5. She is wearing the white cap with the red wildcat on the side, patiently waiting for her turn to swim.
And then up on the blocks....
Marissa started her leg in 3rd place and finished her leg in 2nd place. The next two swimmers would continue to make up ground and they would finished 1st in their heat.
'Cheering the next swimmers on to victory...
I was able to talk to her and hug her for a few minutes after the session ended, but the coach urged them to load up on the bus quickly as they would need to go back to their hotel to eat lunch and to take time to study and nap as needed. (They have final exams as soon as they get back from this trip). So once Marissa had loaded up on the bus, I left and went to grab lunch and then check in at the hotel where I would be staying for the night.
I had cashed in some reward points to get this room and I have to say, it was a really nice room. When I walked in, I had to put my key card into a sensor on the side of the wall and as soon as I did, the lights and tv came on and the blinds came down.
And the tv came on to a welcome message to welcome me personally to my room. 'Nice touch for sure!
Since I had almost three hours before Marissa would swim again in the evening session, I decided to just enjoy some quiet time in the hotel. I turned up the thermostat and buried myself under a warm blanket and finished one of the books that I had brought along on the trip. (I would finish a second book the next day, which never happens!)
When Marissa asked me what I was going to do all afternoon, I sent this picture to her to prove that I would be perfectly fine by myself in a quiet room. LOL
She sent me these two pictures back to prove to me that she was having a perfectly "unquiet" time with her teammates. LOL
Soon enough, it was time to head back to the natatorium for the evening session. Marissa would be swimming in the second heat of the individual 200 freestyle. I only took one picture at the end of the night, but she swam another great race and finished 23rd overall with a time of 2:02.61. (Her second fastest time ever in that event). Once again I was able to wait for her in the lobby at the end of the session and we were able to talk together again for a few minutes before they headed back to the hotel and prepared to do it all again on Saturday.
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After sleeping in (a little bit) on Saturday morning, I checked out of the hotel room and made the drive across town to the natatorium once again where the team was finishing up with their warm-ups and getting dressed into their tech suits. After a few minutes, they were all back out on deck and ready to do their team cheer.
Marissa would be swimming the individual 100 freestyle in Saturday's preliminary session. Once again, she came on to the deck looking for me and as soon as she saw me, she gave me a big smile and a wave and then she settled in with her game face and got ready to go. Less than a minute later, the race was over and Marissa had swam another incredible race, finishing with a time of 54.7, which is her second fastest time ever in this event!! (Her only time faster was last year at the end of the year when she won the sectional championships). She looked up at her time in disbelief and got out of the pool with the biggest smile on her face. She's not guaranteed a spot in the national championships, but once again, she swam the required time and qualified for a chance at Nationals. Now we just have to wait to see if she can either improve on that time in future meets, or get an invite to the National meet in March. No matter what, she is really encouraged with where she is at this point in the season and I'm so happy for her. The team has been working so hard since September and it's such a blessing to see that work paying off for Marissa and the entire team at the half-way point in the season.
In this series of pictures, Marissa is right in the middle wearing a white cap and adjusting her goggles.
And then double checking her swim cap and goggles again.
With that great swim, she guaranteed a spot in the evening's finals, so I ran out to grab some lunch. Then, since I had already checked out of my hotel room, I brought it back to the natatorium lobby and then I took my lunch and a book to a quiet corner where I would spend the next four hours in between sessions.
My view for the afternoon:
I must admit, although I went to the meet without any expectations of spending much time with Marissa, we both thought that she would be able to come out and visit with me after lunch in between sessions; especially since they also had to spend the afternoon at the natatorium and wouldn't be going back to a hotel room. So we were both a little disappointed when Marissa finished eating with the team and came out of the room to throw away her trash and the coach whispered to her, "I'll pretend that I don't see you out here so that you can have a couple of minutes with your Mom. But then you need to go back to the team". (He would do the same for each and every swimmer who made their way out to their parents at any point that afternoon). We were thankful for even those short minutes however, talking for a couple of minutes, taking a quick selfie (which she hates LOL) and then she went back inside the room with everyone else and took a nap. (I did feel badly for some of the parents who had flown into the meet from across the country and weren't able to really even talk to their kiddos).
A couple of hours later, they were back up and headed back to the pool for warm-ups and then the weekend's final session began.
Marissa would come back to swim her individual 100 and would pick up one place finishing in 31st place with a final time of 55.07, which was a little slower than the mornings session, but she said that she was happy with that time anyway.
And then the girls were back for the finals of the 400 freestyle relay. They would finish out that race with a 4th place finish in their heat and a 12th place finish overall.
Laughing off the pre-race jitters.
The meet ended right about 8:30 so all of the parents waited out in the lobby for their swimmers to come upstairs. Then we were able to talk with them for a few final minutes before giving hugs and saying our good-byes as they went to their bus.
I am so thankful that I was able to take some time away and to go up and watch her swim. And I'm also thankful knowing that she will be home for Christmas break in just a few short days.
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