Amy finally had the breakthrough I've been waiting 2 years for. I knew it would come, just didn't know when. She qualified to swim all the distance freestyles. Her first race was the 1650 yd. free (mile). She started off strong and just kept going. It is so fun to watch her swim. she was seeded 19th going into the race and cut 56 seconds off her time. She went a 20.25 and got 13th, plus qualified for Sr. State, which was her goal. She had the following day off and went up on Friday to swim the 500. I was a little worried because the 1650 is a pretty tough race and I didn't know how much she would have left in her tank, but she managed to drop 7 sec. on that one and went under 6 minutes for the first time with a 5:56, which was another Sr. State time. The last day of the meet I was even more concerned because her arm was hurting, which has bothered her all season, and her stomach hurt and she had to swim the 1000 which is 40 laps. She had a hard time warming up and I knew she was nervous for the race. I figured she had 2 great swims and if she bonked the last one she could still leave happy. Never underestimate a distance swimmer! She took control of her swim right from the start and never let up. She had only qualified for that race 2 weeks prior and had really killed herself to do it, so I wasn't sure how much time she could cut but it ended up being 33 sec. She went a 12.07, another Sr. state time and her very first "A" time!!! She moved up 4 spots in the standings for 15th. Only 4 of the 13-14 girls from our team scored points and Amy was one of them. To top it off she swam the 2nd leg of the 4 x 100 relay that night and dropped 3 seconds off her time. She looked so good that no one recognized her in the water. What a great meet for her. She has worked so hard and it was nice to see it finally paying off. She didn't even qualify as an 11-12 year old and had gotten very discouraged. Scott also swam in the meet. On the first day he cut 3 seconds off his 200 free time and qualified 11th for finals. Then he swam the 200 IM and cut 15 seconds from his time, and just barely missed finals by 1 place. He swam the 4 x 50 relay as the anchor and swam such a fast time, catching the kid in the lane next to him. Everyone was so excited for him, but it seemed like that day really wiped him out because he didn't swim well in finals and the rest of the meet just wasn't quite there. His birthday is at the worst time because next year he'll move up to the 11-12 age group the week before state. But he still has a lot of years left to get it right.
Amy with her 4 x 100 relay. All 4 girls had best times
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