The Ken Caryl swim meet was last weekend and LT swam in a bunch of events (Adler didn't qualify but he's got a few years). Landon's very first race was the medley relay, which he led off for his team swimming backstroke. He got them off to a little lead, which his teammates who followed either maintained or added to. And they won! Ken Caryl isn't exactly like the state meet but there are a lot of teams competing and I was really proud and impressed that they were able to take 1st place. He swam well in his other events too. He told me before the meet that his goal was place well enough not to get any participant ribbons. I like that he's not overly competitive about it but understands enough to want to do better than just participating. He accomplished his goal finishing 5th, 6th and 7th in his individual events (100 free, 25 back & 50 free) and 2nd in the free relay (somewhat disappointing after winning the first relay but still good). He also qualified for state in the 100 ensuring another week to our summer swim season. The short video is of the start of the 100 free and you can see he's got some room for improvement in his starts (he is 3rd from the bottom and right behind the diving board).
There was a lightening delay that extended an already long meet. You can see me and another dad waiting out the weather by 'resting' while our boys played cards.
On Thursday both boys swam in the 'Pentathlon' meet with all the league teams participating. Adler won his heat and dropped 6 seconds from his 25 free time. LT did 25s of all the strokes (making the state time in back) and a 100 IM, which is in the video (he's the 4th kid from the bottom right above the one empty lane). Unfortunately he was disqualified in the IM for doing a breaststroke kick during the fly (he wasn't the only one either - his coach described the event as a "bloodbath"). But other than the DQ and his trademark bad start, he swam well and his time would have qualified for state. Hopefully he'll get another chance at that one. He also swam in the sprint crescendo race where a girl and boy from each age division swim a 25. The 8 and under boys swim the last leg so LT anchored the whole big relay for his team. They were behind the whole race and, while the older kids in the middle made up some of the deficit, they were still losing when LT dove in. But he rose to the occasion and caught the other team with the race ending in a tie to the 100th of a second. It was a very exiting finish and lots of people, from his friends to parents to even the big old 15-18 swimmers, congratulated him on doing so well for the team. It was so fun to watch and even better to see him take some pride in his contribution to his team.
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