Swim Meet at the University of the Cumberlands

 The swim team left on Friday at 3:15 and headed south to the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY.  It was about a six hour trip and thankfully they made it to their hotel without incident. On Saturday, the meet started at 2:00 and she would swim in three events... the 100 breaststroke, the 50 freestyle, and the 4x100 relay.

It was live-streamed so I started watching it and I was able to watch her swim both the breastroke and freestyle events, but then she wasn't racing again until the very last races of the meet so I wasn't able to watch the entire meet.

It's been a while since she has swam the 100 breaststroke but she improved on her previous best time with a new PR of 1:18.  Her 50 freestyle was slower than she would have liked but then the relay came through with a big victory, winning their entire event.  (Unfortunately, we don't know the individual splits of that race, but they placed first, so the team was happy about that).

Marissa will be back in the competition pool for at least one more meet this season as the team will compete in the Conference Championships in Kentucky during the first week of February.  

2022 NLC Pre-Lims

Thursday night (January 13th) was the girls' Northern Lakes Conference meet pre-lims.  

This meant that all eight teams in the conference would compete against one another in each event and the top 16 swimmers in each event would move on to the championship meet this coming Saturday (January 15th).  We have been swimming at this pool for club and high school events for years and both girls love the speed of the pool and the feel of the water.  They usually get really excited about meets that are hosted at this natatorium.  It really is a beautiful facility!

Noel and I arrived about 5:45 and we were able to get settled into the front row of the spectator's area right before the school introductions and the National Anthem.  Then at 6:00, the event started with the first relay, which was the Medley relay.  Marissa did not swim it in the preliminaries but she is listed on the roster and will most likely swim in the championship race on Saturday in that event.

Marissa did swim in the second event, which was the 200 freestyle.  She was in the second heat and finished with a 2:08.75.  That was about two full seconds slower than her seed time but it was still fast enough to get her into the championship heat on Saturday.  She will go into the event seeded 7th and will be guaranteed a spot on the podium as she cannot finish lower than 8th place overall.

Marissa would come back later to swim the 100 freestyle where she entered the race seeded 11th out of 21 swimmers.  This race was loaded with super fast swimmers and despite the fact that she swam faster last evening than she did last year (and placed 6th overall last year), this year her time of 58.58 was only good enough for an 11th place finish, which will put her in the consolation race.  

In addition to swimming in the 200 medley relay, Marissa is also on the roster to swim in the championship heat of the 200 freestyle relay on Saturday, which will give her a very full day.

After the 200 freestyle, Morgan was up to swim her first event which was the 200 IM.  This is an event that she really likes but she has been stuck at a 2:38 for quite a while and has been frustrated with that.  I think that she went into this event seeded 14th.

Morgan blew all of us away (including herself!) with her first swim of the evening by taking off over 9 seconds on her swim and finishing with a new  PR of 2:29.71!!  It wasn't enough to get her into the championship heat in this event (she is seeded 9th, just outside of the top eight), but she didn't care.  She looked up and saw her time on the scoreboard and then she just got a smile on her face that spread from ear to ear.  She knew that she had just swam a great race and she was thrilled.

Shortly after that race, Morgan would swim the 100 butterfly where she was once again seeded 13th or 14th in our very talented conference.  Once again she would impress all of us with another great swim and another PR.  This time she entered the race with a seed time of 1:12 and would finish at 1:08.8 and an 8th place which is fast enough for a championship race and a guaranteed podium finish.

Morgan is slated to swim in the 200 freestyle relay with Marissa on Saturday.  She was one of the swimmers last night posting a season's best 50 split with a time of 28.8.

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All in all, the Lady Tigers posted a lot of PR's last night and showed that despite being seeded 4th as a team in this year's conference, they aren't giving up without a fight.  I'm excited to see how they come back and swim on Saturday.

 

Swimming VS Concord

 Between senior night being cancelled and missing a meet during Nanny's funeral, it had been almost three weeks since the girls' last swimming competition.  (That doesn't mean that they haven't been constantly swimming over the past three weeks, but they hadn't been in a meet for a while until Saturday when they were back in action against another conference opponent in Concord.)

The girls had to be on deck at the high school by 7:15 but the meet didn't start until after 10:30 so Noel and I made the drive up to Concord a while after Morgan and Marissa had left.  We got there as the diving competition finished up and then we were able to watch the girls warm-up and practice starts.

After the swimmers completed their warm-ups, the meet started.  Unfortunately, we didn't come home with a team win at this one.  In fact, I'm not sure that the girls even won any of the events... we got a lot of 3rd places at this one as the other team had some really fast swimmers and usually took first and second in each event.

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Morgan and Marissa didn't find out what they would be swimming until they were on the bus heading to the school and then it changed again once they got to the pool and found out that a couple of our swimmers would no longer be allowed to swim due to various reasons.  Overall, the whole team's mood was just pretty discouraged and unfortunately, it showed in their swims

Morgan would swim the 100 butterfly, the 200 individual IM and then two relays.  She has been swimming those events most of the season and seems to enjoy them.

200 Medley Relay - 3rd Place - Morgan's split was 30.89

200 Yard IM Individual - 3rd Place - 2:38.5

100 Butterfly - 4th Place - 1:12.05 -- New Season's Best!

200 Freestyle Relay - 3rd Place - Morgan's split was 28.57

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Marissa would only swim the 100 freestyle individually and then as a way to try to maximize team points, the coach put her in all three relays.   Because she is capable to swimming every stroke, the coach has been moving her around in a way to fill in gaps when other swimmers cannot swim or put her in spots where she can gain the most points for the team, and althoughMarissa understands why he is using her in this way as it is a team sport, she is honestly disappointed because this means that she cannot swim in the one event that she really loves and is trying to set a new school record in.

200 Medley Relay - 3rd Place - Marissa's freestyle split 27.12

100 Freestyle - 3rd Place - 59.37

200 Freestyle Relay - 3rd Place - Marissa's split was 27.15

400 Freestyle Relay - 3rd Place - Marissa's split was 100.2

It definitely wasn't the best meet for Marissa or the team, but hopefully they will bring it all together soon as NLC championships start next week.  That's when Marissa and Morgan both saw big cuts in times last year so we are praying that it happens again this year.

Goshen Holiday Blast-off // Saturday Swim

On Saturday we headed back up to Goshen for the afternoon session of the swim meet.  Morgan was scheduled to swim four individual events and a relay and Marissa would finish her other two events and one relay.  Neither of them were close enough to divisional standards in their Saturday events to feel pressure about their races so they both seemed more relaxed and ready to just have fun.

At the end of the day, Morgan had competed in the 100 IM for the first time.  She had also competed in the 25 backstroke for the first time.  She took a little bit of time off of her 100 back and she swam the 200 freestyle.  She finished off her day by being on the B team mixed relay.  There were two girls and two boys on their relay team competing against other mixed teams.  They had a lot of fun swimming together and it was fun to see them laughing and joking together.

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Marissa swam the 100 breaststroke on Saturday for the first time in a while and took off five seconds from her previous time.  She was surprised with her swim, especially when she realized that she's now within 1.5 seconds from divisional cuts in that race now as well.  (This might change what events she chooses in the future).  She also took three more seconds off her 200 freestyle time.  At the end of her day, she swam the freestyle leg of the A team mixed relay and at the finish, it came down to her having to swim against a boy from their previous swim team named Carson.  She went into the race leading slightly and held him off until the very end but he's normally faster than her in the freestyle and he reached and out-touched her at the wall.  They both came up out of the water staring at each other and Marissa pointed her finger at him with the biggest smile on her face.  They both had a fun time competing and no one really seemed to care who won it in the end!  (Marissa also said that because she was trying so hard to beat him, she swam her fastest 50 split time ever!!  We'll have to send him a 'thank you' note later!  LOL)

I love watching the girls swimming and improving from week to week.

NASA Swim Spectacular 2018

The girls had a swim meet this past Saturday at the NASA swim Spectacular.  It was their first USA sanctioned meet of the winter season.  Unfortunately, I had two family photo sessions scheduled for that afternoon and wasn't able to watch them swim so Noel took them up while the younger two stayed home with me.  (That's why you also get one picture from a previous meet).

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Morgan swam the 50 Yard Freestyle as her first event.  She didn't match her PR from last year but she did swim a fast enough time to earn her first divisional cut of the season so I'm sure it feels nice for her to get that first one out of the way so early on.  She also swam the 100 breaststroke, the 200 Freestyle, and the 100 backstroke.  She took almost two full seconds off her backstroke and despite it not being her favorite event in the past, she's getting better and better at it.

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Marissa continues to look strong with four new PR's.  She started off her day with a PR in the 25 freestyle.  She then improved on her times for the 50 breaststroke, the 25 butterfly, and the 100 IM.  Unfortunately, this was a sprint meet so all of the events for 11-12 year olds were shorter events like 25 or 50 meters.  When she ages up next month, all of the divisional distances are at least 50 or 100 meters at the minimum so none of her times from Saturday will count for divisional cuts in the older age group, but she still placed in all four of her events and received quite a few points for the team.  She's happy with the outcome of the day and is gaining confidence for the real test coming in two weeks when she starts swimming for divisional cuts.  

Congratulations to both girls.  You're off to a great start!

Three Rivers Conference Championships 2018

The girls' winter swimming season (and their time with the TV Aquatics Club) is quickly winding down and coming to an end.  With only two more meets on the schedule, they competed last Saturday at Wabash for their Conference Championships.

The team was moved to a new conference this season so we weren't sure what to expect.  It's a much smaller conference than the one they were previously enrolled in, but there was still some pretty tough competition for the girls.

Thankfully the girls rose to the occasion and had a good day.

Morgan was due to swim in the morning session.  She would have two other girls from our swim team to swim against in her events that morning and she was also in the same age group as a couple of tough state competitors and even a nationally ranked breast-stroker from an area swim team.  She said that her shoulder is still really bothering her but she felt like she could still swim through the pain and get some good times. 

And she didn't disappoint.  She improved all of her times on the day and was the leader on the girls side for our team.  She even placed high enough in all of her events to be part of the medal ceremony.

Morgan's Results:

100 Yard Freestyle     1:06.71     2nd place with two second improvement

100 Yard Backstroke     1:27.98     5th place overall but personal best on season

100 Yard Breaststroke     1:29.32     3rd place 

50 Yard Freestyle     30.48     2nd place overall and personal best on season

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After taking a break for lunch, Marissa was set to swim at 1:00 in the afternoon.  She was relieved because her toughest competitor from the previous year had aged up so she wouldn't have to swim against her, but quickly disappointed that two others had joined the team and they were just as fast!  Oh well, it's always good to swim against fast competition to bring out your best, right?

She cut time once again and qualified for yet another divisional cut - and it was fun to see her also taking part in the awards ceremony.  We also found out that she missed being the "High Points Winner" for the day by just a point or two.

Marissa's Results:

50 Yard Butterfly     35.89     2nd place and a three second improvement

200 Yard IM     2:52.39     2nd place.  Cut two tenths of a second on time.  Two tenths away from divisional cut

50 Yard Breaststroke     42:28     2nd Place     5th Divisional Cut of the season

50 Yard Freestyle     30.96     3rd Place

The girls will have a weekend off from competition before competing in the Last Chance Competition in late February and Divisional Championships in March.