Continuing the Legacy

We have a new fish in the house. Her name is Karsyn. Continuing the fine legacy of Lee swimmers, Karsyn joined the Sunnyvale Swim Club summer league team last week. They held two practices them threw the kids into the fire by having them compete in a dual meet versus St Lawrence Swim Club.

For those of you that don’t know, I swam competitively for 10 years, so it was kind of cool to be back in the element. I was 9 when I competed for the first time. It was a “full meet” in Palo Alto at Palo Alto High School. Full meets are comprised of many teams that congregate, like a track meet.

Dual meets peg two teams against each other. These are great starter meets for kids just getting their feet wet (sorry, couldn’t resist). Since Karsyn is competing in the 8 & under age group, the distances are limited to 25 yard sprints.

I set her up with a pair of goggles that I used to use when I swam back in the day. Sonya was talking to the head coach (I high school rival of mine), who she knew from her days when she ran the city aquatic program, and pointed out that Karsyn was giving the whole swimming thing a try. He noticed the goggles and made some comment about not seeing that type in a few years.

In her very first event, she swam 25 yard backstroke and took 3rd in her heat. She would then follow things up with a 25 yard freestyle race, where she finished 2nd in her heat. The most amusing part of the race was the start, where the kids dove from regulation starting blocks that are mounted on the side of the pool.

Karsyn had never started a race from blocks before, so she ad-libbed by holding her hands in front of her when the starter instructed the swimmers to “take their marks”. Given that nobody actually instructed the girls what to do, I was pretty proud of her.

There’s a girl in her class that’s apparently a little know-it- all, so Karsyn’s only goal was to beat her. She smoked her in both events and got the swimming bug. I think it was the goggles.

Click here for [Event Photos]