State.

Another swim post.  At this time of year it's a bit all-consuming around here.  And since I was up late last night shedding tears over it (not the first time I have cried buckets for one of my children - in fact, as I was blubbering away to Bill, I could clearly recount similar evenings spent for each of my oldest three), I thought it best to get it off my chest here and now.

The State Championship Meet was held at EPIC in Fort Collins.  This is about an hour-and-a-half away in light-to-moderate traffic and good road conditions.  Mar and I headed off with Shi and a couple of her swim buddies Friday at about noon (Mar and I had to sneak out of the funeral of a dear ward member - Bill's first to officiate - early, so as to leave on time; and of course, due to the timing of that sad/happy event, Bill was unable to attend the State meet at all).

I had stress and panic attacks the entire drive, worried about getting there in time.  Shilo and her friends were following in a car behind me, making last-second maneuvers and speedy driving off limits.  Once we arrived, the girls were not stressed in the least, as they had 5 minutes to spare before it was time to warm up.  Thank heavens we didn't encounter any freeway delays or heavy traffic, something I had feared the entire drive, since we were cutting it so close.

Mar and I had front row seats here:

We discovered this to be a blessing and a curse.  We were in a great spot in front of the 8 competition lanes, with some extra room to occasionally stretch out our legs, but we looked through these lovely bars the entire meet, and had oh-so-many people constantly walking in front of us.  

Shilo was competing in the Medley Relay, the 100 Back, and the 400 Free Relay.  (FYI, the Medley Relay is always the first event at a meet, the 400 Free Relay is always the last event.  Shilo has competed in these two relays the entire year, necessitating that we be present before each meet begins, and stay until the very last heat of the last event.  Phew!  It's been a long season.)

Here is Shilo's 100 Back (she is in the silver cap in lane 3):

I am so proud of her!!  She swam her best time, placed second in her heat, and placed 28th (out of 49) overall - only 12 places away from being in the finals.  This is amazing progress considering that last year she came into the meet in last place, and left the meet in last place.  A 21+ place improvement, in conjunction with the fact that the qualifying time had been adjusted faster this year, will not go unnoticed by this mama.  She is AWESOME.  (The program listed all the past State winners and times, and we giggled about how Shilo could have won State back in 1973-75 and 1979.)

This is her 400 Free Relay team, just before they were heading to the blocks.

Those girls swam fast, knocking three seconds off their fastest time, and made it back for finals.  They are the first relay team from Legend to compete in the finals, and I was so excited for them.  Finals were Saturday afternoon, and I hadn't planned on staying overnight, so Mar and I headed back home with plans to catch the finals live online the following day.

So why did I spend last night crying a river?

Yesterday Bill and I periodically watched the finals online as we waited for that final event.  We cheered on the two team members that had made it to finals in their individual events.  We watched Missy-the-missile do impressive swims, helping her team win the State title (which wouldn't have happened without her). Finally it was time for the final event.  Legend was in the consolation bracket, having placed 15th in the Prelims, swimming in lane 2.  My heart was racing as we saw them prepare to be announced on their way to the blocks.  

Long pause.

We noticed the coach (OUR coach) messing with something on one of the girls' ears.  The commentators started talking about how the official must have seen an earring, which is against CHSAA rules, and requested that it be removed before the race or a DQ would be issued.

Long pause.

I guess they only give a team 2 minutes to deal with sudden issues, so they began announcing the teams.  Legend was going to switch up their relay order because the coach was still working on the earring.  The three remaining girls got behind the blocks and the race began.  The announcers thought that Shilo was perhaps the lead-off swimmer with the order-change, so she got a lot of name air-time, however, I knew it wasn't her :-)  After the first leg, Legend was in the lead.  Shilo swam the second leg, after which they were still holding on to 2nd place.  The third leg took off.  The girls were swimming hard and fast.  When the swimmer finished, there was no one to swim the final leg.  

Automatic DQ.

I felt sick.  Angry.  I wanted to yell.  At the girl with the earring (a ring on the upper cartilage that could only be removed with pliers).  At the coach.  They both knew the rules.  They chose to disobey.  They thought they could get away with it, since they had all season.  Even the commentators said it was a little bit of a late discovery - the last event of the last meet.  And because of their choices, my daughter gets to pay the price.  She doesn't get acknowledgement for her great efforts. Instead she gets humiliation.  The only DQ given at the finals.  Dashed hopes.  Embarrassment.

Why couldn't the officials have seen the earring when that girl swam her individual race earlier in the day?  Then she would have been the only to suffer from her poor choice.

I suppose it's a lesson.

Life isn't fair.

Bill caught the drama on his phone, which I will share once it's downloaded, hopefully in the next day or two.

Today I will be going to church with puffy eyes.  I hate that.

Here's the drama.  It's a bit long, but you get the details.... if you're interested ;-)