NAIA hosted their National Swimming Championships this week in Elkhart, IN.
This year, Marissa had the honor of earning a spot on IWU's National team as a relay swimmer. (Although we are all super excited that she had this opportunity, we were a little sad that the event would take place over her spring break and she wouldn't be able to come home at all.) But mostly we were just super excited for her as this has been a goal of hers since she was a senior in high school and going through the recruiting process.
+++
After having their last official practice in their home pool, the team kicked off the week's festivities by having a team dinner at the Bledsoe's house on Monday night and I heard that there was a lot of wonderful food. Thank you so much to the Bledsoe family for looking out for our swimmers and diver once again.
Then on Tuesday morning, the athletic department called the team together and prayed over them before they headed out. They would arrive in Elkhart later that afternoon in time to have one last shake out swim and then they would check into their hotel where they could change and get ready for the National banquet, which would be hosted later that evening.
And a picture of the National team swimmers as they finished their last official practice of the 25-26 season. Congratulations guys. It was a really long and difficult season and we are so proud of all of you!
+++
I'm not quite sure when this dinner video was taken, but Marissa sent it to us to show us the silliness that happens when they all get together.
It downloaded into a short that you can see it by clicking here.
Marissa was on the schedule to swim in the 200 freestyle relay on Thursday night, so as soon as Nolan got out of school, we drove up to the natatorium and watched the event finals.
They had a young swimmer from Milligan University play the National Anthem on his saxophone, which I'm told was a first. He did a really nice job and then he changed into his suit and went out to compete.
'Such a beautiful facility and an amazing place to host such an event.
When we arrived, Marissa had just finished warming up and was getting ready to eat and rest as her event would be the last girls' event of the night. She saw us come in and gave us a smile and a thumbs up.
And about 45 minutes later, she would go into the locker room to get dressed into her tech suit and to get mentally ready for the relay. (There may have been a little more eating as well. LOL)
Due to NAIA rules, only one swimmer is allowed to compete on the relays unless they have qualified in an individual event. Two of our relay girls had bids in individual events so they knew that they had guaranteed their spot, but despite meeting the "B" standard times, neither Marissa nor Tristan had fast enough times to qualify in their individual events and to meet that rule. Marissa had faster times in all of her events from the conference meet, so thankfully she was chosen as our "extra" relay swimmer.
But again, due to those new and confusing rules, the relay that actually swam the qualifying time all through the season and was seeded 10th at this event was not able to compete and Tristan was replaced by another girl from our team who normally swims the backstroke. The girls would swim well considering, but unfortunately they would finish in 14th place on the night with a time about two seconds slower. Marissa had a strong second leg for the team however so she was definitely pleased with that result. It also wasn't lost on her that this would be the last time that she would be swimming with the seniors, which made the evening extra bittersweet. As I mentioned previously, it was a really long and difficult season filled with injury and emotional battles, probably her hardest season yet, but she definitely kept working and fighting and ended the season strong! We are so proud of her. (We are proud of the whole team really)
+++
The team's photographer captured these great shots of Marissa up on the starting blocks as she was making final adjustments to her goggles and getting ready to dive in...
+++
And now with her event complete, it's time to sit back and have some fun!!
I am so thankful that we live close enough that we had the opportunity to go and to support her at such an exciting time.
And also thankful that Dawn, Amslie, and Grif also made the drive up to cheer. I know Marissa really appreciated that!!
+++
Although Marissa didn't swim in any other events, she stayed on deck all through the meet and offered encouragement to all of her teammates -- in the good and the bad.
Congratulations to Marissa on being named a NAIA National Qualifier at the upcoming National Championships this week in Elkhart, Indiana.
We are so proud of you and your accomplishments this year.
From her second grade of elementary school to her second year of college... Marissa has spent a lot of time practicing and improving over the years. It's been such a joy to my heart to watch her doing what she truly loves for all of these years.
After Marissa got back to campus, she sent us some fun pictures that they had taken on the side of the pool deck. These are pictures of her and her sweet friends and I wanted to save them here for future reference:
Marissa and Chloe:
Marissa and Emma:
Marissa and Aubrey:
The roomies... Martha, Aubrey, and Marissa
Marissa and Marta
Marissa and Reyna
Marissa and Ellie
+++
And then the awards started being announced, starting with Academic All Conference:
And All Conference in two different Relays:
Marissa would also record two new Season's Best and three new PR's.
On Saturday morning, Noel and I checked out of our Airbnb and then headed over to the pool for one last long day of competition. On Saturday, Marissa would be swimming in the individual 100 freestyle and then in the evening, she would compete in the 400 Freestyle Relay. We arrived early enough that we were able to watch the team warm up and then the meet started again at 11:00 a.m.
There's Marissa along the sidelines (and in her heavy coat once again).
And then, whether we were really truly ready or not, it was time for Marissa to swim in the 100 individual freestyle race. I was praying that she would be able to swim well and to get into the 54's again since she has been working so hard and hadn't achieved that time all season long.
Here is the video of the preliminaries. There would be three IWU swimmers in this heat but Marissa is up near the top of the screen in lane #4. She is in the top four for the first 50 yards of the race but then when the top swimmers start to pull away, she stays with them and finishes in the top three!!
I was so excited as I was watching the race because Marissa was staying right up there with the fastest swimmers in her race and usually, if you can finish in the top three in each heat, you have a really good chance to come back for the championship finals. So I was already clapping and cheering her on for a great finish, but then we looked up at the board and I saw that her time registered as a 53.94!! No way! Could that even be a correct time? Was I looking at someone else's time by mistake? Seriously, I was praying for a 54 second and God just really blew us away as she lowered her seed time by 1.27, which is almost unheard of in a distance of 100 yards. This was definitely a new lifetime best and she would be seeded sixth heading into the evening's "A" finals.
She was definitely SO excited! I don't think that she was able to stop smiling for quite some time!!
+++
After the morning session came to a close, Marissa said that she would need to stay at the pool for a while longer before heading back to the hotel with the team, so Noel and I left and went to get lunch. Since we were already checked out of our place, we also went downtown and found a bike store and some other places where we tried to waste a little time. We also just drove around the town and commented on all of the snow and ice piles that were just along the side of the road. Despite the fact that the winter storm had passed through over two weeks ago, much of it still hadn't been cleaned up. One of the local colleges mentioned that all of the schools had missed over 8 days because the area wasn't ready and equipped to take care of all of the snow and ice, which the swimmers from our school found really funny since they only were delayed for about four hours on the first day.
After walking around for quite a while, Noel and I headed back to the pool around 5:00 for the final session of the weekend.
Once again we watched the teams do their warm-ups and then Marissa headed over to the trainers table so she could have some work done on her shoulders and neck. (We are so thankful for Mary the trainer. She works so hard to keep them all healthy.)
A few minutes later, Marissa would head off to the locker room to get suited up and then she would come out and take her place in the line for the championship heat where she would be paraded out to her place behind the starting blocks for her 100 final. Once again, my heart started beating so quickly as I wondered if she could repeat (or even improve) on her morning's race.
Marissa is the 2nd swimmer from the bottom in lane #8. One of her teammates is in lane #9.
The SID took this picture and in this picture, Marissa is on the left and her teammate is on her Right.
Once again, I took pictures and Noel took a video.
Wow! What a race. It was another quick one and even though Marissa finished in 6th place overall, she swam another new lifetime best with a time of 53.79. Once again, we were just sitting there in disbelief as we looked at her time and realized that she just swam 53 seconds twice in one day. I know that she wanted to try to take even more time off, but we were so very excited all the same!
Her roommate Marta swam really well and finished 2nd.
As you can see IWU represented us well in that final event.
After the awards presentation, all three of those girls went back to cool down in the other pool before getting ready to finish off the night in their final event which was the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Last minute prayers together and then the race would start.
Marissa would swim in the second position once again and the entire team would swim in lane #4...the second team from the top.
Another great race...
When Marissa dove in, the first place team was already clearly in the lead, but the next four places were too close to call as they were all swimming hard for position. This time however, Marissa was determined not to be passed so she went out strong from the beginning. You can see that she steadily pulls away and by the time she hits her final turn, she has put them into a solid 2nd place. They were still in second place when she hit the final wall and they never lost momentum after that. The IWU ladies would take home second place and another All Conference Award to finish out the ladies portion of the meet.
Congratulations to the IWU Swim and Dive team!!
The Lady Wildcats would finish 2nd overall in the conference and the men's team would finish in 3rd
What a great meet!!
+++
After the meet, before loading up and heading out for the final time.
Marissa would head back to the hotel with her team and Noel and I would get back into the car and began the long 5+ hour drive home. We are so thankful that we made it safely home around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and we will always consider ourselves blessed that we could be there to support Marissa and watch her do what she loves. (And apparently what she is also really good at!!)
+++
On Sunday morning, Marissa and the team headed back home. As you can see, a certain someone was really tired after that long weekend.
