This Past Week and States
Last week went by really slowly, but it wasn’t a very bad week. I’m feeling pretty good about everything, actually. We got report cards, and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that I had really done badly in history, but somehow I received an A-, which was my lowest grade. I got and A+ in Chemistry, AP Spanish, Keyboarding, and Honors English, and I got A’s in both Pre-Calculus and Band. So it was an excellent report card; I still can’t believe I’m doing as well as I am this year.
Tuesday was an interesting day. We had practice in the morning, but we weren’t sure if we were going to, because the weather wasn’t very cooperative, and it was snowing. We did have practice, even though, when we got to the pool we discovered that there was a two-hour delay of school. After practice, Baumgartner and I went to school with Motts and watched The Simpsons in his room. During the day I took a math competition test, which got me out of a couple of classes and doesn’t really count for anything. It was pretty difficult, so I doubt that I did very well, but that’s okay. Tuesday night, even thought it was snowing, I went to the school to watch the Girls Varsity Basketball Team’s last home game of the season, which they lost. I feel kind of bad for them, because it’s been a pretty rough season. They’ve only won one game, and they’ve had some issues with injuries. Whatever the case, it was good to go watch and support them.
The rest of the week went by really slowly, and some things happened that I wish hadn’t, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I unintentionally made someone pretty upset over what they considered a joke, so I feel pretty bad about that, but I had difficulty hearing what she had said. For some reason it really bothered me, and I said something, even though I know I shouldn’t have, because it’s none of my business really. I did, though, and there’s not much I can do. It’s a difficult thing, because I feel bad, but I also have a problem with that which was said, so I’m now trying to avoid something that I already involved myself in. Not sure what I should do about that. People are difficult, and I don’t think I’m very good at interacting with them. I try, I really do, but I just don’t think that I’m very good at dealing with people, and I hate it.
Thursday night I shaved my legs. It took close to two hours, because this year my relay team decided to get Speedos, which meant I had to shave quite a bit more than I did last year for the Jammer suits. For school on Friday, I wore shorts, shirt, and tie. I enjoy people’s reactions to my having shaved my legs, and since I’m completely comfortable with it, I can deal with the few who seem to think that there’s something wrong with it. I stayed after for about a half an hour Friday to wait for mother to pick me up. I just hung out with people in the hall-way, which was kind of fun, because Nick had his Speedo, and we were showing everyone what we’d be wearing. Then mother picked me up and we waited until around 4:00 PM when we met up with the Baumgartners to head to our hotel over on the seacoast. When we got there we put everything in the hotel and headed out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. We all got hamburgers, and I was pretty impressed, they make really good burgers. Baumgartner and I were doing impressions much of the evening, which kept everyone laughing, so it was a pretty good time. We returned to the hotel and decided to check out the pool and test out our Speedos. When we got down there, there were three chicks in bikinis in the hot tub, so Baumgartner and I decided we’d make a show of it. We dramatically stripped down to our Speedos and slowly made our way over to the pool. We jumped in and swam around for awhile, it was kind of fun to just relax in the water. A little while later, Fratea arrived, and told us he’d be down in a minute to go swimming. The coaches arrived not too long after, and came to the pool to talk to us, at which point the three of us decided to show off he Speedos some more. They were pretty impressed. We went up to Motts’s room after to discuss the order for our 200 Freestyle Relay, but didn’t stay long, because we would have to get up early the next morning. It was decided that Nick would lead off, followed by Baumgartner, myself, and finally Fratea as our anchor.
We went to bed, and slept until 5:00 AM Saturday morning. We all showered and packed up our bags and met everyone in the lobby for breakfast. Then we headed to UNH for warm-ups at 7:30 AM. Warm-ups went pretty well, and everyone was ready to swim. My first event was the 200 IM, which went pretty well. I was seeded 31st, so I didn’t expect to do much, but I did drop around two seconds and I’m pretty sure I placed 30th. My other individual event was the 100 Backstroke, which wasn’t until much later. The meet was fun to watch, there were lots of great swimmers there. I was seeded 15th in the 100 Backstroke, so I was kind of hoping that I could swim really well, and maybe make top 12 so I could come back and swim it again in Finals. My swim went pretty well; my stroke felt excellent, but my start and my turns weren’t all that great. I dropped more time, though, so that’s exciting. What didn’t please me, though, is that I ended up in 17th place. So, my individual swims were over, and I wouldn’t be coming back in either of them for finals. After preliminaries ended, we all went back to the hotel and got Subway for lunch. We tried to rest up during the break, but none of us did a very good job at this.
We returned to the college for finals, and when we got there we met the swimmers who had come up just for the relays. They were all pretty excited to be there, although they did seem a little nervous. Those of us who had swum in preliminaries were pretty tired, but we still had to swim our relays too, so we got back in the pool to warm-up. First we had the 200 Medley Relay, which we were originally seeded 11th in. The swim went pretty well, and I think we either dropped a little bit or gained a little bit of time, but either way we were right on our seed time. From what I heard, though we moved up a couple spots and placed 9th, but I never heard this for sure. I was disappointed with my leg of the relay, because I’ve done better, but overall it was really good. Nick and the FR had both made finals in their events, and they both swam really well, so I was happy for them. They both placed top six in one event, which qualifies them for New Englands. Also, the FR did a 1:02 in her 100 Backstroke, which I was pretty impressed with, she’s still about four seconds faster than I am at it. My next and final swim, though, was the 200 Freestyle Relay, which we were all pretty excited about, because we were seeded 9th, and we were all convinced we could drop some time. Things didn’t go exactly as we had planned, though. We dropped about a second off our seed time, but we should have done better. We placed 12th, and we weren’t exactly happy, because Nick had led off with, for him, a very slow leg of the relay. I don’t know what happened, but it’s hard to believe that if he had been swimming his hardest he would have gone that slowly. The time was good, though, and if we keep dropping, we’ll really have a shot at it next year. The other guys, including Martineau and the three freshmen who had come up just for the relay, finished off the night in style with a really impressive 400 Freestyle relay. I was really proud of them. I think the Monadnock guys’ team made the best showing it has ever made at States this year. At one point we were ranked 9th overall in the meet, but we didn’t finish there, I think we ended the night somewhere around 16th, but it’s still exciting to see what we’ve done, and where we’ve come from.
We finally left the college sometime around 10:30 PM and quite a few of us went to the Olive Garden for dinner. That was interesting, because we were all exhausted and a little crazy after being at the meet all day. The food was really good, but I had a really bad headache and my back was really bothering me. We then returned to the hotel and all went to bed. I slept pretty well, and we all got up pretty early this morning considering what we did yesterday. We went down for breakfast and then went to the pool to swim and hang out before leaving. Then we packed everything up and came home.
It was a good weekend, and excellent meet, and although compared to others in the state my times weren’t all that impressive, I’m proud of what I accomplished, and I’m amazed at how far I’ve come. No matter what, we got to swim this year, so it was much better than last year in that sense.
The Super Bowl is tonight, I’m picking the Steelers to win. Hopefully it’ll be a good game. School tomorrow…
Peace,
Justin
Tuesday was an interesting day. We had practice in the morning, but we weren’t sure if we were going to, because the weather wasn’t very cooperative, and it was snowing. We did have practice, even though, when we got to the pool we discovered that there was a two-hour delay of school. After practice, Baumgartner and I went to school with Motts and watched The Simpsons in his room. During the day I took a math competition test, which got me out of a couple of classes and doesn’t really count for anything. It was pretty difficult, so I doubt that I did very well, but that’s okay. Tuesday night, even thought it was snowing, I went to the school to watch the Girls Varsity Basketball Team’s last home game of the season, which they lost. I feel kind of bad for them, because it’s been a pretty rough season. They’ve only won one game, and they’ve had some issues with injuries. Whatever the case, it was good to go watch and support them.
The rest of the week went by really slowly, and some things happened that I wish hadn’t, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I unintentionally made someone pretty upset over what they considered a joke, so I feel pretty bad about that, but I had difficulty hearing what she had said. For some reason it really bothered me, and I said something, even though I know I shouldn’t have, because it’s none of my business really. I did, though, and there’s not much I can do. It’s a difficult thing, because I feel bad, but I also have a problem with that which was said, so I’m now trying to avoid something that I already involved myself in. Not sure what I should do about that. People are difficult, and I don’t think I’m very good at interacting with them. I try, I really do, but I just don’t think that I’m very good at dealing with people, and I hate it.
Thursday night I shaved my legs. It took close to two hours, because this year my relay team decided to get Speedos, which meant I had to shave quite a bit more than I did last year for the Jammer suits. For school on Friday, I wore shorts, shirt, and tie. I enjoy people’s reactions to my having shaved my legs, and since I’m completely comfortable with it, I can deal with the few who seem to think that there’s something wrong with it. I stayed after for about a half an hour Friday to wait for mother to pick me up. I just hung out with people in the hall-way, which was kind of fun, because Nick had his Speedo, and we were showing everyone what we’d be wearing. Then mother picked me up and we waited until around 4:00 PM when we met up with the Baumgartners to head to our hotel over on the seacoast. When we got there we put everything in the hotel and headed out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. We all got hamburgers, and I was pretty impressed, they make really good burgers. Baumgartner and I were doing impressions much of the evening, which kept everyone laughing, so it was a pretty good time. We returned to the hotel and decided to check out the pool and test out our Speedos. When we got down there, there were three chicks in bikinis in the hot tub, so Baumgartner and I decided we’d make a show of it. We dramatically stripped down to our Speedos and slowly made our way over to the pool. We jumped in and swam around for awhile, it was kind of fun to just relax in the water. A little while later, Fratea arrived, and told us he’d be down in a minute to go swimming. The coaches arrived not too long after, and came to the pool to talk to us, at which point the three of us decided to show off he Speedos some more. They were pretty impressed. We went up to Motts’s room after to discuss the order for our 200 Freestyle Relay, but didn’t stay long, because we would have to get up early the next morning. It was decided that Nick would lead off, followed by Baumgartner, myself, and finally Fratea as our anchor.
We went to bed, and slept until 5:00 AM Saturday morning. We all showered and packed up our bags and met everyone in the lobby for breakfast. Then we headed to UNH for warm-ups at 7:30 AM. Warm-ups went pretty well, and everyone was ready to swim. My first event was the 200 IM, which went pretty well. I was seeded 31st, so I didn’t expect to do much, but I did drop around two seconds and I’m pretty sure I placed 30th. My other individual event was the 100 Backstroke, which wasn’t until much later. The meet was fun to watch, there were lots of great swimmers there. I was seeded 15th in the 100 Backstroke, so I was kind of hoping that I could swim really well, and maybe make top 12 so I could come back and swim it again in Finals. My swim went pretty well; my stroke felt excellent, but my start and my turns weren’t all that great. I dropped more time, though, so that’s exciting. What didn’t please me, though, is that I ended up in 17th place. So, my individual swims were over, and I wouldn’t be coming back in either of them for finals. After preliminaries ended, we all went back to the hotel and got Subway for lunch. We tried to rest up during the break, but none of us did a very good job at this.
We returned to the college for finals, and when we got there we met the swimmers who had come up just for the relays. They were all pretty excited to be there, although they did seem a little nervous. Those of us who had swum in preliminaries were pretty tired, but we still had to swim our relays too, so we got back in the pool to warm-up. First we had the 200 Medley Relay, which we were originally seeded 11th in. The swim went pretty well, and I think we either dropped a little bit or gained a little bit of time, but either way we were right on our seed time. From what I heard, though we moved up a couple spots and placed 9th, but I never heard this for sure. I was disappointed with my leg of the relay, because I’ve done better, but overall it was really good. Nick and the FR had both made finals in their events, and they both swam really well, so I was happy for them. They both placed top six in one event, which qualifies them for New Englands. Also, the FR did a 1:02 in her 100 Backstroke, which I was pretty impressed with, she’s still about four seconds faster than I am at it. My next and final swim, though, was the 200 Freestyle Relay, which we were all pretty excited about, because we were seeded 9th, and we were all convinced we could drop some time. Things didn’t go exactly as we had planned, though. We dropped about a second off our seed time, but we should have done better. We placed 12th, and we weren’t exactly happy, because Nick had led off with, for him, a very slow leg of the relay. I don’t know what happened, but it’s hard to believe that if he had been swimming his hardest he would have gone that slowly. The time was good, though, and if we keep dropping, we’ll really have a shot at it next year. The other guys, including Martineau and the three freshmen who had come up just for the relay, finished off the night in style with a really impressive 400 Freestyle relay. I was really proud of them. I think the Monadnock guys’ team made the best showing it has ever made at States this year. At one point we were ranked 9th overall in the meet, but we didn’t finish there, I think we ended the night somewhere around 16th, but it’s still exciting to see what we’ve done, and where we’ve come from.
We finally left the college sometime around 10:30 PM and quite a few of us went to the Olive Garden for dinner. That was interesting, because we were all exhausted and a little crazy after being at the meet all day. The food was really good, but I had a really bad headache and my back was really bothering me. We then returned to the hotel and all went to bed. I slept pretty well, and we all got up pretty early this morning considering what we did yesterday. We went down for breakfast and then went to the pool to swim and hang out before leaving. Then we packed everything up and came home.
It was a good weekend, and excellent meet, and although compared to others in the state my times weren’t all that impressive, I’m proud of what I accomplished, and I’m amazed at how far I’ve come. No matter what, we got to swim this year, so it was much better than last year in that sense.
The Super Bowl is tonight, I’m picking the Steelers to win. Hopefully it’ll be a good game. School tomorrow…
Peace,
Justin
posted by Jw at 4:58 PM
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