County Conferences & Finals

Before we left for summer vacation, Emily swam in the County Conferences.

She swam freestyle, breaststroke and in the relay.

This thing was HUGE. So many clubs, a gazzillion swimmers & parents, lots of vendors. The atmosphere was charged with excitement. I was really glad I'd hired a babysitter for the day for Jacob & Jane. It was chaos there, and just keeping track of Emily and when she needed to swim was enough, I would have hated to have to keep an eye on Mr. Mischief & his sidekick too.

There were 60 - 80 kids in each race, so they had 8 - 10 heats for each event. Considering each club was only allowed to bring their 2 fastest swimmers for each event - that's a lot of clubs!

A little nervous - waiting to begin. (Right of picture in black & blue suit.)

Step up.
(They were very serious about this. If any of the girls even leaned over before she said "take your mark" she had them all step back and "eyes forward" to start over again.)

Take your mark.

There she goes.

Man, am I ever glad I bought her those bright pink goggles, sometimes they are the only way I can tell who she is. (There she is in lane two.)

Good swim Emily!

Although she did very well in her heats, so didn't make it to finals in any of her individual races (competition was tough!)

However, her relay team DID make it. It was very exciting. Her team and another had tied in times in the heats and had to have another race with just those two teams to see who would make it.
It was the best race I'd seen all summer and they won!

Finals were the following Thursday - the day before we left on vacation.
I was sure glad we had been planned our trip for after the swimming season was over. That day it was really raining. Disappointing, but it did also seem somehow fitting. It rained SO much this summer, and it seemed an appropriate end to such a rainy season to have finals in the rain.

I guess it's tradition for the girls relay teams to wear a different suit than their usual team suit - one that the girls have picked out themselves.

This was Emily's cute team!

Emily swims first for her realay team.

It was hard to fight for a spot for pictures - so I didn't get her on the blocks

but here she is right after going in (she's that splash!)

This is the closest I could get for pictures! They wall off all the parents from the side of the pool (can't blame them really.) I was super proud of Emily, she was fast and reached the wall first.

So proud of you Emily!

Watching the other heats.

So, they didn't place - but they had a great time and I was really happy that they even made it to finals, and that Emily had this experience. It was a great summer and a wonderful first shot at being on a swim team. Now we're more seasoned - look out for next year!