Our SAISA Swim Champs have arrived home and I am sure most, if not all, slept this afternoon. It was an intense long weekend of fun, excitement, challenge and celebration.
The SAISA Swim Competition is set up so we have a morning and afternoon session each day (8 hours combined of races) where swimmers compete in preliminary swims in the morning to qualify for the finals in the afternoon. The top 6 swimmers swim in A finals and the next 6 swim in B finals. Swimmers in both A and B finals earn points for the team. Each swimmer is allowed to enter 7 individual events and 3 relays. That means during SAISA, one swimmer could swim more than 15 races. Whew! Our team core value of perseverance was definitely on display in full force at SAISA.
On Saturday, DAY 3, our TAISM Eagles swam another 63 personal best times. That brings our combined meet total of personal best swims to a whopping 192. Wow!!!
Our swimmers broke an additional 6 TAISM school records with one record being broken by 3 teammates.
My-Linh Gelinas - Girls 15+ 200 Freestyle, 2:17.76
Eva Bonde - Girls 15+ 50 Buttefly, 30.70 (prelims), 30.61 (finals)
Eva Bonde - Girls 15+ 100 Breaststroke, 1:22.50 (prelims), 1:22.17 (finals)
Ryan Kelly - Boys 10-12 100 Breaststroke, 1:32.49
*Aysha Noureldin and Neive Cosker also broke the previous school record in the 100 Breaststroke. (Aysha - 1:23.99 and Neive - 1:25.75)
And in an exciting finish to the end of the meet all of our relay teams swam their hearts out with two teams setting new TAISM school records.
The 10-12 Boys (Max Gelinas, Asher Callaway, Carter Petersen, Ryan Kelly) broke the existing TAISM school record with a winning time of 4:56.16.
The 15+ Girls (My-Linh Gelinas, Maren Lee, Aysha Noureldin, Eva Bonde) swam a time of 4:26.46, setting a new TAISM school record and placing third overall. In this race, all 3 of the top finishing teams shattered the previous SAISA record. What a competitive group of girls in the 15+ age group!
So, as we celebrate the records broken, the medals won, personal best swims and all of the amazing performances at SAISA by our TAISM swimmers, we also celebrate the less tangible aspects of a big competition like this. We celebrate the way our teammates support each other in the natural ups and downs of competition, the way our swimmers rallied to swim their best even when they felt sore and exhausted and we celebrate the way each swimmer showed up each day ready to give their very best while representing TAISM in Kathmandu.
I am so proud to have had the privilege to work with this group of swimmers and be a part of the TAISM swim "family". This season and again this weekend, we asked our swimmers to focus on what they could control, to swim with heart, to show up to compete, to do the right thing, to love eachother, to keep going when it was hard and to remember to have FUN----and the SAISA Swim Team of 2019 rose to the challenge! What a joy to witness.
Special thanks to the parents who have supported our team throughout the season. You are behind the scenes everyday supporting our athletes to be their best selves. Thanks for cheering us on!
AND...Thank you TAISM staff & community for cheering us on from back home!
Yeah! Way to go EAGLES!!!
Ms. Cori
(with Tom and Grace)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.