PCC - Autumn Cruise, Huron High School, Ann Arbor

The first thing you notice when you get to Huron High School is that it is simply massive, making the pool almost impossible to find. The second thing is that they are practically on the bank of the Huron River, which flows through Ann Arbor. The third and most amusing thing is that, above the football stadium are these words: "Home of the Huron River Rats."

Yikes! Who wants to tell the grandkids that the mascot for their alma mater was a rodent? Well, I guess a lot of people. Look at all those crazy University of Michigan people cheering for their beloved Wolverines.

This was a two-day meet in Ann Arbor, and Lexy swam four events on day one and two on day two. Even though she was swimming in the afternoon, the events were well organized and the meets went like clockwork. Much better than last week!

The way they categorize times at these levels are Q1, A, B and C times. If you get a Q1 time that means you are CRAZY FAST!! It also means you qualify to compete in the state finals at the end of the season. Each event has it's own qualifying times in each category, boys' and girls' times are different, and are separated by a few seconds. Lexy has mostly B times, with a couple of C times that are really close to Bs. Our goal for this meet was not to lose any time on the Bs, but to do better in those events where she has C times, and move them into Bs. For example, she needed about 3.5 seconds in the 5o Breaststroke to get a B time, and she needed 1 second in the 5o Backstroke to get a B time.

On Saturday, Lexy swam the 100 IM, the 50 Fly, 50 Free and 50 Br. Of these, she had three new best times: 1:39.82 in the 100 IM; 37.05 for the 50 Free, shaving off about 1 and three-tenths seconds (and staying in B time range), and a new best time for the 50 Breaststroke, shaving off about 3 seconds. She needed another three-tenths of a second to get a B time!! We will be trying for this next weekend!

On Sunday she swam the 50 Backstroke and needed only one second to get a B time. Her fastest time was 47.77 and she got a 47.79 -- so essentially the same. Again, we'll try to get better next weekend on that one.

Lex gets a little discouraged when she comes away from these meets without making any visible progress but these USS meets bring in some amazing talent from all over the state. I think it will be key to keep her interested while she is 9, to get her to that 10-year old status where she is at least in the top 8 again, and, I hope, getting some A times!!

Dale Gooding Meet - WORST MEET EVER!

November 1, 2008 -- Since we've been swimming, we've had our share of good and bad experiences at swim meets. Since these events can really take a long time, we've developed a genuine appreciation for swim meets that run like a Swiss watch. We've had more experience with these since we started attending more of the U.S. Swimming sanctioned meets. These are meets that must finish within a certain time period or risk being fined by USS.

This past weekend, Lexy was looking forward to swimming in a Dolphin meet at a local high school in Saginaw. There is less pressure, and more of her friends go since it is local.

She was scheduled for four events: 200 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Free and 50 Breast. She did well in the 200, swimming the event for the first time in a timed meet and getting a time under 3 minutes, 2:57. There's a lot of room for improvement here, but we really wanted her to get experience with this event. The 50 Fly was about a second slower, but still a very good swim. The 100 Free -- not really anything to write home about. We'll talk about the 4th event in a moment.

What struck us, as we went through the order of events, was there appeared to be a break in the action about mid-meet. When the organizers started making announcements over the PA system, we realized our fears -- they were stopping the meet in the middle to have a "still got it -- prove it" event for anyone over the age of 21 who wanted to swim a 50. What this meant was that anyone who happened to have a bathing suit with them and wanted to do this "exhibition" swim, could strut their stuff.

What this did, in essence, was set the entire swim meet back half an hour -- first to let those swimmers warm up, and then swim their event. Because this took so much time away from the regular meet, they had to spend another half hour to let all the participating kids warm up again, and then -- there must have been a real brainiac at work scheduling this meet -- they scheduled 5 heats of the 500 Free. On average a 500 Freestyle takes about 6 minutes to swim -- so there went yet another half hour.

Once we figured out that all this activity was basically resulting in us having to sit and wait another two hours for Lexy to swim a 50, we decided to bail.

Not only we were very disappointed in the organization of the meet, the organizers should have also been able to calculate that the meet would go well through the lunch hour. By noon, they were running out of food and drinks at their concession stand, both for the swimmers and for the spectators.

Needless to say, this one is off our list for next year. We are anxiously looking forward to a very well organized meet in Ann Arbor next weekend at Huron High School.

Club Wolverine Meet - Eastern Michigan University

Is it completely redundant for someone from Michigan to complain about road construction in the summer? Yikes! You leave three hours for a two hour trip and you still have to take a 10 mile detour to get where you're going on time!! And the stories of road rage -- SHEESH! You'd think we were back in Jersey.

Anyway, this weekend is a pretty big meet, and that mean everything from the number of clubs who entered, to the size of the pool (it's 10 lanes, 50 meters). There is every level of diving board and platform, and the EMU swimming and diving team is apparently the BEST in the Mid-America conference, judging by the number of championship banners they have hanging from the ceiling of the natatorium.

But -- sitting at this event was a humidifying experience. You may think I mean humilating, but I don't. I mean HUMIDFYING. Yes, it's an indoor pool and it must be 87 degrees in the viewing stands. The so-called fans they have strategically positioned barely move the air up there. Ther was a river running down my back the entire time I was there. The kids were getting tired just sitting around waiting to swim.

I should have signed Lexy up for more events because, as I said, this is a huge meet and it was completely full. They weren't allowing kids to sign up for extra events when they check in, as they sometimes do. So we must be content to swim two events each day.

Saturday, Lexy swam the 50 Breaststroke and took off 1.1 seconds to finish with another best time. The 100 Free was a different story entirely. She lost 5 seconds off her best time. I chalk this up to the heat in the building and the sheer amount of time she had to wait between events. We are hopeful that Sunday will be better.

Check out Lexy's USA Swimming portal at: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=457&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&perid=95dfc6ad-3973-4151-91c1-5b235b4fbde9

Sunday was better in that we were done by 4 pm, but it was still hot and humid up there in the viewer stands. Lexy's two events for Sunday were the 50 Free and the 50 Back. While she didn't get a best time in the 50 Free, she was only about one secondoff. However, she did take off a second in her 50 Backstroke for a new best time of 54.35.

One more meet for Lexy to swim at 8 & Under; then she'll age up to the 9 & 10 category, and a whole new set of challenges.

BAYS Beat the Heat! (or Beat Your Record!)

Bay City has the weirdest set up for a community center. It's down by the riverfront, but it's behind a bunch of warehouses, and wedged between the railroad and the river. On Saturday morning a Very Loud Train rumbled by during warm-ups; I was wondering what would happen if another came by during the meet.

On Saturday, Lexy swam three 50-Meter events: Free, Breast and Fly. She won all three, with one new best time in the 50 Breast (59.75). It was warm but very cloudy, which was great because the sun was not beating down on us the whole time. It started to rain at about 10 am, but it wasn't thundering or lightning, so we just kept going.

Sunday the sun was out and I dragged the whole family over there to support Lexy through her last two events: 50 Back and 100 Free. Our coaching for Lex for the 50 Back was "Keep your head back!" She won even though she added a second or two. She said the sun was in her eyes (which was possible!).

The best event, by far, though, was the 100. She was so far ahead, she was about a third of the way back by the time the next closest swimmer was turning. I think she had a good tailwind (it was pretty windy!) and she took off about a second to finish at 1:33.70.

Five blue ribbons later, we concluded that perhaps Lexy just isn't being challenged. We have one more travel meet this season, next weekend, at Eastern Michigan University. While she's already signed up for all the 50's, she's agreed to give more 100's and 200's a try. We'll do a few "deck entries" for a couple events she hasn't tried before, and we'll see how she does!

CUDA Meet! A Quick One

Whether it's the July 4 holiday coming up, or some other phenomenon, we had a very short USS meet today because there were so few kids signed up. The entire morning meet was done in an hour. And, of course, we could have walked to this meet since it's just a mile away at Plymouth Pool! Very convenient.

All Lexy's events today were 10& under, so we are always aware that she may be swimming against 9 & 10 year olds. Lexy swam her four events very well, but with one DQ (disqualification) in the 100 Breaststroke. This is a tough event for Lexy anyway, and it seems that the position of her head was an issue. So, still no recorded time for Lex in this event.

She took first in the 100 Free, with 1:34.77, just a few tenths over her best time. Very consistent. She took second in the 50 Fly with a 54.56, again just short of her best time. In the 50 backstroke she finished with a 59.15, still 7 seconds off the B time.

No meet next weekend since it is the July 4 holiday, but we are looking forward to the BAYS meet the weekend of July 11-13. This is also the weekend that SYDNEY is coming home!! We miss her so much!!

Summer Swim Season Begins! Freeze or Fry in Dearborn

Swim meets are always fun and challenging, but when it's summer, you really don't tend to factor in the possibility that GETTING THERE will be the biggest challenge! Sure, in the winter, with all the snow and ice you leave lots of extra time assuming you will have to drive slower. But perhaps we chalk this one up to naivete: EVERYONE knows that Michigan isn't nicknamed "the orange barrel state" for nothing.

We left with plenty of time to drive the two hours to Dearborn -- but we lost all of our cushion and then some on one of Michigan's great highways -- covered in orange construction barrels. The freeway was down to one lane and moving at about 5 miles an hour for 10 miles. I made a couple of calls to try to reach one of the coaches -- but it turned out she was 20 minutes behind me! I finally managed to reach some of the other swim parents who got Lexy checked in within the allotted time. By the time we got there, though, the meet was already behind and they had moved the check-in back 45 minutes. So, we would have made it, but had no way of knowing the times had shifted.

The summer Barracuda meets are different from the winter meets and are called "long course" for good reason. The winter meets are held indoors at 25 yard pools. The long course pools are Olympic length, or 50 meters. This means you can't really take a 25 or a 50-yard time and just submit. You actually have to do MATH to convert the times. As most people who know me will attest, I would much rather check my spelling than do the math. But, you just can't fudge the times. Thank goodness for calculators. I'm that bad.

In any case, Lexy got warmed up and got ready to swim her first event, the 100 Freestyle for the 10 and under age group. There were 46 swimmers signed up to swim, all aged 8, 9 and 10. Lexy placed 8th in this event with a 1:34.26, very respectable, considering the difficulty and the age group.

Later, we went over to "The Henry Ford" where they have an IMAX theater, to see "Kung Fu Panda." WE LOVED IT!! Two bamboo shoots UP! Go see it and have fun!

Saturday morning Lexy swam two events, both in the 8 & under range: the 50 back and the 50 Free. She placed 6th in the 50 Back with a 55.51 (Keep Your Head Back KIDDO!) and she placed FIRST in the 50 Free, taking almost two seconds off her time --41.59! Awesome!

Later that afternoon, some thunderstorms rolled through, but the older kids got to finish their events later.

Sunday morning, Lexy was scheduled for two events: the 50 Breaststroke and the 50 Butterfly. She had posted 1:12.68 last summer for the 50 Breast, but clobbered that time today with at 59.92! She came in 5th overall for that event.

Finally, the 50 Butterfly. Lexy did not have a previously posted time, so she swam with other kids who were in the same category. Lexy took an early lead and was about 5 lengths ahead of the other kids in the field, finishing with 54.72. The best posted time for the event was 51.87, so Lexy was right in there with the best for this competition. The only bothersome thing was that, after she got out, she looked me right in the eye and said, "I didn't swim as fast as I could have." Why, whatever do you mean, my sweet angel???

Lexy said that when she surveyed the field and saw how far out front she was, she just figured she was going to win and stopped competing. . . heavy sigh.

We'll see about next week, now won't we??

2008 MTSL Championships, March 2, 2008

Time flies when you're swimming fast! As the last meet of the season, this was the championship meet and it promised to be a good one. Only swimmers who received qualifying MTSL times could swim this event. Lexy has qualifying times in every event she swam this year, but the swimmers were held to one or two relays and three individual events.

Lexy swam the butterfly leg of the relay (third leg) with her team of Emily Kayden, Maggie Duly and Logan Rosenbrock, all 7-year-olds. They came in fourth out of four, about 5 seconds over their best time. Next year Lexy will be 9, so she will be out of their age group.

Her second event was the 100 IM, a real nail-biter! Seven girls qualified for the event, and Lexy was the top seed with her best time of 1:37.69. The girl in the next lane really gave her a run for her money for three legs, but Lexy pulled it out in the last leg. This was the same girl she beat back in October at the St. John's meet, the first time Lexy ever swam the I.M. Lexy finished first in the race with a final time of 1:38.14. Sydney and I were both on the pool deck timing in lane 2, screaming our little lungs out for Lexy to win! She got some goofy glasses for being the heat winner and a great trophy for coming in first. Great job Lex!!

Her next event was the 50 Free, and five girls had qualified for this race. Lexy was again the top seed with her best time of 38.58. It was another tight race, but again Lexy pulled it out with a final BEST time of 38.48. Another pair of goofy glasses and another trophy to add to the collection!

The final event of the season was the 25 Back. A total of 14 girls qualified for this race, including one 6-year-old and five 7-year-olds! Lexy came in second to a girl named Sydney! Lexy's best time was 21.18, and her final time for the year was 22.50.

It was a very satisfying finish to a great short course year for Lexy.

The question now is: What will we do for an entire month now that there is no swimming until April 7???????