Regional Swim

Yes, I haven't posted since June. This is quite a drought, and I really don't know why I have not posted. I can't claim that I have been swamped or anything like that. Life has been pretty good, and I hope to start posting with my usual frequency.

To make up for my lack of posts, I will post of bunch of separate items that summarize the past few months. Ideally, this would be in some type of chronological order, but I am not that organized with my pictures. Thus, I will focus on the most recent (and exciting) events, and then go back in time to publish some things.

The high school swim season officially ended this past Friday. Bode had a great season, but I won't spoil the ending. The Choctaw boys had a strong team this year, but things were made harder because every two years, the Florida High School Athletic Association reclassifies all schools via divisions. We have been in 2A for a number of years. This past summer, we were put into 3A (I looked at the final results, and we were basically one or two schools above the cut line). The swimmers in 2A aren't necessarily faster--it is just that there are more people in the schools, so the number of swimmers near the top is denser than 2A.

We also found out Choctaw is now swimming in one of the strongest regions. Thus, we were somewhat anxious going into the regional meet (and swimmers have to swim well at regionals to qualify for state).

Bode swam the 200 free and finished 14th in the region with a personal best time of 1:48.82.

He also swam the 100-butterfly and finished 9th in the region.

He missed qualifying for state in the 200-free by a few tenths of a second. I think he was 27th overall, and they take the top 24. He did qualify 20th in the 100-fly, so he was excited about that.

Where the Choctaw team excels is in the 200 Medley relay. Going into the season, the boys thought they could be in the top-8 in state (maybe higher) because they had four strong swimmers. Below is a movie of the regional medley relay final.

At the start of the video, Choctaw is in the third land from the left. Bode swims the third leg. I don't think you can tell by the video but Choctaw finished second in this region!!! What's even better is they beat Niceville, a much larger school in our area :-)

After the meet, we took some pictures. First is a good shot of the team.

Next is a good shot of Bode and me.

Finally a good one of Bode with Coach Jasson and the Fathead Ashley got made.

We were very excited with the regional result, but we were also very nervous about the state meet. Stay tuned!