Red, White, and Blue Invitational

Red, White, and Blue was so much more fun this year! Last year, Kacy (and I) were heartbroken when she missed qualifying by like .10 and .05 seconds in both freestyle and backstroke. This year, she not only qualified, but she was in the fastest heats out of about 60 girls for both of those races! I was so proud of how she swam this year, but unfortunately, she was still recovering from being sick, and she did not have her best races at the invitational. She still got 9th and 10th out of the entire group of 6 year olds. Still really, really good - but it was a little disappointing for her not to swim her best times in the biggest meet of the year. We could just tell that she did not have the energy, but she was still really excited to be there! Adilyn swam every stroke, and she was in both the medley and the free relay. Their medley relay didn't have their normal 4 girls, but they still did really well and got 6th overall. Adilyn finished really well with her freestyle! She didn't swim her best time in freestyle, but still had a good race. I think she finished 20th out of about 50 girls. Her backstroke looked so good, until the last couple strokes. Even though she slowed at the end, she still got her best time in both backstroke and breaststroke. She was in the lower time standard for breaststroke, and she ended up getting 7th there. Then came the butterfly. She was in a super slow heat, she was tired after swimming so many other races, she hadn't swam fly in a meet for almost a month, and she didn't want to do it. I told her to just get out there and do it, Cory said something about getting her a fitbit if she swam fast, and we sent her on her way. I was thinking that it was going to be pretty ugly. The gun went off, and something absolutely amazing happened. The girl started swimming this perfect butterfly. She was literally flying! She passed everyone, and she just kept going and going! Literally, when she finished, the other 7 girls were easily 10 meters behind her. We saw her unofficial time of 21.45, and we were blown away!!! Her seed time was 27 something! She ran to her coach, her coach motioned up to us like "what in the world was that?!?!" It was so awesome! I have no idea what happened to her or how in the world that happened. She ended up with the 4th fastest time of all the 8 year olds! She was in the lower time standard, so she got 1st in that group by about 5 seconds! It was so amazing to she her get out there and finally push herself. I have no idea why it came out then, but it was sure fun to watch :)

The girls and I get a little antsy while we are waiting to watch, so here is our selfie montage!