Swim Meet: 6/15/10

Rachel had her first swim meet of the season on Tuesday night. It was a tri-meet, which means there were three teams competing. It counts as 2 meets for each team. Rachel was in 5 different events. She competed in the 8 & under 100m individual medley, 8 & under 25m freestyle, 8 & under 25m backstroke, 8 & under 25m butterfly, and 9 & 10 year old freestyle relay. The first event of the night was her 100m individual medley, which consists of 25m of butterfly, 25m of backstroke, 25m of breast stroke, and 25m of freestyle. Rachel started out strong and had a good lead after the butterfly and backstroke portion. When she made the turn to start the breast stroke, she evidently got a mouthful of water and got choked. She tried to continue, but you could tell something wasn't quite right. She finally actually stopped and stood up, crying and coughing. She made it the end and got out of the pool. She was so upset. I think she got scared too because she was having a hard time catching her breath because she was choked, but it reminded her of one of her asthma attacks. I hate that it happened because she had a pretty good lead and the freestyle is the last leg of the IM and Rachel is pretty strong in the freestyle, so I feel like she would definitely have won the event. I hope she doesn't let it affect her the next time she does the 100m IM; I don't want her thinking about it and wondering if she's going to get choked again.

I must say that Rachel was able to overcome that little setback and continue with her other events. She won 1st place in the 25m freestyle, 25m butterfly, and 25m backstroke!!! She swam so well!!!

There was only one freestyle relay team (Rachel's team) so they won 1st place in that too! Rachel swims in the 8&under division, but for the relays, you are allowed to let one swimmer move up one division. So Rachel actually moved up and swam with the 9&10 year old girls. The fun thing is that there was also only one freestyle relay team in the boys 9&10 year old division, and that was from our team. So they let them actually swim at the same time and "race" against each other. The girls relay team actually beat the boys relay team! Girl power!!!

It ended up being a good night for Rachel and her team. They won against each of the visiting teams, so we're 2-0 for the season! And Rachel won four 1st place ribbons!!! Her next meet is Tuesday. I can't wait!!!