Who is Going Where When?

      The Blonde is Gone...we are now in the bald phase of swim hair.   

      Matt qualified for the state swimming championships in his two events yesterday.  Coach Voigt instructs, advises, encourages during warm-ups today. 

       He began the day by finishing second in the 200 freestyle in a new personal best time of 1:43:64, just 45 hundredths of second out of first place, which went to Michael G., a senior from CHS, a fellow CSC teammate, fourth went to Matt F., a CHS junior and fellow CSC teammate, while sixth went to Peter, a Westfield High School freshman, and fellow CSC teammate.   In the photo the whole left side are these guys.       

      Here is a good look at the fancy body suit the guys were wearing for finals.  Coach Voigt not only has to know all the swimming techniques, she has to know the techniques of getting her swimmer into that skin-tight, no room to hardly breathe, body suit!  The last step of zipping that thing up rivals the scene in Gone With the Wind when Miss Scarlet is being laced into her party dresses!   

      Later in the afternoon Matt finished 3rd in the 100 backstroke, again in a new personal best time of 53:52 (the 3rd place performance was just 2.14 seconds out of first place, first going to JJ, a senior from CHS, a fellow CSC teammate, second going to Nick, a junior from CHS and fellow CSC teammate, missing from the photo for some reason, and fifth went to Mark C., a CHS freshman and fellow CSC teammate).  I know it seems like maybe there were only three teams present from these podium pictures, but there were in fact eleven high schools represented at this sectional...should be fairly obvious the ones that dominate the lanes.  And Guerin, despite the fact that it is a one man team with no relay points, did NOT finish last...GCHS finished with 25 points and in tenth place, the ninth and eighth places only had 27 and 29 points and they had a whole lot more swimmers!  Not a bad finish for a one man team.   

      We have one very happy boy here today.  We are particularly excited as he is only a sophomore, so we have two more years of high school swimming and this is going to look pretty darn good on the college resume.   

      Here are some fun photos from yesterday, and you know what...I have a long way to go to figure out those camera settings...I think I was doing better before that class...LOL!  Be patient.   I like this photo of Matt F., Michael G., and Matt after the 200 Free...no matter what team you swim for, the CSC kids find their way to the ropes to congratulate and encourage each other...very nice always.     

      Peter and Matt with a "thumbs up" for me after his 100 Back, happy with his new best time.  Peter, Matt, and Alex started swimming together in the same class when Matt and Alex were 7 and Peter was 6...they are the only two left swimming at CSC from their original class of about 20.  Peter and Alex were swimming buddies for years, their birthdays being one year and one day apart.  Peter goes to Westfield High School and swims for them, but as you can see, it's the CSC connections that draw these guys all together...ten years of swimming together is a long time!   

      The last photo is a cute one of John and Beth...Beth running a little late from her volleyball team commitments and John happy she managed to get to the meet to watch him swim.  What a lovely girl Beth is, we had the nicest chat.  It's very strange seeing the boys growing up over the years and now discovering some of them have "girlfriends," while others are going off to college, and some are entering high school...it's all moving way too quickly! 

      Once again, the GCHS Athletic Director, Chris Buhler, came to the swim meet sectionals to support Matt...and stayed for the whole time Matt was participating, about three hours, I think...how nice was that?  Way beyond the call of duty to spend that much of your free time watching ONE student athlete.  That's why we like Guerin...it's always like that in everything.   Very very nice. 

      Keep The Boy in your thoughts and prayers...he has three days of finals starting Wednesday and then the State Swimming Finals on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  That's quite a bit in a short space of time for one 16 year old to concentrate on.  It's going to be another exciting week!