1st swim meet

Saturday was Megan and Sarah's first swim meet of the season.They both did great. Sarah improved on all of her times from last year and Megan set personal bests since it was her first races ever! I think it's pretty impressive that Megan can get across the pool, let alone do it four times doing four different strokes!

Times:

Sarah (50 yard)
freestyle: 36.51 s
backstroke: 45.59 s
breaststroke: 56.03 s
butterfly: 45.66 s

Megan (25 yard)
freestyle: 59.95 s
backstroke: 42.57 s
breaststroke: 1 min 31.78 s
butterfly: 1 min 50.47 s

Megan getting ready for freestyle. She put her hands up by her ears before every race.

And then did some combination of belly flop/jumping in to actually get in the pool. This is what virtually all of the age 5/6 girls did.

Megan freestyle.

Sarah ready to go.

The dive in.

Sarah swimming freestyle.

Megan ready for backstroke.

Here she is swimming in the far lane.

Sarah backstroke.

Megan breaststroke.

This is the stroke her coach got a bit nervous on because she took big breaths between each stroke and was treading water as she did so. It looked like she might be having trouble. But she wasn't--she was just breathing. And she made it clear across the pool on her own!

Matthew and Me. I timed the second half of the meet. Sarah is actually in the picture, as well, a bit behind Matthew.

Sarah breaststroke.

The girls with their ribbons.

Of course, we emphasize that the important thing is that they're working hard and doing their best; which they are. I will say that we were glad that Megan didn't get last place in all her races since that can be a bit discouraging especially when she has been working so hard! I think she did better in backstroke because her head is always above water so she doesn't have the long pauses to breathe. And Sarah is such a good swimmer--it's fun to watch her race!