In Rewind :: CCS Summer Junior Olympics 2014

Back in July, we headed to Fresno, CA for the 2014 Central California Summer Junior Olympics, a 4 day long course championship meet. Jacey had a fantastic meet and here are a few snippets of each day.

Wednesday :: July 16

Travel day. The goal was to be out of the house by 0800…I don’t think we did too bad. I was not looking forward to the drive, I don’t do road trips well, because I have a VERY hard time sitting still when trapped (I don’t do movies in theaters very well either). Thankfully it wasn’t all that bad and we made good time. Once we got into town, we checked into the hotel, had a pre-meet team dinner and headed over to the pool for a quick practice.

Thursday :: July 17 :: Day 1

0 dark thirty, we headed to the pool for check in and warm ups. Jacey had 2 events on the schedule for today, the 400 meter freestyle and the 50 meter breast. Jacey swam amazingly! She shaved off over 10 seconds in her 400 free and only added a few tenths to her 50 breast. Her 50 breast time landed her into consolation finals, so we were due back at the pool, later that evening. She ended up placing 10th in finals for a fantastic first day.

Friday :: July 18 :: Day 2

Day 2 held the 100 meter breaststroke and the 200 meter freestyle. Jacey added a few tenths to her 100 breast and took off over 6 seconds on her 200 free. Her breaststroke time once again landed her in finals, where she had a podium finish! She took off half a second and  placed 5th and received her first “championship” meet medal!

Saturday :: July 19 :: Day 3

Day 3, was the 100 meter back and the 200 IM. I was most excited to see her swim the IM. She labels herself as a breaststroker, but I truly think the IM is where she shines the most. In prelims, she took off over 2 seconds on her 100 back and almost 4 seconds on her 200 IM. Her IM time landed her in finals, where she took off another 6+ seconds, 4 of those in her butterfly split alone. She placed 10th officially because of the way consolation finals work, but she technically was 8th if you simply rack and stack all 16 swimmers finals times. No medal, but the achievement of taking off over 10 seconds overall in her 200 IM.

One neat little tidbit. Friday during dinner, Jacey was still wearing her medal and an older gentleman in a wheelchair stopped her and was asking about it. Turns out, he was the swimming and diving coach for MANY years at Grand Valley State University until a stroke effectively ended his career. Bryan invited him out to the meet and he came out on Saturday to watch Jacey in finals. Pretty cool!

Sunday :: July 20 :: Day 4

By day 4, Jacey’s poor body was done. She woke up feeling horrible and barely ate. We gave her the option to scratch her last 2 events, but she is a trooper and got in the water for warm ups anyway. She had the 50 backstroke and 100 freestyle, which thankfully are not her favorites. I would have felt really bad for her to be feeling cruddy with her favorites. She added a few tenths to her 50 back and took off almost 2 seconds on her 100 free. No finals for today, which was really for the best. Instead, we had a hotel room pizza picnic and ice cream for a job well done!

It was an outstanding meet overall for Jacey! Next up is the state championship meet in November. Jacey already has 7 time qualifications as a 13-14 year old (she turns 13 the weekend before, so it will be her first 13-14 meet) and we still have one more meet to go before state. It promises to be an exciting and freezing (Carson City in November…really?!) long weekend of swimming if we can get through this shoulder injury. Oh wait, you didn’t know? Yeah, probably because it’s a topic you don’t want to get me started on or I may never shut up!