GKAISA City Swim Meet

Well summer swim season is over, and it was a good one! Rachel had a slightly disappointing ending to her season, but she still did remarkable this year! At the GKAISA meet this week-end there were over 2,000 swimmers! Rachel finished up yesterday 10th in backstroke, 11th in butterfly, and her freestyle relay team finished 13th. That's pretty awesome! She's a 9 year old in the 9 & 10 division. Only six 9 year olds made the finals in more than one individual event, so Rachel is one of the top swimmers her age in this entire area! I keep telling her even though she's disappointed in her swims this week-end, she still did AWESOME!!!

Rachel started off the meet yesterday by singing the National Anthem. She did an awesome job!! I was in the stands watching & recording her, and Robert was in the press box with her watching & recording her. It was broadcast throughout the Aquatic Center and to all the tents set up outside, so everyone heard it!

This is Robert's view of Rachel singing in the press box:





This is my view of Rachel singing from the stands:

GKAISA City Swim Meet - Preliminaries

Well, today was the preliminaries for the GKAISA City Swim Meet. Rachel had some pretty high hopes going into today. The top 16 from each event advance to the finals tomorrow. Rachel was seeded in the top 16 in 3 of her 4 events, and was hoping to move up into the top 16 in her 4th event (freestyle). She had a pretty good day (especially for a 9 year old in the 9 & 10 year old division). She ended up making the finals in her backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle relay! She didn't quite swim well enough to make the finals in her freestyle, but you can't be perfect!!! She finished 9th in butterfly, 12th in backstroke, and 12th in freestyle relay. The top 8 compete for 1st - 8th place, and the next 8 compete for 9th - 16th place. So we're hoping she can hang onto that 9th place in butterfly, and move up to 9th in her backstroke and freestyle relay!

On another note, Rachel will be singing the National Anthem tomorrow at the swim meet!!! They had auditions for it. They suggest they would like a big kid (11 & older) for the Friday preliminaries; a little kid (10 & under) for Saturday preliminaries; and then a 17/18 year old who is competing in their last year to sing on Sunday for the finals. When the guy called us back about the audition, he told us Rachel did such a WONDERFUL job that he would like for her to sing on Sunday since it's such an important day! How cool is that?!?!?!! She gets to swim in 3 finals AND sing the National Anthem!!!

It's Time for the GKAISA City Meet!!!

The GKAISA City Swim Meet started today. The kids 11 and older swam today; the kids 10 and under will swim tomorrow; and then those who finished in the top 16 of their events will compete in the finals on Sunday. This is a HUGE swim meet that is held at the UT Aquatic Center. Teams from all over East TN participate in this meet. There are well over 2,000 swimmers that will be competing this week-end! Rachel has had great success at this meet in the past. In her very first year of swimming as a 7-year old (2009), she made the finals in the 8 & under girls division in 3 of her 4 events! (You're only allowed to swim in up to 4 events.) Last year as an 8 year old, she finished 1st in backstroke, 4th in butterfly, and 7th in freestyle in the 8 & under girls division, and 10th in the co-ed freestyle relay in the 9 & 10 year old division (we didn't have enough 8 & unders to make a relay team, so she swam up an age division). So we've been telling her this is her pool!!! This year she had to move up to the 9 & 10 year old division, so we knew competition would be very tough! Going into tomorrow, she is seeded 5th out of 77 in butterfly, 8th out of 144 in backstroke, and 17th out of 208 in freestyle. That makes her the top 9 year old in butterfly, the top 9 year old in backstroke, and the 5th 9 year old in freestyle! Not too bad! Her freestyle relay team is seeded 11th out of 47 teams. We're excited about tomorrow and hoping for great finishes!!!

Swim Meet - July 19, 2011

We had our last regular season league swim meet on Tuesday night. It was a tough meet, but our team won 310 - 300! Rachel had a decent night- not her best, but not her worst. She finished 1st in butterfly, 1st in medley relay, 1st in freestyle relay, 2nd in backstroke, and 3rd in freestyle.

Oak Ridge Atomic Kids Triathlon

Rachel competed in the Oak Ridge Atomic Kids Triathlon this past week-end. It consisted of a 200 yard swim, a 2 mile bike ride, and a 1 mile run. She did a great job and came in 1st in the 9 & 10 year old girls division!!!

Playdate with Abby & Melissa

Smoky Mountain Swim Meet - 2011

Rachel competed in the 2011 Smoky Mountain Swim Meet this past week-end. Last year she competed in the 8 & under age group and did really well, finishing 1st (backstroke), 4th (butterfly), 6th (freestyle), and 6th (individual medley). This year she had to move up to compete in the 9 & 10 division, which we knew would be tough. She ended up finishing 4th in butterfly, tied for 7th in backstroke, and 15th in freestyle. Her relay team ended up 9th. Even though that's actually really good for a 9 year old, she was pretty disappointed because all of her times were slow. She was a second or more off of her normal times. And in her backstroke, she actually swam slower this year than she did at the same pool last year. If she could've just swam her normal times, she would've been 3rd in both back & fly. Her relay team was about 5 seconds slower than their time they swam week before last. On one hand it was a disappointing day for Rachel, but on the other hand, she has to remember that she still finished in the top, and she's only a 9 year old! She was the top 9 year old finisher in butterfly, the 3rd top 9 year old finisher in the freestyle, and the 5th top 9 year old finisher in the backstroke - and that's with her having a bad day! I hope she can forget about her "slow" times this week-end, and go out and swim great the last two league meets we have and then rock the City Meet at UT in two weeks!!!

Play Date Fun with Karly & Joy

The girls each had a friend over this afternoon for a play date. Rachel invited her friend Karly over, and Katelyn invited her friend Joy over. They played outside for a short time, but then decided it was too hot!! They've been hanging out inside ever since! But they've made fleece pillows and are now working on some other craft project. Lots of fun!

Fall Creek Falls - July 2011