TAAF Regionals 2019

I haven't posted much about swim team but it has pretty much dominated our summer. The girls have practiced Monday - Thursday for 1 hour every morning when they could, which was most weeks except for when they were at VBS or they were at camp. They have swam in 5 swim meets over the weekends & both qualified to swim at the regional swim meet which was yesterday:

You have to beat a certain time in order to swim regionals & luckily both of them qualified. Sophie's age group has less participants so she is allowed to swim the 25 meter backstroke, freestyle & 1 relay. Sadie's age group is restrictive & they can only choose 1 individual event & then they can swim 2 relays. Regionals is such a big meet they divide it in to 2 sessions - an early meet for the older kids & an afternoon meet for the younger kids. Thank goodness - we have had some early mornings but yesterday they didn't have to be there until 2:00. These girls had their own cheering section also because both sets of grandparents were there:

The meet started with Sadie. There are 50 girls just on our Frisco swim team in her age group & only 16 girls make a relay - FASST A, B, C & D. She was ranked 5th so she was the first alternate for A & ultimately swam for B. Her start was amazing! 

That is her in the red swim cap, middle of the pool. Look at her form & how far out she is compared to her competitors! She killed the competition, even our A team & had their relay in 1st place. Unfortunately, 2 of the girls got mixed up & swam different strokes so they eventually fell behind & ended up getting 4th place overall, but guess how many go to state - the top 5, so she made it!

Next up, Sophie's first race of the day. She swam the 25 meter backstroke & freestyle. Now remember, she is swimming with 5 & 6 year olds so she is one of the youngest out there. We knew her time wouldn't come close to qualifying her for state but we were just proud she made it this far! And I was even more proud because it was the first time in competition that she went off the block:

You can't really see, but that's her little white swim cap sticking up in the middle behind the flags with our swim coach behind her. Jumping off the block created such momentum for her that she got a great start also & she shaved time off of her best race so far this year. She got 2nd place in her heat for freestyle & she was so excited!

She ended up getting 20 out of 28 for the backstroke & 25 out of 35 for the freestyle. But she shaved 5 seconds off of her freestyle! We were so proud of her!

We had a hard decision with Sadie since she could only swim 1 individual event. She is pretty strong at the backstroke & the freestyle but ultimately, we felt like her backstroke was her stronger swim & she had a better shot at qualifying for state with that. Again, she did phenomenal! Her start was beautiful, she finished strong & ended up getting 6th place out of 59 girls. She dropped her time by 0.46 seconds & since she competed with 7 & 8 year olds, she was the only 7 year old to crack the top 20. Unfortunately, only the top 5 go to state to she literally missed it by a half a second, but we are unbelievably proud of her! This girl never cracks under pressure - she thrives on it!

Finally, both of the girls qualified to swim the 100 meter freestyle relay. Sophie was up first & she was the 3rd leg. Again, she jumped off the block which helped her time:

Can you see her up there?! She says that she dives, but she really puts her hands up so she looks like she is going to dive but then she just jumps in :) They ended up getting 3rd place but there were only 4 teams so technically she qualified for state!

Finally, our last swim of the day was Sadie's 100 meter freestyle relay. To be honest, she has consistently been one of the top freestyle swimmers in her age group so I really thought she would make the A team, but again, she was placed 5th so she was the 1st alternate for A but she ended up swimming B. Again, I can't help but brag, but her start was amazing! I mean literally, your starts & finishes are what make the difference when you are talking about seconds in a race. Look at this picture - she clearly had the lead off the starting block:

That's her in the red swim cap with her head sticking out the farthest. And the next picture all you see is her splash because she was the first in the water:

In a surprising twist, her B team ended up coming in 2nd & beating our A team! It was AWESOME! 

After a long meet we got to celebrate afterwards when they got their rewards. Ribbons are passed out to those who make the top 8, medals for those in the top 3 & swimmers who qualify for state get a red 2019 state swim cap. Sophie did not receive any ribbons for her individual races but she got a bronze medal with her relay team:

Sadie got a ribbon for 4th place for the medley relay, a 6th place ribbon for her individual backstroke & a silver medal for her freestyle relay:

Can you tell they are just a little bit excited?!

They work so hard & sacrifice most of their summer to swim so I am unbelievably proud of what they accomplished. Especially Sophie! When she started this, she said she just wanted to practice swimming & didn't want to compete but she has came so far. I cannot wait to see both of the girls in action when they swim at the state meet in 2 weeks. Texas A&M - here we come!