TAAF Summer Games of Texas 2019

It's been a long summer swimming for these 2 girls, but they finally wrapped up their summer swim team by racing in the state meet this past weekend. For the 2nd year in a row, we drove to College Station where the TAAF Summer Games of Texas were held on campus at Texas A&M University:

We all knew what to expect since we had done it before, even these girls. We didn't ask them to do this, they just did it!

Can you tell we have brain washed them?!

We drove down on Friday but kept it low key that night. Saturday morning, we ate a big breakfast & then headed to the natatorium to check in, pick up their athlete badges & take pictures:

Last year they had this awesome backdrop where we took pictures & this year they didn't. But we took pictures anyway, especially since they had their own cheering section who drove down to support them:

The games run for several days & the swimming events are divided by age groups, so the younger girls swam on Saturday afternoon at 2:00. Thankfully both of the girls swam at the same time. Roll call with their coach was at 12:30 but we got there a few minutes earlier to meet up with some of their friends. The athletes go in a separate door to the water by themselves & then we don't get to see them again for the rest of the meet so it's kind of intimidating for them to go by themselves:

I was able to sneak over to their general area just to make sure they got set up with their team. I found Sadie right away with Vivian:

They both swam state last year so you could tell they were more confident this year. Sophie on the other hand didn't have a clue what was going on because she had already settled in with her iPad with her friend:

They both warmed up with the team & then Sadie had the first race of the day - the 100m medley relay. It was the same relay teams from their regional meet - we had 4 & Sadie made relay B. She was the first leg & she swam the backstroke. She had an awesome entry & had their team at the front. It's hard to tell because she was on the very far lane, but you can see from her start how good she did:

At state, the top 3 medal & the top 8 get ribbons. They definitely weren't on the podium to medal, but they easily would have gotten a ribbon, but out of the 20 teams that swam, 6 of them got disqualified, including ours :( We were so disappointed. It wasn't Sadie's fault, but of course there is nothing you can do when it is a team event. She swam awesome though & we were hoping she would do the exact same thing in her individual event, which was the 25m backstroke. There were 38 girls & 5 heats. Sadie won her heat & she swam strong. In fact, she swam her best time ever - 21.62 seconds. She dropped her time by 1.39 seconds. There was 1 more heat to go & her time was better than a few on the board so we thought she got 7th or 8th place, so again, not a medal, but a ribbon. Needless to say we were shocked when the final results posted because all of the times in the final heat changed & it bumped her to 9th place. She literally missed a ribbon by .3 seconds. Ugh. But we couldn't have been prouder. She mostly lost to 8 year olds since she is swimming up & she swam her personal best so how can you not be proud of that?!

We had a long break after that because both of the girls swim the 100 m freestyle relay, which is the last event of the day. Sadie's team swam first. Again, she was on the B relay & she was the first leg:

Unfortunately, every swim had the girls on the far lane of the pool so I could not get good pictures:

I'm not sure what happened but she is usually the first off the block but she didn't seem quite ready so you can tell her start was in the middle of the pack - not the first off but not the slowest. She made up for it with her strokes though & her team ended up getting 6th out of 24. Finally - a ribbon!

After waiting several hours, Sophie & her friends finally got their chance:

They also swam the 100m freestyle relay. I had a hard time getting pictures of her swim but I can say they did better than we thought, dropped their time by almost 5 seconds & it ended up getting 7th place out of 12 - not too bad for this little 5 year old who tried swimming for the first time! So it worked out perfectly for both of our girls to get ribbons:

I have to say a big thanks to both sets of grandparents for driving to College Station & cheering them on. It really means a lot to the girls to have such a great support system:

When we finally left, we headed to get Mexican food so they could eat & after we headed to get ice cream:

These girls were hungry & they earned every bite!

When we got back to our hotel, they wanted to swim. Again! 

It's a little more fun without the pressure of competing! 

It has been a long, fun summer & I am so proud of the time & energy these girls have given to swim team, but boy am I glad it is over! Ha! They love swimming but I think it's time for a break. They are excited to play other sports in the fall & then we will re-evaluate swimming in the spring.