Feed the Fire

On February 19th, both Evan and Carter participated in the annual Feed the Fire meet. Steve arrived with Evan at Oswego East High school at 6:45am and didn't get to come home until 8:30pm!!! It was a long day, but an exciting one. This meet is special because it is the last weekend meet to get qualifying times for Regionals and J.O.s (junior olympics/state championship). It also only for swimmers who do NOT have qualifying times in those events, so if you're too fast and have already qualified, you cannot swim in that event. This makes the playing field a little bit more even and the races highly competitive. If you make the top 8, then you get to come back at the end of the day for the "Finals" and race one more time. Evan made the finals in the 50 Breast and Carter got regional times in the 50Back, 50Breast, and 100Breast, and made finals in all 3 events plus 50Free (he is .05 seconds away from a regional time). Both boys dropped their times each time they swam in each event. At the finals, the school has music blaring to pump the kids up, they get to walk out through curtains with a sign signifying what event it is, parade through coaches & teammates, and then when they get to the blocks, they announce each swimmer's name and allow applause and cheering. So fun!

Here's Evan being led in the 50Breast.

This is Evan's coach, Jason, giving him a high 5 for good luck. This coach has been extremely motivating and inspirational for Evan. He really is phenomenal.

Here's Carter hi-fiving his coaches & fellow teammates as he is paraded to his lane.

Carter's Breast stroke--awesome!

Evan's Breast stroke - consistent and fast

Evan's Butterfly Carter's Butterfly
Carter's Freestyle
One of the things I've been most impressed with this year is Evan's sportsmanship. The qualifying times get significantly harder when you jump into the 11-12 age bracket. He's improved, but not that much; however, he has kept his spirits up and cheered his brother and fellow teammates on like a real champ.

Evan cheering on his relay race teammember.

The girls, Braxton, and I went to the finals so that we could cheer on our brothers and see our dad. It's hot, loud, and boring in the stands, but they made the most of it (with the help of a few M&Ms and smarties).

Isn't she gorgeous!?!

Lizzie's yelling at the boys, "Go Carter!" "Go, Evan!"