1st LONG COURSE MEET!

200 m Backstroke-3:26 min


Haylea had her first Long Course Swim Meet in Bozeman this past weekend. For those of you who have no idea what "Long Course" means: Well, last fall and winter they swam Short Course-which is a 25 yard pool. This is what they practice in and what they are used to. All of the meets they attended were 25 yard pools. Long Course is a 50 meter pool-just like the one in the Olympics! So it is longer and harder for them because their arms do not get a break during a flip turn which they normally would have in a 25 yard pool. So this weekend was the first 50 meter pool Haylea has even seen or swam in. There is a big difference in the pools! And Haylea found out exactly what it was like to swim in it! She swam the 400 freestyle (down AND back 4 times)!! She did AWESOME!! Especially for her first time swimming that distance and in a meter pool. She also swam the 50 Fly--if you know anything about swimming, the Fly is very difficult and to go 50 meters without a break at a wall for a turn is very hard! She did very well it that event too! She came within 3 seconds of qualifying for state in the 100 backstroke and 1 second away from qualifying in the 50 backstroke. They have "motivational" times to train for and they are classified a B, BB, A, AA, AAA, AAAA times. The BB times are qualifiers for state. The B times are times to shoot for b/c if they qualify for state in ONE event, but have B times in other events, they can swim those events at state. Haylea had qualified for state in Short Course and was going to swim in 7 individual events and 3 relays back in March-BUT she became very sick the week of state and was unable to swim. Also, she turned 11 in April so now she moved up to 11-12 year olds-all the hard work she put into qualifying for state as a 10 year old was voided out from being sick!! Now her qualifying times are A LOT faster! So Haylea has 2-B times and just seconds off BB times for state. She was also promoted to the next practice team. She has been practicing in the Advanced Beginner group 1 hr 15 min 3-4 days per week. She will now be in Age group which practices 3 days a week @ 1 1/2 hrs each. This promotion will allow her to swim with faster swimmers and swim more at each practice. This will help her qualify for state at the next Long Course meet. This is also important b/c you can only qualify for state at a Long Course meet and we will only go to one more meet. Hopefully she can get at least 1 state time! Well I have taken up too much time already-We hope all is well with all of you and we miss and love you all!

50 Fr--:39.58 sec (39.19 is a B time)
100 FR--1:28.13 (1:25.79 is a B time)
400 Fr--6:58.66 (6:27.79 is a B time)
100 Back--1:35.07 (1:31.09 is a BB-state time)
200 Back--3:26.01 (3:15 is a BB-state time)
50 Fly--:47.02 (:42.39 is a B time)
50 Back--:? can't remember, it was the last race so I didn't wait for the official time. I think it was :42.?? She was very close to a state time which is :42.29.

I hope I didn't confuse or bore you with all the numbers, but it is hard to understand sometimes!


Just after the turn on the 200 backstroke!


The start before the 200 backstroke...long race (up AND back 2 times)--She almost qualified for State!!! The backstroke is her strongest stroke.....


All smiles BEFORE the 400 Free! YIKES...by the way she swam the 400fr in 6:58 minutes!!


Swimming the 100 Freestyle-1:28 min


Finishing up the 50 Fly! At the end she is getting tired, but she did GREAT! I was so so proud of her!! :47.02 secs


50 Fly! She did great! She had great form all the way! Got tired at the end--I don't blame her!