State, or Bust!

The Nevada State Swim Meet is every year, and switches from being up north, to down south every 2 years. This year's swim meet was up in Carson City, NV over President's Weekend. With Ian being at the "top" of his age group, he really wanted to swim as many meets as possible leading up to the meet in order to qualify for the meet.

In our team's meet in October, he qualified for his first event, the 100Y backstroke. He also shaved enough time to be close in the 50Y backstroke, and was closing in on qualifying for the 100Y breaststroke and 50Y breaststroke. He decided that he wanted to qualify for as many events as possible, and there was a definite improvement in his work ethic at practice.

In the Last Chance State Qualifier meet at the end of January, Ian qualified in the 50Y backstroke, and even cut off 13 seconds in his 100Y breaststroke (from his October meet) - his "bonus" event. This was a HUGE surprise due to the fact that Ian ended up swimming in only one swim practice due to the pool's yearly closure (4 weeks) and our family vacation. Needless to say, he was very excited.

So, he and Ray drove up north to stay with friends on Friday, February 18th. Luckily, it had just started snowing in Reno, NV when they arrived. Cesira and I ended up flying up since she couldn't miss her classroom's program practice.

Ray was concerned that my & Cesira's flight wasn't going to get in on Saturday morning due to the heavy snow. Well, luckily, the sun was shining on Saturday and there wasn't even a delay.

Ian swam in the 100Y backstroke on Saturday, and ended up getting disqualified in that event, because after his first 25Y, he flipped over onto his stomach to do a flip turn only to realize that he was already at the wall.  Needless to say, we left the meet with an angry 10-year old. He was able to play with friends and relax for the rest of the day.

On Sunday morning, the poor guy still didn't want to swim. I tried a little pep talk (1 less stroke before your flip turn and he'd "kill it" in his 100 breast) - yeah, that helped...Anyway, he had a plan for the 50Y backstroke, and I told him that he'd have an awesome 100Y breaststroke.  

FINAL REPORT: 14th place in 9-10 boys 100Y breaststroke, AND 3 points for the team!

On our drive back, Ian asked me if he could qualify for the meet next year even though he'd be at the bottom of his age group (11-12 year olds). I told him that if he can if he really wants to. He just needs to make it to practice, work hard at practice and swim his best at swim meets. I really hope his experience over the past 4 months has helps him realize that his hard work really paid off.