regionals swim meet

The girl and her team pushed it hard this year, not only shocking themselves but knocking the wind out of a lot of other teams, particularly girls teams. They were a force to be reckoned with and powered their way through. My girl was surprised that she was still able to swim with the amount of power that she had however being Lily she was bothered that her times were not those of her club swimming days. Oy vey.

I loved the team coaches they were so sweet but I felt they were incredibly naive but that's probably because I am used to club coaches and not just any club coaches. When the season started and the pool was full of swimmers who could barely make it from one side of the pool to the other and they were saying things like, "this year we are taking a whole lot of you to States", I remember thinking.....you must have water on the effing brain! But they were just so happy and cheerful and yes, the team improved but in order to make it to States in this division where kids swim for 4 hours a day, six days a week just to swim in a club (one reason why lily no longer wants to compete) you've got to have a HS team filled with club swimmers not ex ones and not novices. bless them. But they are the nicest coaches ever. And as an ex club swimmer Lily was actually a stronger swimmer than 98% of the current club swimmers on her team, girl is a maniac in the pool.

So she swam and she swam and she made her way to regionals. crazy! But alas this is where the story of swimming will stop this year for the girl.

I swallowed my pride ( cos lordy knows I am chomping at the bit to get back to school) and asked if she would like to join the club again and she said, no thank you mama. I do believe I heard angels sing.

So what I am trying to say is this: on Thursday, after the encounters with the gate Nazi, (read previous post) we watched the girl swim. Her first event went well, it was a 200 IM relay and she did great, her second a 400 IM which is definitely one of "her" events she didn't pull it off and came in 3rd. Yes I know but she had a solid 2nd for most of the heat and let it slide, not a Lily move so when she got out the water I grilled her hard. I don't normally do this but this was the regionals and she wanted it badly so I stepped into swim mum mode. I hadn't seen her all day, Didn't know what she had eaten or drank so I pulled the mama card. Next up was HER event, the 500m free. She had plenty of time to recover and if she wanted it she was going to have to work for it. She did work hard and I thought her coach was going to have a stroke when she took enough time off, to bring her in under 6 minutes. I was so worried that the clocks would glitch that I dare not move from my place at the end of the lane. She managed 3rd, 3rd place peeps is crazy.   Her final event was the 400m IM relay and they were dq'd cos someone left the blocks too early. Oh well. The father of one of the girls, walked off the deck and was not seen again. Nice sportsmanship dude

First place in individual events takes you to States
Second place in relays takes you to States.

She was close but no cigar. Is she happy? Ish. Is she disappointed? Hell yes but deep down she knows it was a long long shot.

team secrets

This next few photos make me laugh. I was taking photos of Lily warming up and was oblivious of anyone or thing in the frame. It wasn't until I uploaded them that I realised the girl on block next to her was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

first we go this way

then we stand like this

then we turn the other way. 

she gives her all

looks like she is being dunked

underwater shot..kinda cool

those oh so distinctive hands

she always looks so huge in a pool

Lane 3 place 3 under 6 ( her time a yr ago was 5.45)
Her coach was leaping up and down up and down and screaming~ bless.

she earnt it

great team. Not all of the team went to Regionals but they all made the shirt???

And so that's a wrap. I told her when swim season was over she needed to start taking the bus home. Well, she did on Friday and No, just no. She left school at 2,22 and arrived at the bus stop at 3.11. It is an 17 minute drive from here. I was tracking her on my phone and I swear I thought she had been busnapped. Twice she got so close to the house I thought, yay she is here and then off she went again into the abyss. Rosie and I were laughing so hard. We thought maybe the driver was asking Lily for directions cos girl is directionally challenged. So I will be picking her up because that is just a waste of time and I am very much against time wasting. sigh.

Rock Star I am very proud of you. xxxx