Marlins Swimming

Today was our first swim meet of the season.

It was at University Pool and we swam against Lake Charles Country Club 

and Lake Charles Racquet Club.

These boys were pumped and ready to go!

Tristan swam the 50 Free in a personal best time ever of  27.26, 

and placed second overall in the Boys 15 and Over category.

He looked awesome and was tied for first with the best swimmer on his high school and summer league teams, Mason, at the flip turn, but was unable to stay with him after that.  I was so happy and surprised to see Tristan keeping up with him.  I've never seen Tristan swim with Mason like that, so I've never noticed that is as good as Mason!

I noticed though, that Tristan needs lots of work on his flip turn, because this is where Mason pulled away from Tristan and ended up beating him back to the wall by not quite two seconds.  Tristan could really be competitive in a way I don't think he has ever thought that he would be if he could fix his flip turn.  

Like placing at high school state competition good.

Tristan did beat one boy that I was secretly very happy to see.  A boy that Tristan was beating last year in high school swim, but who was chosen over Tristan to swim on the state relay teams due to swim politics, which I absolutely HATE!  The coaches were supposed to keep Tristan in the relays, where he should have been all along, but took him out.  They promised to have Tristan challenge Nick to prove Tristan was the better swimmer, and then put him back in, but it never happened.  It's really a long story, but for me, this was the long awaited challenge swim-off and Tristan came out on top.  It was extremely satisfying!

Tristan also swam the 50 Breaststroke in 40.44, another personal best, placing third.

Tristan has a beautiful breaststroke and I love to watch him swim it.

Ethan is the bomb-diggity!  He is swimming in a new age group this year, the Boys 9-10 year olds, and he is hanging in there.  He is one of the youngest kids on the team in his age group and he is beating the older boys.  He swam the 25 Free for a personal best of 20.89, placing 7th, just shy of receiving a ribbon.

He also swam the 25 Fly for the first time and was awesome!  How that child is so good at the butterfly in such a short amount of time is simply amazing to me.  He placed 2nd with a time of 30.15.

Ethan is the second best butterflier in his age group and was chosen to be on the B-Medley Relay as the Flier!  He did so great and his relay team placed second with a time of 1:45.47, right behind the Marlins A-Relay Team.  I'm sure that next year, or maybe even before the summer is over, 

he's going to be on that A-Team!   

Ethan's third individual event was one of his favorites, the backstroke!

He placed 4th with a time of  25.50, taking off 1.59 from last year.  

He had a super start and only went crooked for a little bit before correcting himself.

He also swam in a 10 and Under Freestyle Relay.

He was not scheduled for it, but a child left early leaving an open spot and the coaches put Ethan in.

He helped them earn a 3rd place ribbon with a time of 1:54.17.

Ethan on the ready bench with his friends, Maddison, Ethan Vest, Abel, John Robert, James, Holly, Candace, Katie, and Lucy, all waiting to be called up for the relays.

In case you can not tell, Ethan is the goof with the purple cap over his eyes!

Tristan taking off for the Fly!

He has really worked hard on getting this stroke right and it has paid off tremendously!
He placed 2nd with a time of 33.49, taking off fifteen seconds from his 50 Fly last summer.

Coach Stephanie is so excited that SHHS will now have a Fly swimmer to replace the one that graduated last year.  He did so awesome!!

Tristan also swam on the A-Medley Relay in the Breaststroke, 

helping his team make an amazing comeback for 1st Place with a time of  2:18.13.  

He also swam on the A-Freestyle Team for 1st place with a time of 1:49.50.  

It was a great first meet and I was so happy for my boys.

Watching them swim is so much fun and seeing them be successful is just wonderful!