The First "Real" Meet

Braden's first "REAL" swim meet was this weekend. 6 clubs from around the area (the team with the longest drive drove for 3 hours) joined us at our pool for the meet. This spanned 3 days, included several teams, and involved judges, timers, and the cool touch-pads at the ends of the lanes for the kids to hit as they finish.

We did this one mostly for the experience. Braden has learned a lot over the summer, but needed to get a bit used to competition. It was a little nerve-racking at times, but he did very well.

He swam the 100 yd. Freestyle and 100 yd. Backstroke for the first time ever. He placed 3rd in his heat in the backstroke! He also swam the 50 yd. freesyle and shaved 10 seconds off of his time from July. He swam another 50 freestyle in his age group 200 IM relay, and they placed 4th.

He was scheduled for 2 other races, but because of time changes we were not able to attend. He was disappointed, because his best and favorite stroke is the backstroke, and that was one of the races we missed. But I think this weekend whet his appetite for these meets, which add more excitement to the endless laps done in practices.