2010 Michigan 12 & Under Short Course State Championships

It is with great pride in Lexy's achievements this season that we find ourselves at the Short Course State meet at Waterford Mott High School in Waterford, Michigan.

Just a handful of swimmers from Lexy's team made qualifying cuts, so we went into this meet very aware of what a special honor it is.

Lexy's first event at the meet starting Friday was the 500 freestyle -- 20 laps in a 25 yard pool. She qualified for this event just a few short weeks ago at the Michigan Open, beating the qualifiying time by 7 seconds. I chose not to video this event because it does get to be quite long (seven minutes)!

Here's Lexy, waiting for the start.

Lexy swam a good race. Her turns looked good, and she did a dolphin kick off the wall a few times, which is important. While she finished a few seconds slower than her qualifying time, her overall ranking went up to 27 out of 35.

Here she is after her race: still smiling!

On Saturday, we went back for the balance of Lexy's races: the 200 Free and the 100 Breaststroke. In both races, she was seeded last or next to last. Her goals for the day were to improve her standing in the rankings.

In the 200 Free, she swam strong, finishing with a 2:30.80, right on her qualifing time and better than the time she got at Junior Olympics. She finished ranked 18th of 25, and was second alternate to swim the Finals if anyone in the top 16 scratched from the Finals. Unfortunately no one scratched, so she didn't get to swim in the final.

Watch Lexy swim the 200 Free:

In her last event, the 100 Breaststroke, she finished about one second slower than her qualifying time, next to last in the rankings.

Watch Lexy swim the 100 Breast:

Overall, Lexy had a great season, qualifying for three events and getting to participate in the short course state meet for the first time. Now Lexy gets a much-deserved break before the next season starts.

Junior Olympics, March 6, 2010

It turns out that it is hard to describe the Junior Olympics swim meet. For that reason, I'm going to quote the meet program's description: "The Junior Olympics meet is the middle level meet (above Districts and below State Meets) of the Michigan Swimming, Inc. Championship Meets. Thus, it is a "Faster than/Slower than" stated time standard swim meet." To enter this meet, Lexy needed to have "Q2" times, which are faster than an "A" time but slower than a Q1, or state, time. Confused? No worries. It was a fun day.

One of the reasons kids choose to swim the Junior Olympics (other than to say they did it!) is to try to better their Q2 times to Q1 times. Lexy is close to a Q1 on a lot of her times, and if she were able to get Q1 times in any event she swam today, she would automatically qualify to swim that event at the state meet next weekend.

Her first event, the 50 Free (two lengths), is one she has been struggling with all season. Lexy has proven herself to be a good endurance swimmer, less so a sprinter. She has been sitting at a best time of 33.53 for a few months for the 50 Free and, for this event, was seeded last out of 27 qualified swimmers. Today, by some miracle, she finally dropped half a second to finish at 33 seconds flat, in 18th place. The Q1 time was 31.69, so we didn't get there today, but this drop of half second was a huge accomplishment. Great job Lex!

Watch Lexy swim the 50 Free:

Next up, and without much rest time between events, was the 100 IM. Lexy went into this event with a 1:23.60 and needed a 1:19.99. She was seeded 13th, but we didn't think there was much chance for her to drop more than four seconds. This is another event where Lexy hasn't been able to take time off. I attribute this primarily to the fact that her transitions in and out of the backstroke aren't that strong. She finished a little slower today (not more than a second) and in 24th place. Still, a very strong finish.

Watch Lexy swim the 100 I.M.:

Now came the event where we knew Lexy could shine. She has been dropping time all season, but started plateauing about six weeks ago. A couple of times she even added a second or two. When we looked at the list of seeded swimmers, Lexy was seeded first! She was going into the event with a 2:32.13, and needed a 2.31.59 to qualify for States. She needed to drop a little more than half a second.

She pulled it out! Lexy came through and finished at 2:30.91, and third overall. We were thrilled that we were able to finish this meet on such a high note.

Here's Lexy sporting her third place medal!

Watch parts 1 & 2 of Lexy swimming the 200 Freestyle (8 lengths):

We will be back in the pool tomorrow (Sunday), to swim in the League championship meet at Dow High School. Lexy has a few more chances to get qualifying times and achieve personal bests before States next weekend!

Michigan Open, Feb 12-14, 2010

This was Lexy's first trip to the Michigan Open, a meet for swimmers with "A" times. Lexy was qualified to swim 9 events in this meet. There are only two meets left in the season now: the Junior Olympics and the short course state meet. The swimmers in the meet this weekend were trying to improve their times, either to a Q1 (state meet) or Q2 (junior olympics). Q1 is faster than Q2.

The weekend started very well, with Lexy dropping 33 seconds in the 500 Freestyle, her Friday night event. This qualified her for the state meet with a Q1 time! She iss now qualified to swim three events at states, which is my minimum to make the trip.

On Saturday Lexy swam four individual events: 200 Free, 100 IM, 100 Fly and 100 Breast. Lexy already has Q1 times in the last two, so she was going for faster times in the first two. She swam solidly in both the other events, but still not enough for the Q1. She can swim them at JO's and try again.

Saturday we went for a good pasta dinner to get Lexy revved up with carbs for Sunday (and to celebrate Valentine's Day). Lelli's in Auburn Hills was a welcome surprise.

Sunday started with the 200 IM. Lex needed to drop 12 seconds for the Q1. She dropped an amazing 6 and a half, to finish at 3:00.13. Her times in the 50 free, the 100 Free and the 50 breast were all good, but none earned her spots at states. She will swim those at JO's and, if she makes the Q1, can go on to swim those events at states.

As a family, we feel so fortunate to be able to go to these special meets to cheer Lexy on. She is a talented swimmer and we will continue this as long as she continues to enjoy the sport.

May I Please Have Second(s)?

At this year's BAYS Valentine's Day Invitational, we were seeing red. Not because things were going poorly, not at all. Red is the color of every ribbon Lexy will get for today's meet.

Lexy swam six events total and, every time, came in second. That goes for both relays as well as her four individual events.

We don't usually focus too much on Lexy's place in races. Usually it's whether she bettered her time -- that's what's really important. A couple of years ago, when she swam 8 & Under at the MTSL championships, she took first in everything, and Ed was so surprised when he came home to four 1st place tropies.

But 10 is a long way from 8.

Lexy's first event today was the 200 Freestyle -- one of her better events. She's good at the endurance races, less so in the sprints. Her last best time was 2:35.90, and she needed 2:31.59 to get a state qualifying time. She did better her time by nearly 4 seconds, finishing at 2:32.13. She was neck and neck with her teammate, Jenny Yu, the whole time, but at the end Jenny finished with a 2:29, sealing the win.

The 100 IM was next, which has always been a strong event for Lexy. Jenny and Lexy were the top two seeds, with times only two seconds apart. But Jenny Yu is CRAZY fast at backstroke, and it's a weak stroke for Lexy. So, second place again.

In the 50 Free, there were three people seeded faster than Lexy, and even though Lexy swam it one second slower than usual, she took second!

Lastly, she swam the 50 breaststroke. This is Lexy's strongest stroke, and she and Jenny Yu were the top two seeds again, with Jenny two seconds faster. Lexy dropped the two seconds to finish at 42.89, but Jenny was just on fire today, finishing first again. Lexy had to be content with second yet again.

I definitely do not want to sound disappointed about second place. There have been some meets where Lexy has finished at or near the bottom of the pack. We are very pleased with how well she has been swimming. Most of all, I am so glad she has been hitting her turns! All the extra attention paid to the turns has paid dividends in dropped time. Way to go Lexy!!

Lastly, there are no videos again this week for a couple reasons: first, my preferred video capture device had a nervous breakdown. Second, I used my backup video capture device (my phone) but cannot upload those to YouTube. Boo. Hiss.

See you next week at the Michigan Open!!

Thumb, Pre-Dawn

Last year about this time, we made our way to Caro, Mich., in the thumb of the mitten. Unlike last year, this time the weather cooperated and, even though we left early anticipating snowy roads and blowing snow, it was a lovely morning. We saw the sun come up over a "hill", though at this time of year the sun doesn't officially rise until sometime after 8.

This year, I was ready for the difference in pool length (Meters vs. Yards), and asked Sydney to convert Lexy's times for me as she finished so we could compare apples to apples. Lexy swam a relay and three individual events, and had a great day!

I didn't take video this year, as this pool tends to be poorly lit. Good thing too, because I was just cheering away, and I think you would find it somewhat distracting.

In the 200 Medley Relay, Lexy was in her glory in the breaststroke leg. The first swimmer, doing backstroke, fell behind the other teams, but she is a relatively small 9-year old. Lexy dived in and made up the shortfall during the breaststroke leg, and I think the girls came in second.

Lexy's second event was the 100 I.M., and her only real competiton was a girl from the Bay City team, who has always given Lex a run for her money. This year, however, Lexy was right in the game, and finished just half a second behind the Bay City swimmer and four seconds faster than her best time!

In the 50 Free, Lexy finished first, and was right on her regular time. In the 50 Breaststroke, she also finished first, narrowly edging her teammate Jenny, and finishing a few seconds faster than her best time. I'm waiting to see the official times from the coaches before I update her times.

Jingle, Jangle, Jingle! I Can Hear Those Medals Ring. . .

The Midland Dolphin Invitational is always a great way to close out the calendar year of swimming. It is also always bitterly cold! This morning it was 11 degrees with a wind chill of "duh." What better way to spend a frigid morning than to invite a couple hundred kids to come swim in the Dow High Pool!

And yes, Lexy did swim six events today and she walked out, as did many of her friends, with six medals around her neck clanging away. While they are not exactly j-i-n-g-l-e bells, they are music to most kids' ears.

The two first place medals represented the two wins with her relay team, but much more meaningful were Lexy's green, fifth place medals. Both of these represent the two best times that Lex achieved today. In the 50 free, she dropped half a second to 33.53, but in the 50 Fly she had a huge, 2.5 second drop, to 40.10.

I never dreamed I'd be a "sports mom." I was never athletic as a kid. But I can say that being a part of Midland Dolphins is truly a gift to the Midland Community and to every kid and adult who has ever proudly worn the Midland Dolphins team suit or T-shirt. Being part of a group like this is one of the best gifts you can give your kids, and your family.

From all of us here in Midland, Michigan, to all of you, wherever you are, Merry Christmas and a Swimmy New Year! Thanks for reading.

Snow. . .Slow

A big part of the fun (for me) of going to away meets is visiting new communities in Michigan. This was our first trip to the EGRA meet, which is located in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. We don't normally swim on the western side of the state, so I was really looking forward to it. Lexy was looking forward to seeing snow! It's been such a warm autumn, that we haven't had any significant snowfall yet. We had heard that the west side of the state was getting lake effect snow off of Lake Michigan, but they only had three or four inches -- definitely not significant by a Michiganders standards.

East Grand Rapids is a suburb of Grand Rapids, one of Michigan's largest cities. Even in the pre-dawn early morning, we could see the beautiful homes and the delightful shopping area known as Gaslight Village. They had real, working gaslights, heated, ice-free sidewalks, and Christmas carols playing on outdoor speakers to add to the holiday ambiance. I want to go back when I can enjoy the little village.

If it feels like I'm taking a long time getting to a summary of the meet, there's a good reason for that -- which I tried to hint at in the title of this post. We expect a rough meet every once in a while, and boy, was this one rough! There were no best times this weekend. In fact, Lexy was a good measure slower than she has been. We're not sure what to attribute this to, but we're just going to chalk it up to being tired.

Instead of talking about her best events, this time I'm going to focus on her worst. Lexy's not a big fan of the 100 Fly, but she swims it without complaining. There are not too many kids who want to put themselves through the rigor of this event. Consider the following evidence. On Saturday morning, the first event was the 100 Freestyle. This is a very popular event, so popular in fact there were 119 girls age 10 & under who entered to swim it. In addition to that, there were 45 entries from 10 & under boys. Factoring in swimmers who didn't show up, and the fact that the pool was configured for 8 lanes, there were 21 heats of this event.

Compare this to the entries for the 100 Fly: 14 girls and 5 boys. There were three heats. Of these 19 kids, five have Q1 (state qualifying times) and Lexy is one of them.

The event, consisting of four lengths of butterfly, started well, but at the end of the first length, the fire alarms went off. I found out later that the T-shirt purveyor in the lobby was using a silk screen machine that was so hot it was giving off smoke, which set off the alarms. Imagine the concern of the parents of several hundred kids who wondered, for about a minute, how we were going to evacuate all those wet kids who didn't have ready access to shoes in freezing temps! The meet hosts confirmed quickly that it was a false alarm and the kids in the pool (Lexy included) just kept on swimming.

The results showed that Lexy finished her 100 Fly 15 seconds slower than her best time. I immediately attributed this to the fire alarm distraction, but Lexy later confirmed that she never heard the fire alarm -- she was just tired! So much for the distraction theory.

In the end, Lexy had a couple of decent events, but as I said, no best times. The camera angles at this meet were such that I didn't bother taking video -- it was always hard to tell where she was.

What I did learn is that Lexy has two Q1 times and four Q2's. The Q2s mean that she can swim those events at the Junior Olympics in March. This is really great, and it will be the first time that Lexy can participate in that meet.

We've got one more meet before the holidays, the Dolphin Invitational right here in Midland. Then we don't swim again until after the first of the year. Overall, Lex is having a great year and this one anomaly can be forgotten.