Swimming in the rain...

This year was Tyaan's first year swimming for Mt. SAC. On February 27th Michael and I went to an invitational with lots of schools in attendance. It was held at SAC, but it was a rainy day.



They don't stop swim meets due to rain. The only thing that stops them is thunder or lightning. There were a few times that day that they stopped the meet and got everyone out of the pool. If thunder was heard, or lightning seen they evacuate the pool, wait several minutes. If there's another within the allotted time they end the meet. If not they keep going. This just meant that we sat in the rain for several hours.


At one point it even began hailing! And of course it was just as Ty started one of her events. She said she could feel it hitting the back of her legs while she was swimming.


She swam the breaststroke this day, which is her least favorite stroke. But...she's good at just about anything she tries, so the coaches had her swim it anyway!


It was fun, as always, to watch her swim...but we were happy to get home to dry off and warm up.

Swim Banquet

On June 3rd the swim team had their banquet. It was a lot of fun, I was one of the parents that helped so I got to go get the cake and get all the pizza. The coach gave out all the awards and letters. Tyaan got her varsity letter, again. She also got the captain award and a league championship patch. The coach said some really great things about her. I wish I had taken my video camera so you could hear the things he said. He went as far as to say that he felt like this league championship was HER championship. It was great, she was a great captain and great swimmer. She worked so hard and did so well. I wish I had some better pictures...

The coach also gave me and 2 other moms our own league championship t-shirts in front of everyone. I thought that was really nice of him (he's a very nice man) AND...when I got home Tyaan handed me my very own league championship patch that he gave to me! I was so excited!!

I am so proud of her, and I'm so sad that her high school swim days are over. What a kid.

Spring Sports Awards Banquet

May 19th was the Chaffey spring sports awards banquet. All the spring sports were recognized and any championships, CIF qualifiers, or other awards were presented. Swim was the last sport to be recognized. It was a big deal that both boys and girls swim teams had won league championships. First time ever I believe. Tyaan went up with the coach and was presented the plaque for the team.



Coach Brown also called up the other girls that swam at CIF with Tyaan. He mentioned that the qualifying time for their event was hard to acheive. Nobody in our league has qualified for CIF in that event for several years. And the last team that did was from Chaffey as well. I hadn't known that but thought it said a lot about how strong our team was this year.


The individual awards weren't given out because we were planning a banquet for the swim teams that took place on another day.

CIF!!

May 12th was the CIF swim meet for SoCal. Tyaan's 4x100 freestyle relay team had qualified along with several other swimmers from her school. The meet is usually held at the Belmont pool in Long Beach, which is 50 miles from us. But at the last minute we heard that there was some problem there so they moved the meet to Mt. SAC, a jr. college close to home. It's actually where Tyaan is now attending! That was great news and we enjoyed seeing all of the swimmers from schools closer to Long Beach because we knew for once they had to drive a long way instead of us.

It was a long day in the sun. The Southern Section for CIF covers most of California. Central and Southern California, so everyone who qualified for an event was here this day to swim. They swam and the top 16 in each event went on to finals which was held a couple of days later.

Here is Tyaan warming up in the competition pool. She's got great technique, and a beautiful stroke. I always say she's a 'pretty' swimmer.



This is the team getting ready for their race. The 4x100 free relay is the last event so it was later in the afternoon and they'd had a lot of time to be nervous!



You can see Tyaan standing next to her coach here. Chaffey had a pretty good sized group of swimmers qualify this year, so there was usually one of them competing.



Here is their race. They are in lane 6. Tyaan is the first swimmer.




She finished first on her leg. She is so good at pacing herself. A lot of times other swimmers will pull ahead but she never gets rushed by them. She sets her pace and sticks to it and passes the girls who pulled out ahead and burned out. Her teammates mom was timing their splits nearby and you can hear her say "1:01" when Ty finishes her leg of the race. This is her best time ever for a 100 free. It was the best time any of these girls got all season. I was thrilled when I heard she had done so well, and she told me later that she had a bad turn and slipped on the wall.

Here is Tyaan with Coach Brown after the meet. They didn't qualify for the next round, but they were all really happy with how they had done. Her coach called her his "1:01er"!




Here she is with 2 of her 3 teammates in this event. It was the last time they swam together in competition. It was really great that they got to swim at CIF! So Tyaan got her CIF patch to go with all of her letters and her league championship patch. She accomplished a lot as a high school athlete and I am excited for her to go on to college level, but will really miss going to the high school to watch her there.



As always, she did great and made me very proud!

Swim Finals

May 6th was swim finals. Chaffey went into finals being undefeated and had enough swimmers qualify during prelims that it should have been no contest to win. The worst that could happen was that Don Lugo girls would win finals leaving a tie for league championship.

The first event is the 4x50 medley relay. We had won this race in prelims and expected a win here.



As you can see Tyaan pulls ahead of the Don Lugo girl and Chaffey wins the relay. However this is when we learned what the day was going to be like. We had an official that we hadn't had all season. He was a horrible human being and spent the next few hours treating everyone on the pool deck like they were idiots. He talked to the coaches extremely rudely, a lot of times into the megaphone although they were only a few feet away (making sure everyone else at the pool could hear how 'important' he was). I didn't see 1 disqualification during a varsity race all season long. During finals this guy probably disqualified a dozen swimmers, maybe more. it was ridiculous. He acted as if he was officiating at an olympic meet. These poor kids were afraid to sneeze or they'd be DQ'd. (For example, he DQ'd a girl because AFTER the race was over, after having some teammates try to help her out of the pool, she swam under the lane lines to the ladder to get out. Said she should have asked him before the race...) He DQ'd Tyaan after this event. I saw him do it when she was 3/4 of the way back to the block when she passed the girl next to her. At first he said it was because her feet weren't even on her kick, then he told her coach that it had something to do with her turn off of the wall. Since this is her event, that she has trained for 3 years to do, and the guy was changing his story, I can GUARANTEE that she didn't deserve it. But, once the call was made there was nothing we could do. She was heartbroken of course, feeling like she'd let the team down. They didn't earn any points for that event and started the meet in last place. Don Lugo took first place and started ahead.

Tyaan's next event was the 200 free. She did her best to pull herself together since it was the event right after the medley and she was still pretty upset. She was undefeated in this all year, and she won it this day as well. So she got her first 1st place medal.

Next was her 100 fly. We were positive that the official would DQ her again because it was the same stroke that she swam during the medley. She was worried about turns and kicks but I told her to just swim it like she always did. If she tried to change after years of practice it would just slow her down, and if he was going to be unfair there was nothing she could do about it. Here is her race.




She finished 3rd. I was impressed because I knew she was emotionally exhausted, and worried about being DQ'd the whole time. The official didn't DQ her, in fact he told her coach that her stroke was "perfect". So she got a 3rd place medal for this event.

The last event was the 4x100 free relay. Nobody in league could come close to our relay team in this event. They had already qualified for CIF (State championships). They easily took 1st place, earning Ty her third medal, her second 1st place.

Unfortunately with the DQ's (he also DQ'd our breaststroker who took 1st place in her event so we lost those points as well) we BARELY lost to Don Lugo. The Don Lugo coach even said to give the league championship to Chaffey because they deserved it. It was very obvious that our girls got cheated. Worst was that Tyaan and the other girl who should have won 1st place in the 100 breast were both seniors and this was their last swim competition. It's heartbreaking that this is how it had to end. So the league championship was a tie. Chaffey's coach turned Tyaan's name in for league MVP. If Chaffey had won finals she would have gotten it, however it was decided that because of the tie Chaffey would take the League Champion Plaque and Don Lugo would get MVP. Tyaan really deserved it though.

Chaffey boys won league, and this is the first time any school has ever won boys and girls championships in the same year. It's the first time for Chaffey ever, not just in swim, but any sport...ever.


Here is the girls team with their plaque.


Here is 3 of the 4 100 free relay swimmers with their first place medals!


Here is Ty the next morning. She wore her letterman with her 3 new medals!

Swim Preliminaries

May 4th was swim preliminaries. Every school in the league swims and the top 12 qualify to swim in finals. It's important to qualify because everyone who swims in finals earns points for their school. Chaffey was undefeated going into finals so as long as everyone did what they were capable of, and there weren't any surprises we knew we would do well.

Tyaan swam her usual 4 events and placed top 6 in all of them. All the Chaffey swimmers did really well and they went into finals with everything looking good.

Here is the video of their 4x50 medley relay. This is the first event of the meet so it's a great way to get everyone pumped up for the rest of it. Chaffey is in lane 3, right next to Don Lugo who is our closest competition. Tyaan swam butterfly and goes in 3rd on her team.




Tyaan gained a lot during her leg of the relay and Chaffey won fairly easily. The rest of the meet went as expected. Tyaan won the 200 free, leaving her undefeated in that event all season. Her times for the meet were:

4x50 Medley Relay :32
200 Free 2:22
100 Fly 1:15
4x100 Free Relay 1:02

Swim Meet

April 29th was the swim meet against Don Lugo. This is the girls team that has won league for the last several years, and they barely beat Chaffey last year for league. Chaffey was undefeated up until this meet so everyone was really wanting to win.

Tyaan invited the swimmers to our house the day before for a 'carb load' dinner of spaghetti and bread. One of the other moms brought lasagna over so it turned into a big meal. It was fun listening to them talk times and competition and encourage each other.

The meet came and we were all ready to get it going. The first event is the 4x50 medley relay, which Tyaan swims butterfly in. It's important to win the first event to get everyone going and pumped up.

Here is a video of the first event. Tyaan is the 3rd girl in, swimming butterfly.




Tyaan went in after the Don Lugo girl but passed her in a 50 which was great, and they ended up winning that race.

The meet continued that way, Chaffey winning most of their events and staying ahead in points

Tyaan won the 200 free, as usual.




She also got her best time EVER on her 100 fly. A 1:11!!


Chaffey won the meet which left them undefeated going into league finals. Tyaan's times on her events were:

4x50 medley :32
200 free 2:22
100 fly 1:11 (Best time ever)
4x100 free relay 1:03

Swim Meet

April 15th was Tyaan's swim meet vs. Colony. She had a good meet and the team won easily. Her biggest accomplishment was improving on her 200 free time. She got her best ever of 2:21! It was very exciting.

Her times were:

4x50 medley split :33
200 free: 2:21
100 fly 1:16
4x100 1:04

The 4x100 team was hoping for CIF time but missed it by half a second! It was their best time though.

Swim Meet

April 1st was Tyaan's first league swim meet. This is where it starts to count. It was at Montclair High and they were counting on a win. Both the boys and girls teams did well, both winning the meet by a safe margin.

Tyaan swam her usual 4 events and did well on all of them. This is a 'slow' pool because it is really shallow. This makes it hard to dive, hard to turn, and creates a lot of drag due to water coming back off the bottom of the pool. But she still kept her times and even improved her 200 free time by a second. I promised to start video taping when league started so I had the camera running. Here are her two individual events.

200 Free

The most interesting part of this race is that the Montclair coach was putting his fastest swimmers in lane 1 which isn't typical. The fastest swimmers are usually in the middle of the pool (lanes 3 & 4) because that is where you have the best water without the back flow coming from the side of the pool and other swimmers. Tyaan is in lane 4 (even lanes are for visiting teams, home team always has odd lanes) and you can see the swimmer in lane 1 keeps pretty close to her for most of the race. I was worried that Tyaan couldn't see her that far away and wouldn't realize she needed to push. But she said she saw her and by the last 25 yards the girl couldn't keep Ty's pace any longer.





100 fly

By this time we had figured out that they were putting the better swimmers in lane 1 so the coach moved Tyaan from lane 4 to lane 2 to stay where she could see the competition during the race .




Her times for this meet were:

4x50 medley relay :33
200 free 2:24 (her best)
100 fly 1:16
4x100 free relay ???

3 more meets to go and then finals! How quickly it's going!!!

Swim Meet

Tyaan had her last pre-league meet on March 19th. I got recruited to do time keeping for the last half of the meet so I didn't get many pictures.

This is her start during the 4x50 relay. I love this shot because it shows how great her dive is. You can see how much more distance Tyaan is getting compared to the swimmer next to her.

They had a good meet overall. The girls won the meet, which was the first time they had beaten that school. Tyaan's 4x100 free relay team got their best time, only 1 second away from CIF consideration so they were REALLY excited. Tyaan tied her best time on that relay, which is the best she's gotten this season.

Here were her times for the day:

4x50 medley relay :33
200 free 2:26
100 fly 1:16
4x100 free relay 1:04

Swim Meet

Tyaan had a few more swim meets before Spring Break began.

On March 10th they swam at home against Chino High. Here are a couple pictures of her during her 100 butterfly.


Her times this day were:

4x50 medley :33
200 free 2:25 (tied her best)
100 fly 1:16
4x100 1:06

This is a picture of her before her meet on 3/12. As the team captain she often leads the team in their pre-meet cheer. She's certainly loud enough to do it! =)


Her times this day were:

4x50 medley :33
200 free 2:29
100 fly 1:16
4x100 ???

Swim Meet

On March 5th Ty had a swim meet. Here is a video of the last 25 yards in her 4x100 free relay. I think she swims beautifully. I always tell her how easy she makes it look.



And for those of you who are keeping track... here were her times!

4x50 medley relay split :33
200 free 2:25 (tied her best)
100 fly 1:16
4x100 free relay split : ???

First Swim Meet

Ready...

Set...



GO!!


Another swim season has begun! Tyaan's first meet was March 3rd and she did really well. Her times in her 4 events were:

50 fly :32 (tied her best time)
200 free 2:25 (tied her best time)
100 fly 1:16 ( 3 seconds above her best time)
4x100 1:05 (1 second above her best time)

She's Cleared!!

We went to our LAST doctors appointment today and he finally cleared her to swim!!

Her first swim meet is tomorrow and I am SO SO SO SO excited!

Good luck baby!

My swimmer is back!!

Swim season begins next week. As you know Tyaan broke her collarbone in January which kept her out of the water for several weeks. She's been in the water for a couple weeks now doing her best to get back in shape and working on her technique. She's been very worried about how hard it was to complete her 100 butterfly (her most strenuous event) and how quickly she was getting tired when she swam.

The last couple of days the coach has been doing timed events to place swimmers in their various events for the first meet next Tuesday. There wasn't any worry about Tyaan losing her place in any of her events because she's coming off of an injury so shouldn't be at her best, plus she's the team captain, plus she swam so well last year that she's earned her place. But, she wanted to get an idea of where she was at so she knew how hard it was going to be to get her goal of CIF times this season.

Here are her times for each event. To give perspective on these numbers I'm including information from last season as well.

50 butterfly
1st meet last season - 0:34
best time last season - 0:32
Time now - 0:34

200 freestyle
1st meet last season - 2:29
best time last season - 2:25
Time now - 2:33

100 freestyle
1st meet last season - 1:08
best time last season - 1:04
Time now - 1:06

100 butterfly
1st meet last season - 1:23
best time last season - 1:13
Time now - 1:18

As you can see she did exceptionally well! She called me from the pool deck just after finishing her 100 fly and she was so excited. She swam it alone and said the pool was surrounded by her teammates cheering her on. After being out of the water completely for 8 weeks and only having 1 week of kicking and 1 week of workouts she is doing fabulous. I'm really excited for swim season to start and can't wait to see where she ends up by the end of the year. I think I may be making the drive to Long Beach for CIF in May!

You can read about her 100 fly from her perspective on her blog.

Swim Captain!

Tyaan's swim banquet was yesterday. This is where all the swimmers get their certificates and awards are given out. Tyaan got her 2nd varsity certificate, and she got team captain for the varsity team. It's usually given to seniors so it was a big deal for her to get it as a junior. She was really excited and we are very proud of her.

I also got to talk to her coach for a few minutes and he had lots of great things to say about Ty. He said he is really grateful to have her on the team and mentioned how hard working she is and that she always puts in so much effort. And he's looking forward to next year because we are all counting on going to CIF next year, Tyaan included.

Here she is getting her trophy for team captain.

Swim Final Videos

So I'm finally getting around to putting up swim final videos. I put together some DVD's of a few other swimmers and never got back to getting all of Ty's videos formatted to put up. You can see how well she did in everything. It was a close run for 1st through 3rd on all of her events. Well, except for the 4x100, but see for yourself.

4x50 Medley



Result - 2nd place


200 freestyle



Result - 2nd place


100 Butterfly



Result - 3rd place


4x100 Freestyle Medley



Result - 1st place...by a lot!

Swim Finals

So I'm finally getting back to reporting about swim finals. Tyaan did fabulous, as I knew she would. 4 top 3 finishes! Their team got 2nd place in league, but didn't miss 1st by many points. So, here are the results!

4x50Medley Relay - 2nd place
200 freestyle - 2nd place, tying her best time
100 butterfly - 3rd place, dropping another 2 seconds off of her best time
4x100 freestyle relay - 1st place, getting her best time on her split

What an amazing kid, and a great swimmer.

Here she is with her 4 medals!

Swim Preliminaries

Today was swim preliminaries. This is where all schools in the league swim against each other to qualify for finals which are on Wednesday. The top 12 swimmers/teams in each event qualify to compete in finals. 1-6 compete, and 7-12 compete, so if you qualify below 6th place you can't end up placing in the top 6, even if your time ends up being better. So it is important to qualify in the top 6. Also, the points in finals help determine the team placement for each school, so the more swimmers qualify in an event the better your chances are to win league. Tyaan swims 4 events (the max allowed per swimmer) and qualified top 6 in all of them! She swims the 4x50 medley (4 swimmers each do 50 yards, each girl doing 1 of the 4 strokes) and they placed 2nd overall. She swims the 200 freestyle and placed 2nd, only 1 second behind the 1st place girl. She swam the 100 fly and placed 3rd (getting her best time ever of 1:15), and finally she swam the 4x100 relay (4 girls each swimming 100 yards freestyle) and they placed 1st. She had a great day and I'm a very proud mom! I can't wait to see how Wednesday goes, but she's guaranteed a top 6 finish in each event, but hopefully it ends up similar to today and she ends up 1-3 in everything.

Last swim meet

Tyaan had her last swim meet of the year today. Next week is league finals! Here are a couple photos of her swimming her 200 freestyle. (Which she won, as usual!)