Swim Meet #4

The fourth swim meet of the season was on Rylan's birthday.  This was the second away meet and this time it was against the Murfreesboro Comets at Oakland High School (about 45 minutes away).  The pool was inside but the pool deck is very small so we were all set up outside.  There is a small upper bleacher area where we could watch our kids swim but it was extremely hot up there.  My mom was still here for this meet and we decided she would stay home with Gray instead of hanging out with him in the heat.

Carter decided he wanted to write the popular phrase "eat my bubbles" on his back.  Rylan decided on "birthday boy".  He got lots of well wishes from everyone and met a couple of other people at the meet who were also celebrating their birthdays!

Rylan has another good meet.  He was in the second heat of the freestyle and backstroke and since he was swimming against a smaller team, he was able to win lots of heat ribbons.

Evie got her first heat ribbon!

Branson was in the first heat for the 6 and under boys and won heat ribbons in freestyle and backstroke as well.

Rylan was also in the freestyle relay (with Branson) and got a third heat ribbon!!!  Carter also finally got a heat ribbon (though we later found out he DQ'd).

Here are Rylan's times ...

Freestyle: 37.17 seconds, 5th place (best time by 2.95 seconds)
Backstroke: 42.88 seconds, 4th place (1.77 seconds slower than last week)
Freestyle Relay: 02:20:27, 1st place

It was awesome that Rylan had such a great meet on his birthday!

Carter also did so, so good!  Unfortunately the tough stroke and turn judges were back for this meet and were DQ'ing all the kids in breaststroke and butterfly.

Only Carter and one kid from the other team swam the breaststroke event for 7-8 boys.  Carter beat the other boy by about a second and won his first heat ribbon of the season.  Unfortunately, both Carter and the other kid were DQ'd though so Carter was really disappointed (he was SO PROUD of that heat ribbon!).  I asked his coaches at practice on Wednesday if they could help Carter figure out what he's doing wrong.  They thought he was doing great but finally figured out what the judge must have been picking out as wrong.  Carter and his two coaches worked so hard this week and I really hope Carter has a chance to do the stroke right next week!

Carter also swam the individual medley for this first time.  For that event, one swimmer does 25 yards of each stroke (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle).  Carter finished last in his heat but did it!  Unfortunately he and all but one boy were DQ'd.  He was exhausted afterwards though.  The IM is the last event of the day and the clerk of course pulled Carter about 30 minutes before his race (he had to sit in the hot sun that whole time just waiting).

I'm so proud of this kiddo though.  He's trying these new strokes and is excited to do them.  He is definitely really disappointed about DQ'ing but after a bit he moves on.

Here are Carter's times for this week:

Freestyle: 28:23 seconds, 7th place (0.15 seconds slower than last week)
Freestyle Relay: 01:47:62, 2nd place
Breaststroke: DQ
Medley Relay: DQ
Individual Medley: DQ

The boys only have one more regular season meet and then the county championship meet.