LS Girls State Champions! LS Boys State Runnersup!

This is a two part post. The first part being the more important part and the second part just being what happened today.
This weekend was state championships for Massachusetts swimming and diving and going into the meets both our boys and girls teams were seeded well. We were hoping for top 3 finishes for both teams and possibly the first state championship since the boys won in 1998. The boys started off on Friday night with amazing races and a true team effort, with everybody but 1 kid who swam at states scoring a point (and the one who didnt score a point set a PR). We were in 3rd or 4th for most of the meet training Andover, BC High and St. John's Prep. St. John's winning the meet was a forgone conclusion so we were more concerned about Andover and BC High. The last two events to score were the diving and the 400 free relay. Our divers were diving well but we were down by 20 points with two events left so we thought that 3rd would be where we would end up... but then our divers ended up finishing 1,4,5,8 and scoring 42 points and vaulting us into 2nd place so all our 400 free relay needed to do was finish 6th or better. The relay ended up in 5th place and 2nd place was ours. The boys worked really hard this year and tied for the regular season DCL title, were 2nd at DCLs, 2nd at Sectionals and 2nd at States. An amazing year!
On Sunday the girls team bested the boys team and walked away with the Sate Championship. There were several amazing performances including a 52.92 100 freestyle, and two relays winning by 5 seconds. The girls team fought with power and guts and I was amazed at how focused and determined they were to succeed and win the title. Of course at the end of the meet Ann and I got thrown in the pool. There is no complaining when you get thrown in a pool by your team because they deserved it. All I could do was laugh and think back to when we threw our coach into the pool after winning states, it is something that I will never forget and this weekend was a weekend I will never forget. The 2008-2009 LS Swim and Dive team worked hard all year long and we went into the season with few expectations but they worked through some tough problems all year including pool closings two times and snow storms canceling 2 meets. They really persevered this year and they now have a great story to tell.

The second part is that I am now in Chula Vista, CA for the next few weeks for a hard training block. The flights were long and delayed including a 7 and a half hour flight from Boston to San Francisco due to the winds, a missed connection due to landing when I was supposed to be departing and not having a ride but instead having to take a cab. All in all it was a long day and I am excited to be in warm weather and am ready to train.