This weekend it was back in the pool for my son. The swim season is coming to an end; he’ll have swim meets the next 4 weeks, including district and state, assuming he qualifies. For this one, we had to head up past Great America and Gurnee Mills to the “log cabin” as we like to call it. He’d be swimming each of the 4 strokes, 50m each. Let’s go!
This is a small venue; there are no bleachers. Everyone is sitting around the pool; it was like having court side seats at a basketball game; you could get splashed. It’s hot as hell in there too; definitely had to bring a t-shirt underneath. I like it though. This time, I didn’t have to help time, so I was 100% spectator. My son’s swim team rolled deep in this one. Sometimes there aren’t as many kids, but on this Saturday late afternoon, there were plenty. He would battle some of his teammates in the same races. First up was the 50M butterfly. My son beat his time and locked up his first state qualifying time; nice! It was a good start to the meet.
The 50M backstroke was up next; it wasn’t a good start. He swam crooked off the starting blocks before correcting himself; that had to cost him a little time. Then, on the turn, he pushed off too deep and actually scraped his back on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. When you add up those “mistakes”, and when you’re talking about seconds, and tenths of a second, it made sense that he finished about a second off the state qualifying time in this one. He did beat his previous time, which is always the goal, but not quite good enough for state. He’ll have at least 1 more chance to do it in the next couple weeks.
The 50M freestyle was a few events later; freestyle is always the most competitive event. It’s the one stroke everybody can swim. It was more of the same in that one; my son beat his previous time. However, he also finished a second off the state time. Finally, the 50M breaststroke… same, same. He beat his previous time, but finished about a second off the state time. Overall, a good day, but I’m sure he wanted a little better. Beating your individual best time in 4 different events is a success in my book; finishing just off state time in 3 of the 4, leaves something to be accomplished in the next 2 weeks before state. If I was a betting man, I’d say he gets in at least 1 more…
As in basketball, and any other sport he plays, I love to watch my son compete; he’s such an athlete. Watch out if/when he gets his height boost; we’re still patiently waiting. He is growing, no doubt, but not at the rate he’d like to be… not yet. It’ll come most likely, the only question is when. Until then, he’ll keep busting his butt in each sport he plays; see you next Sunday back in the pool.
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