Banana lady? And we never heard about you straightening up for her arrival. Was the house kind of clean?

I think you see Banana Lady more often than I see my MIL, and she doesn't even live in another country!

No, the house was a wreck. Still is. Yes, we see Banana Lady more than when we were in the UK -more time, anyway, used to be a few hours every couple of weeks at best. Now it's 5-6 weeks 24/7 each year.

State Cut, baby! And a personal best in the 50 free.

This year the School is in Division 2 for women's swimming (It's done by enrolment size and we're on the cusp of D1/D2). Which means State Cuts are a little slower. so her 1:11:11 in the breast was fast enough. What do you mean she wasn't swimming the breaststroke? :lol: Intense coach was intense and realized we weren't winning as easily as she anticipated so dropped her from the Fly and put her in the breast. And the 200 free relay. She would have dropped her from the 50 free too and put her in the IM or left her in the fly if she could, but she'd already swum it by then. Last year she went in as Breaststroker #5. One graduated. She just slaughtered last year's #4. So now she's #3. Or maybe #2....who knows ......#2 didn't swim that event tonight.

Well dang! Happy dance! :jig:

wtg !!

at what level do you start competing with the clock and not another swimmer #n or whatever?

Every level. It kind of goes the other way -you always compete against the clock, then you find someone of a similar ability and they are who you race to get better times, which gets you to the better meets, and eventually the outtouch to win is way more important than the actual time.

RECORD BREAKER!!!!!

The breaststroke relay won and smashed the previous record (from 2005) by 3 seconds!!!

sweet!

WOW!

Three seconds is HUGE. Please relay my congratulations to her and her teammates!

Thanks, will do. Record was 2:08, now 2:05 (200y breaststroke relay)

Today she had to choose between the two sports for the first time. Tryouts for the Midwest Water Polo Olympic Development Team are tomorrow (cost $100 + $85 membership -coach said she will make the team). It's 4 weekends of intensive training followed by the Regional Tournament in March (cost $700 :eek: plus hotels etc). The same weekend as USA Swimming state championships.

She chose polo, athough we are waiting to get confirmations that they are OK with her not being a citizen

For now swim season is going well, she missed the state cut in the IM by .8 of a second this week, but there are plenty more meets to go and she almost equalled her personal best -which was swum tapered and in her "magic suit"

I did not know this. For some reason I was thinking they'd all been born here. How old was she when you came over? Does this mean she'll swim for the UK in the Olympics? :)

And does she have an English accent? The boys will be crushing on her.

The time I met her, she didn't, except for the occasional extremely out-of-place word, like "pasta" rhymed with "faster." I think that was part of why I assumed she'd been here her whole life.

She was three when we moved here. Turns out it doesn't matter and she's on the team. The thing is, the next team after this is the National Team, but hopefully we'll have her "fixed" by then. ;)

Now, wonder how hard it will be to keep it quiet from the swim coach? :eek:

I told the polo coach that Mo-Jo would kill us when she found out. She said well she doesn't need to find out --oh wait this is Mo-Jo we're talking about..... :lol:

They made her swim the backstroke tonight. I suspect coach found out...... :lol:

Srsly, she didn't mind, she was OK with it and dropped 4 seconds. She also got to swim the 100 free which she's been wanting/begging to do and also dropped 4 seconds, getting her 3rd MISCA cut of the season. (MISCA is a "practice state meet" with slightly lower cuts aimed to help swimmers get their state cuts.) Last year she had a cut for breaststroke and was close in the IM so coach had her swim that anyway and she got the cut at the meet. This year she already has MISCA cuts in breaststroke (State cut in that too) IM (close to state should get that at MISCA if not before) and 100 free. Her personal bests are also faster than MISCA in fly and 200 free and she's really close on the 50 free. She's come a long way and still going....... Very proud.

I don't really understand any of that, but if she's cutting 4 seconds off this and 4 seconds off that, I'm impressed. Way to go, Hebe!

:lol: thanks. her time to swim 100 free is now 57.55 seconds. The last time she raced she came it at 1:01.something. So yes, it's huge %age wise. At this level dropping 1 second is good.

With times like she has you don't want to eat her all at once. Wait, that's a different joke. With times like she has, who needs enemies? No, not that. I'm getting closer though.

With times like she has they'd be crazy not to want her on the team!

"fix her" that's funny.

'nother meet, 'nother MISCA cut..... dropped 1.4 seconds in the 100 fly and didn't know she was swimming it until 10 minutes before the race (another swimmer was taken ill so they had to change the line-up because it was a close meet). plus.... that personal best was (a) recent and (b) swum in a "magic suit".

(MISCA is like a "practice" State meet -the times required are slightly lower, gives the swimmers a chance to race against lots with similar times in a championship environment for practice and also to help those who are close get their state cuts.)

btw last week she swam all freestyle -dropped 17 seconds in the 500 free (5%) nearly got a MISCA in that and in the 200.

There are 37 swimmers on the team. She is currently in the top 10 in every event (that's just about to change -tonight's results will drop her to #11 in the backstroke, althoug maybe not for long -that's her weak stroke and coach has determined to bring in someoutside help to sort her out! :eek: :lol: -she was supposed to get her stated cut in that tonight, but was truly awful.)

next one is thursday....

Weirdest Swim Meet Evaaaaah! kind of surreal. It was a gimme, so all the girls were swimming their worst events. (50 Free and 100 back for swimmer Girl).

But shortly after warm-up started, SG walked by and indicated that she was going to change into a "competition suit". (A "magic Suit"). These are reserved for Championships. They retail around $400 and last 8 meets. She said "see you in 45 minutes". She made it out in about 35, just in time for the start of the meet. Yup, they take that long to get into.

So one other swimmer comes out in one.

As the meet goes on, girls disappear -including a couple from the other team- and come back wearing these suits.

To the point where we were hoping for a flashmob thing......

nah, it was just coach's other half doing technical trials for Nike's new suit. (He developed the first one for Speedo -the one the olympians wear- but left last year after a row over that suit's replacement (he was right, it turned out...) )

#cuttingedgeofswimmingtechnology :lol:

Umm....

So...

She's kind of frightening me with her improvements.

They all swam their best events on Tues because it was a good team. They all swam horribly andlost a little horribly. Swimmers girl's best events are 100 breast and 200 IM

Tonight was THE local match-up they had to win But SG is being rested from her best events in the hope that she'll swim them even better on Saturday at MISCAs.

So she swam the 50 free .... dropped.29 seconds to swim a 26.74. That's nuts! One of my goals for her this season was to break the 27 -she just blew that away.

....and the 500 free

For the 4th time ever. She swam it a couple of weeks ago and dropped 15 seconds from last year. It's a 6-7 minute race for most, 5 plus change for champions. Last year she swam it twice and clocked 6 minutes both times.

She swam it a couple of weeks ago and dropped 17 seconds but coach was all "oooh you can do so much better....". So SG said to me and i passed on to coach that she feels abandoned. She doesn't know how to swim a 500.

coach said "oops, she's so awesome, I forget she's so inexperienced in some events...." result. Yesterday SG got trained in how to do it, today she dropped ANOTHER 15 seconds, and almost got a state cut.

As coach said, "this is not her event, she will never swim it at States, but it's awesome to know that she could"

And during the boring diving, I found out that she's swimming the fly, not the breast (as she though) at MISCAS on Saturday. it's cool, she already has a State Cut in Breast, coach has insisted all along that she's not a fly swimmer.. I think this is an admissio of guilt ;)

ick

Miscas (= practice States)

added time to both events (fly and IM) but.... didn't swim in "magic suit" because coach declared it dead during warm-up. OK, so we kinda knew it was dead-ish, but on Monday she took it in for coach to check out and the verdict was -borderline, use it at Miscas and see how it goes. If you dump it during warm-up, you shoulda been able to dump it on Monday -it hasn't been anywhere since... and we coulda got her a new one in time. None available in her size for a loaner or to buy, apparently, and she was in early events, so not a lot of time available.... trying to get her fixed up fucked up her warm-up and her happy-place. Not a happy swim-mom tonight. (She swam OK, but we could have fixed this -a "magic suit" typically drops 3 seconds per 100 -she could have got 2 state cuts. Maybe. Now we'll never know

Just came home with another letter from nother college

That's pretty exciting!! I wish her the best!

It was personalized to her stroke, fom a liberal arts college in PA. Div3
The last one was in MI.

She's still a sophomore, so we're not going to flap for at least another year unless there's a D1 or maybe D2 letter

Water Polo Olympic Development Program: Just got the news she made the Midwest Zone A-team for Regional Championships. Go Polo Girl!

Congratulations! Wow! Go Polo Girl!
(Nice job, Mom :))

Sweet! Way to go, Hebe!

Wooohooooo! Awesome Girl strikes again! :)

Wow! So is she still trying to balance polo and swimming, or is it full-on polo all the time now?

So we'll be seeing underwater pics of her naughty bits, on the internet, while the opposition tries to wrench her suit off. :haha:

Kind of, but Polo has won.

Ok, I'm ignorant about such things. Will she be able to try out for the Olympics?? Didn't she go to the Nationals earlier?

I know you must be very proud of her.

We will be in Chicago next weekend doing eff all while she trains if anyone wants to meet up... the kids want to do Shedd

I can see how it would. Awesome sport!

We're here in Geneva OH (near Cleveland) for the regional championships.

Spire Institute

btw, I drove :) 250ish miles Friday rushhour :D

GOAL! She didn't start and they lost their first game, but Polo Girl won her sprint and scored (one of four goals). Next game in an hour.

Excellent, maybe they'll listen to you next time. :thumb:

TWO GOALS. She's being considered for national training camp, but says when they put her in so the evaluator could watch her, she messed up :( She drove and scored, but she should've passed to set, apparently. ah well. we'll see. not ready to get her fixed yet anyway ;)

Surprise Tournament GOAL! (The tournament was the surprise, not the goal) An an elbow to the oesophagus. :( Thankfully the headbutt we all thought we saw didn't happen. her game from last night will be on the local tv on Sunday at noon. They do televise a lot of HS sports, especially the cross-town rivalries (which this was), but usually on;y thr boyd.

Played the same cross town team tonight. Kick-out (ejection) in the 12th second.... A penalty (they failed to convert) and a goal. and a couple of assists. getting close to that "gordie Howe"... She rocks. BTW she's been on the starting line-up for varsity all season.

She is icing a cut and duck-egg on her forehead tonight. But she did that by opening the door into her face when we got home :lol:

Unfortunately, Gordie Howe = target, also. But she comes from tough stock. ;)

Hebe's awesome.

already there. three ejections = game ejection, so after two last night, the oppo were gunning for her and she sat out until needed for a set play :lol: flattering, but not much fun

It's a good sign when the opposition is desperate to get her out of the game. Tough bird, like her mom.

eagles are not good eatin' ;)

This morning, district Semi-finals, Eagles down one in the second period of overtime with seconds left........



The video was taken by the parents of the reserve goalie, who didn't play. that's her dad you can hear, not beest. And that isn't me who screams.....

spoiler
and so it went to sudden death overtime....and they won. but then lost the final this afternoon to their nemesis (and the team Hebe is zoned for) we'll get you next time, Rats ;)

(Skyline white caps)

umm... so State Championships.... not going great after a surprise loss Friday night to put us in the loser's bracket playing for 5-8th place (out of maybe 30? teams in the state)

First game this morning to decide whether we play for 5/6 or 7/8 this afternoon...

It's tied in second overtime..... sudden death OT to follow.....



You may not be able to see that the clock read 0:00...... although you can hear the crowd countdown and not the horn to signal the official end of period....

Thor also features in this video ...can you find him? (I do not feature in this video, I don't think....) ....ok wait, no you can see me. and the othe parents beating the crap out of me. again.

Verry coolz !!
But you guys need a betterer camera

not mine. Reserve goalie parents again. appreciate all they send/share. I'm too busy watching. Probably won't be anything next year -reserve goalie will be main goalie.)

Go team!

It's the crazy relays meet time again. her Breaststroke relay won (no heat sheets this year, though, so we don't know what the record was and didn't get to see her name in print as the record holder :() .....and so did her fly relay (also the A relay) ....and her IM relay was second. Back up in division 1, so the state cuts are faster, but holding our own -second only to Saline -the rats and pioneers had no chance.

*snort* She just got a MISCA cut ......in the 500free, her least favorite event, at an intersquad meet we had to test the new timing system. She didn't yet get that cut in the IM, one of her two events we expect her to get a state cut in. Coach is threatening to switch her. (MISCAs are like practice State Championships). She's a little pissed to say the least.

Well earlier this week she got a MISCA in the fly -too late to enter plus you can only enter 2 events, but nice to have (she did get the IM cut at some point). Today was MISCAS and she finally got that fricking breaststroke state cut. Shaved a couple of seconds off the IM but that state cut is still being elusive..... it's ridiculously fast this year.

last week she knocked three seconds off her 200free time. Because she wanted to give up on the IM for this year and swim that at regionals instead. (That was another Misca cut). And today, regional championships prelims (SECs to us), she took off another 2 seconds. she actually has a chance of getting a state cut in that tomorrow! Oh and she slaughtered all but her teammate in the breaststroke to take second, and she isn't even tapered yet. Woohoo!

Remember the weird and wonderful mystery of the state sign that appeared in the yard when she made the state team the first time? Sunday I am making them. It's like when you have to play tooth fairy for the first time .....:( :lol:

please don't be all predictable about me ruining the magic of the tf for you

She's doing very well, good on her.

And you continue to be amazing. :yesnod:

Isn't it about time for colleges to start recruiting her for her athletic prowess? How are things looking on that front?

2nd place! in the stupidly fast time of 1:07.something. Her teammate took first. Yes, colleges are recruiting, but she doesn't want to swim in college :( (she wants to play polo) She also hit the podium as part of the third placed 400free relay team. And sliced another couple of seconds off her 200free time.