STATEMeet for the Swimmers

Wow, what a long and arduous road this was to get to Short Course State this year! Pinkie made the cut back in November at the Carrollton meet for her 50 Br. The qualifying time was 45.49 and she crushed that with a 44.36...fantastic! She didn't really come close to that time the rest of the year or into January. We had a Last Chance meet for SCAT the weekend before state. She was not entered into the 50 Br as she already had that cut. She was close of a couple other events but at the end of the weekend she just had the one. No biggie, she had the invite to the dance so to speak and at the tender age of 9 and 1/12 we were happy that she had made it at all. Jared on the other hand was another story. This boy had a hard time aging up to 11's. Then he aged up to the 12's. All year he has steadily dropped time and attended practice. I thought for sure he would be able to pull at least ONE cut from the pool. At the Last Chance meet we had to again face our nemesis, the 200 FL. Not the stress we needed going into the weekend, especially after the disastrous 200 Fly/Free from two weeks prior at the Rays invite. But at least this time we just had to wait through Saturday instead of going all the way through to Sunday fretting over the dreaded event. Jared had a few opportunities to make a state cut. He did attempt the 200 Fl and stopped at the wall after 150...sadly he was on pace to have gotten a cut in this event. But, it was not meant to be so we went home and geared up for the Sunday events that he had a shot at, 200 Br and 50 Br. Sunday am shift went well and he qualified for finals. During the evening warm ups he collided with another swimmer and for the second night in a row we had drama. Not where I needed his head to be going into these races. I ran to get ice and waterproof tape and we made do with his foot injury. He seemed slightly better as I sent him down to warm up before his race. Lo and behold the boy made his cut for the 200 Br. The 50 was close, he again dropped time, just not enough. BUT the boy made it in so we now had TWO State contenders in the HomerHouse, YAY!The week of state is always so much fun. The swimmers have a special practice, a banquet and they get their Lucky Duckie and their State Shirt. The Duckie is to be decorated by the swimmer and taken to the block before each swim. Great little tradition and the kids (from our team) LOVE this. The shirt is always a huge hit, based on one of the most popular movies/games of the year. This years shirt was themed after the Angry Birds game and the oratory that Coach Neil spins on this fable of the shirt is one of the most anticipated events of the state meet. Who needs swimming? ;) We were pleasantly surprised when Pinkie got called to swim in TWO relays for her team. Having just aged up to 9/10's, this was a HUGE honor and she was over the moon. She was the 3rd leg for the 9/10 B 200 Free Relay and the Breast leg for the 9/10 B 200 Medley Relay. AWESOME!How this happened I have no clue but Jared and Pinkie were events 41 and 44, that meant we didn't have to spend 3 days at the pool for a couple events. She got in the water to swim and he was on the blocks, almost surreal that the timing was that good. When she was on the blocks she looked over and saw Mom, Dad, Kevin, Gran, Grandfather, Uncle Paul, Auntie Marcia, Uncle Dan and Aunt Kristy cheering her on. That really motivates her I can tell ya. She crushed her qualifying time by 3/4 of a second and finished with a 43.61...that qualifies her to come back for next year's State Meet--YAHOO!! She went for 48th to 45th overall. Even though she took on water at the flags, she had a blast. We watched her get out and literally turned our attention to the boys pool where Jared was on the blocks. He finished 2 seconds over the time he had posted just 6 days earlier to qualify but he was still 6 seconds under the cut. Couldn't be more proud and he finished 53rd overall! Pinkie did very well in both legs of her relays and both teams came in 12th overall. Fantastic!

We are looking ahead to our last two meets for short course. Kevin will be swimming this weekend with Pinkie at the Mako Mania at Dalton. Two weeks later all three will be in the water at Carrollton for the SW Divisionals. Spring football is coming down the pipe as well as long course. How long until we leave for Pink Shell?!?! I need a break! :D