Winter Haven Swim Meet

First Official Swim Meet of the 2009-2010 Swim Season! We drove over to Winter Haven (about 50 minutes away) this afternoon and had a great time!

To start with, some of the kids got to swim across the pool with flags during the National Anthem. It was pretty cool, and kind of moving in a strange way. They swam on their backs really slowly and it was really quiet around the pool. Carly LOVED participating, of course!

Ben's event was first for us. 100 IM, in which they do all 4 strokes. He was going so fast! He actually finished first in his heat (and got a fun ribbon!). He finished in 1:35:97. If it had counted, this would have been a "B Time". Sadly, he was disqualified for his Butterfly stroke, because his hands didn't come down together. Yes, he was pretty upset! He kept saying to his coach, "But I did it right! I won!" We felt pretty bad for him, but this IS something the coach has been telling him he's been doing for a while now.

That's him taking off! He was so much faster than the others in his heat! We were pretty worried that it might mess the remainder of the meet up for him because he was just so very upset. DQ's are pretty common at these things, but there's no telling a 10 year old that! Especially one like Ben!

Now before you get too sad and upset (Mom), his day turned out fantastic, so he worked it out. Now really. If you know Ben and the road we've travelled with him, isn't THAT just simply AMAZING and better than clocking great times?

Then Carly did a 50 Free, with the 10 and under group. For her actual age groups, they were only doing 25 yards, and that doesn't "Count" for your Motivational Times.

A word about the Motivational Times we are working towards here: They are put out by USA Swimming, which the kids are members of (along with, you know, Michael Phelps). There are "cut off times" for each event, each age grouping, and boy/girl. The first cut you can get is a B time, then you do better and can get a BB time... then go a little faster and get an A time... then AA, then AAA, then AAAA. So, these are the times they are working towards. That is the nice thing about swimming, very individual! You are essentially competing against yourself, and your last clocked time. What this translates into for OUR KIDS, would be TROPHIES they earn at the end of the year swim banquet! Yes, they saw BIGGER trophies than they got last month, and their eyes lit up!!!!

Anyways, this is why Carly didn't want to do any 25 swims. She wants a trophy! She really held her own today with girls that were mostly 10. She was the only 7 (or 8, for that matter) year old who competed with 50's.

For her FreeStyle, she did it in 59:33 seconds (that's one lap, flip turn, one lap back... how fast can YOU do that??!!?!), and she also did the breast stroke, and the fly... unfortunately, disqualified in each of these. One for scissoring her legs, and one for (we think) smiling too much, she was enjoying herself so very much and everyone was chuckling about it! While WE were screaming, "It's a race! Focus, Girl!". After each race and she found out she DQ'd (she didn't for freestyle, mind you), she was still so very happy... she made me think of that Publix commercial where the dad is all worried over his son's first soccer game (which he tanked on) and when he went up to him, the kids goes, "I was AWESOME!!!!!". That's the difference between Carly and Ben. Love it!

Here's Ben and his fantastic 50 Free Style race. 25 minutes after his IM upset. He was so far ahead of the 6 other boys in his heat!! He finished in 34:56 seconds (again, this is one lap, flip turn, one lap back!) and got a "Heat Winner" ribbon. Even more fantastic, he skipped right over B time, and earned a BB TIME!!! We are so happy for him, he was thrilled! Immediately said, "how many seconds faster to an A time?". With that kind of determination, it won't be long. His coach was very impressed, which pleased Ben, too.

That's the official time sheet. There were about 8 heats for this event, and you can see, Ben falls 12th out of about 38, which is GREAT!

Next, he did a 50 Fly. Now keep in mind, this is the stroke he got DQ'd for in his first race. His coach talked to him about it for a long time prior to it, and I planned on making a video so he could SEE his hands NOT coming down together (he insisted it was together!)... of course, he did it right this time! And got a really good time, to boot! Finished in 49:24, which is 2 seconds shy of the coveted B time!

Here's the video of his Fly... This was fun because they announce their names and everything, so make sure the sound is on, at least through THAT part. You might not want to hear US screaming:)

Thanks for sharing our fun!