The Politics of Swimming

So nothing can ever be easy. Megan's being named Swimmer of the Meet is now ensconced in controversy. I am not sure if she realizes, but she might, because on the way home, she kept saying, "the coaches would only vote for me if they wanted to, they had to want to vote for me, right?" The swimmer of the meet is chosen by a vote from each coach. I think there were something like 20 teams there. When I was standing by the scorers table, there were 13 votes handed in, and ten were for Megan.

However, some people feel that since she is a freshman, she should not have been awarded the distinction. There was one other girl there, a senior, who also won two events, and her constituents feel that she should have had the award. People are posting mean things on the nj.com swimming forums, and sticking little digs into facebook postings. Others are just going around shooting off their mouths. The girl herself, as far as we know, has been perfectly gracious towards Megan.

Mostly, it isn't against Megan. They call the coaches idiots and say why would they give it to a freshman, when neither girl broke any records. Of course, we went there as newbies. Megan went to try to swim her best. Of course she would try to win, but she wasn't counting on it. In fact, she was worried about being seeded up so high in this type of a meet.

However - she was a second seed in both of her events. She came from behind in both races and more than outtouched her competitors. She swam good, smart races, bettered both of her times, and she was a virtual unknown before she dove off of the block. The other girl won her two events, sure. But she didn't beat either of her times, and she had no real competition. It is unfortunate that so much emphasis is placed on this award. We were thrilled with the two gold medals, and the videos have even been posted on digital sports - they speak for themselves.

So, no matter what they all say, we know that Megan got into that pool and swam her heart out - did her best and pushed to the limits. That's what a championship meet should be about - not being guaranteed some award just because you're the top seed and a senior. This may never happen again for Megan, but we are not going to take away from her just because she's a freshman. Now she will be the one to beat, and that's a tough position to defend. We have all of our toughest meets coming up in the next three weeks. After that, onward and upward - to the regional meet on February 9! And through all of this, the real goal is Y States in March.

And in other news, Puff is set to be spayed tomorrow. She's been making some noises like she might be going into heat, but she hasn't been trying to tempt the boys with her wares and calling out in the night. They did say they would spay her even in heat, but I could postpone it if I were sure. If she doesn't prove it to me by tonight, I'll just take her in.