State Swim Meet

Our Valentine's Day weekend this year will again be spent down in the cities at the U of M Aquatics Center (not that we would have planned anything special anyway).

Last weekend the boys and I spent Friday night and Saturday in Brainerd for the sections swim meet. Ben had a great meet with a few big personal accomplishments: 1. he dropped time in each of his events 2. He dove off the starting block for each of his events 3. Before his 25 yard butterfly he was smacked in the face and knocked over by another swimmer who was fooling around, and even though he was crying and didn't want to swim I made him swim anyway. He cried until they called his event, wiped his tears away, and swam a great butterfly dropping 1.83 seconds from his time.

For just that Ben should be very proud of himself. But to add to the excitement, Ben has also qualified for the YMCA state swim meet again this year. Last year he swam the freestyle leg of the 100 yard medley relay at the state meet. This year he is swimming freestyle in the 100 yard freestyle relay, and the butterfly leg of the 100 yard medley relay. Even more exciting, he has also qualified for an individual event, the 25 yard butterfly, which is harder to do. We are very proud of him, and he is excited! Plus, being he qualified in his butterfly I can not feel guilty about making him swim despite his injury.

Nate also had a swimming first while swimming at the hotel Friday night. Nate has never been a strong swimmer, has always used floaties, and has been too scared to try swimming on his own. Well at the hotel he swam 5+ feet in the shallow end without touching the wall/floor. He stuck right next to the wall, but he did it (without doing a doggy paddle). I am proud of him for overcoming his nerves to successfully try it.

The Brainerd pool is not really set up to take videos or pictures, but here is a video of the end of Nate's  swim.