Since we are now in the heart of swim season, Marissa is averaging two (or three) meets a week.
Last Tuesday the team went against Northridge and Mishewaka. They lost to Northridge but beat Mishewaka. I'm just saving Marissa's times and results here for future reference.
And then on Saturday, December 9th, the Tigers were back in action against conference opponents, Goshen. It came down to the very end but the Lady Tigers ended up winning by four points.
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On Tuesday, December 12th, the teams traveled to Plymouth high school for another conference match-up. Since it was an away meet and I wouldn't have any responsibilities during the meet, I decided to bring my "big girl" camera and take a couple of pictures of Marissa and her team.
Since diving was suppose to go first, Noel and I didn't arrive at the pool until 6:15 and the team was warming up. This facility only has one pool so the swimmers couldn't warm up until diving was completed so we still had a few minutes to watch them warming up before the meet began.
And then practicing some starts before their first race.
At least I got one smile before she switched to her "all business" mode.
At 6:55, the meet was set to start and Marissa would swim in the Medley Relay. Originally she was scheduled to anchor the relay by swimming the freestyle leg of the relay but with one of their faster swimmers sick, she had to switch to the butterfly, which is the third leg. By the time she dove into the pool, her team was already in second place by quite a good margin. She swam a really good 50 split, but it wasn't enough to catch them back up and they finished in 2nd place.
With that first relay out of the way, Marissa would go back to their "camp" at the opposite end of the pool and try to stay warm until she would swim the 50 freestyle for her first individual event.
A few minutes later, it would be her turn to take a spot on the starting blocks for the 50 yard freestyle. She would win the event for the first girls' win on the night, (which is good for our points), but she wasn't happy with her time as she swam a 26.97.
After the boys' 50 freestyle was complete, they would take a 10 minute break where all of the swimmers could have more time to warm up (or warm down) again and then after the break, she would come back and swim the 100 freestyle for her second individual event of the night. Once again she was seeded first, and once again, she took a first place for the team but she felt like she struggled with her time again and finished with a time of 58 seconds.
Marissa is in the middle lane wearing the black cap and orange lettering. She was in first place right from the start and never gave up the lead.
Marissa would finish off her night a couple of events later as she would anchor the 200 freestyle relay. Since we were missing a couple of strong swimmers on the back half of the meet, every point counted and the relays knew how important it was for them to have a good finish. Thankfully the 200 relay was able to capitalize and take home the first place finish.
The coach was happy with Marissa's swims -- now they would just wait to see how the rest of the points would finish out.
Thankfully, the boys took home a win by a large margin of victory and the Lady Tigers also pulled out a win -- by just TWO points. This brings them to 5-2 on the season heading into the Carroll Invite, which is this Saturday.
Congratulations girls. Way to swim hard and overcome! Now it's time to have fun and celebrate.
