
You can all stop with the reprimanding emails about not getting my posts up in a timely manner. I know, I know...what can I say, things have been a tad busy around here trying to put things in place and all. Championship swim season is like that...we all tend to concentrate on the things necessary to get through that with proper nutrition, proper amount of rest, and the proper togs in proper repair and proper working order.
Factor in trimester finals at Guerin these past three days, and things can get a bit wild.
The boy had a fine performance last evening at the high school state swimming finals. He went in seeded 11th in the 200 Freestyle and 12th in the 100 Backstroke and at the end of the evening he had indeed qualified for finals in both swims.
(Photo top is a good view of the fancy swim togs; photo right is preparing to mount the block for the 200 Free...Matt was the only one with a plain white cap, so that made it easy to find him all night; photo left is Matt and Coach Roch waiting for pool entry during warm-ups, and photo below is Chris P, in blue, Matt's USA coach except during high school season, and the CHS coach during high school season, Matt's Guerin coach, Roch, in the black shirt, both watching the CHS/Guerin warm-ups...the two coaches friends since they met last year.)
A fun photo of Chrystal as she holds up the shirt she made for Jay to wear for Harrison's two swims. Harrison comes back today seeded 8th in the 50 Free. Chrystal and I had a great time watching Matt and Harrison swim...they got to swim the 100 Backstroke together in the same heat, always fun for the two of them as they are great buddies, Harrison swimming for Brebeuf during the high school season.
Photo at right is getting zipped into that crazy suit again...Coach Chris P lending a hand, as season or not, sometimes old habits of taking care of your swimmer is just second nature: Matt has been swimming with Coach Chris P. for the past 4 years for the USA team...anyway, the photo made me smile.
The CHS girl swimmers and friends arriving to cheer on the boys team...and Matt and Harrison, too, of course! The whole section was filled by the start of the meet and they cheered their hearts out for the guys...very fun!
Matt is seeded 14th in the 200 Freestyle (obviously a bit of a tank on that swim...more on that later) and 10th in the 100 Backstroke. He has a NEW BEST TIME in the 100 Back, 53.14, so he is most delighted with that, of course, as NBTs are always the goal.
The 200 Free was the first event of the evening, after the 200 IM relays, and he was really psyched to get in there and swim, etc., so we thought he would do really well with that one, but for some reason, that swim was not there last night...he added eight tenths of a second, which in the swimming world is a lot, especially at state. When he finished, he came over to the section of stands where we were sitting (deck is down below and fans sit in stands above it, with no way to enter to and from each venue so the kids just yell up in the stands to the parents or make hand motions or whatever) and shook his head in a negative way, with a downcast look, and Mark and I thought, "Oh, no, he didn't make it back for finals in this swim, we hope it doesn't affect his backstroke swim...." We gave him the thumbs up sign and big smiles and he worked his way to the warm down pool and then to chat with his coach.
When the backstroke came along, he swam like a man with a cause...LOL..and we figured he was determined to get back for finals in at least one of his two swims. It was clear when he finished that he had made a finals time and was one happy boy.
And so it went through the meet, us being happy that he made one swim to come back for finals, etc. and indeed, when we met up after the meet, we were encouraging about how well he did, etc., how proud we were of him, etc., and on the way home, talk ensued about swimming, etc.
It wasn't until we were home about twenty minutes and I was checking my email that we discovered he HAD MADE FINALS in the 200 Free also. Geesh. I got an email from the Athletic Director which was a copy of one he was sending out to the Guerin community on their network, and it said that he was so proud of Matt for making finals in both his swims....I said, "Uh, oh, Chris B. thinks Matt made finals in both his swims, I am going to need to send him an email telling him that Matt only made one final...."
Mark relayed the information to Matt and Matt said, "Yeah, I made finals in both." Mark: "You did what????" Matt: "Why did you think I didn't make finals in both?" So, we cited the downcast look and the shaking of the head "no" after the swim and he said, "Oh, that just meant that I was not happy at all with my swim, that I could not believe I added time on that, and that I was frustrated that I was going to be seeded lower than I was when I came in tonight. But, I knew I made finals."
OMW...Mark and I were just incredulous that for about three hours we thought he hadn't made the final in that swim...they weren't posting the results up on the sidewalls like they do in USA swimming, so we didn't have any way to check and see where he ended up. Good golly. Everyone kept saying, "How did Matt do?" and we kept telling everyone he made finals for the back and not the free. Won't they be surprised? Not as surprised as we were! Kids!!!!! I told him that after this we need a better system of communicating deck floor to stands...LOL.
The last photo is Matt (in white) with the CHS swimmers in the blue Superman shirts...everyone checking that scoreboard for all the all-important times!
Keep the good thoughts, we swim again today at 1:00! As Roch says: "It's been a great ride so far!"