Fredonia Killer Whales!

This is the sign that it is officially summer and that we must be headed to a swim meet.

Last weekend we traveled to Fredonia!  It was awesome!  We have competed against them since Shayne was 10 years old but never gone up to their pool to have a meet there.  It was the cutest little swimming pool I'd ever seen.  I reminded me of the movie Sandlot.  It was right next to the park and baseball field.

Before the meet started we walked around to check it out.  This is the scoreboard tower.  Very cool, very old.  They also had tennis courts and a sand volleyball pit.  The playground equipment look relatively new.  They also had a picnic pavilion and bbq area.  It would be a great place to have a family reunion.

These next two pictures are to show how small the pool was.  They are setting up the flag in the first one and the second one is to show close together the flags were.  The kids were told the they could NOT streamline from one end to the other or they'd be disqualified.  They could only go as far as the 2nd flags.  It was so funny.  Also the flags we so far off that it was crazy.  The swimmers use the flags in backstroke to see how many strokes after the flags they need to touch the wall so that they can flip turn correctly and not hit their heads.  Well durning warm up Sophie said that one end was the regular 4 strokes but the other was 9 or 10.  It was pretty funny.  The pool was only 17 meters long instead of the regular 25.  So everyone got great times!  I made sure that we didn't count any of them.  We were basically just there to have fun.  And it was!

Here is David's start to his relay.  We decided that him starting from the side of the pool instead of from a platform worked much better.

This was Ben's backstroke which he excels in.  He is in lane 1 and has John and Krissia right there cheering him on.

He hit the wall in 2nd place but we had no doubt that he'd win it.

He was in first after the turn.

And won it by a body length!

Next up was Josh's backstroke.  He did well too.  Lane 3.

He was first when he hit the wall but Josh's weakness is his flip turns.

This was the end and I think he came in 3rd in his heat and 6th overall.

Here is Sophie.  She took 1st in her heat and 4th overall in backstroke.  I don't know why I didn't get more picture's of her race.  All 4 of them swam so closely together that if you sneezed or heaven forbid have to use the bathroom you missed someone.

This meet they all were signed up for Breaststroke.   It was fun to watch.  Look at David's good little dive.  I was so proud of him.

Next was Ben's.  Breaststroke is not Ben's best stroke.  He took 13th.

Josh was next.  He was in lane 5.  Another funny thing about this pool.  It only has 5 lanes!

Sophie was in lane 2.  The last time she swam breaststroke she was disqualified because of her kick.  She had a weird kick that looked like a scissor kick and so she stopped swimming it.  John convinced her to do it in Fredonia because this was a just for fun meet.  She did great.  After he asked her what the problem was because her kick was perfect.  One of the other coaches earlier in the week asked her if she had broken her leg when she was younger.  Sophie told her yes and she said that she thinks that's why she kicked different.  So she has been helping her change her kick and apparently it worked!  She took 1st in her heat she and Josh both came in 6th overall.

She won her heat buy quite a bit.  It was super fun to watch.  It really helped her confidence in that stroke too.

Here is David's IM.  I don't want to discourage him in this event but today wasn't his best.  He needs to fine tune some of those strokes.

Butterfly first.

Then backstroke.

Breaststroke.

Then freestyle.  This event says a lot about him.  He's a fighter.  He won't give up.  He reminds me a lot of Shayne.  He took 3rd!  out of 3 kids.  He still got a bronze medal and he was super stoked about it.  That was another thing about this meet.  They gave out medals for top three in each event and then ribbons for the rest.  So far all of the other meets have just been ribbons.  My kids LOVE medals.  They have all of the ones they have gotten from running hanging up in their rooms.  But those are for participating...these are for winning! 

Ben placed 8th in his IM.  I don't have any pictures because I video taped it.  I should never do that in a meet.  It didn't even work out and now there is nothing to show for it.  I'd rather have a couple crappy pictures than none at all.

Josh was next in lane 3.  He took 3rd in his heat it was a close finish.

Sophie was in lane 5.  I liked lane 5 because I could get good pictures. 

FLY

BACK

BREAST

FREE!

 

Fredonia's coaches are awesome.  They are the same ones that have been doing it since Shayne was little.  They wanted every team to get a group photo.  I thought it was a great idea.  We never get one taken together and we had quite a bit of out team there.  It was nice.

Here are some bonus pictures.  They are of David diving in.  The second one is AMAZING!  But he kinda belly flopped into the water.  He's getting there!  By the end of the summer he will be the best diver of the family.

David also has picked up a new talent...