Swim Districts and the USSSA Fall State Championship

Yesterday J swam in his first district swim meet and did very well.  He swam the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:18.36, placing 19th out of 37 swimmers.  He didn't make it into the finals.  Only the top 16 finishers moved on, but he was really pleased with how he did.  The district meet concludes his sophomore swim season, since he won;t be moving onto the regional competition.

In baseball news, TP had their first tournament of the fall.  They played in the USSSA Fall State championship.  The tournament began yesterday, but J missed it due to being at the district swim meet.  TP played three games and unfortunately, did not do well.  They lost all three games, mostly due to errors from what I was told by the other parents.  Coach T was not too happy with them and told them they needed to show up today ready to play baseball.  And they did.   Their first game today was a great one.  They had solid defense, and their bats were going pretty good.  They played hard and squeaked by the other team to win the game, 3-2.  J played first base and did excellent.  He made a great diving catch of a foul ball about halfway through the game.  But the best moment came at the end of the game.  It was bottom of the seventh and final inning.  TP was up by one run.  The other team was up to bat, with two outs, and two runners on base.  The batter hit a hard  line drive which would have resulted in the other team winning the game.  J made a picture perfect leap and caught the ball, making the final out of the game.  It was so fantastic that we called Coach C to share the news.  The second game began about twenty minutes after the first one ended.  TP again played hard, with good defense and solid bats.  Unfortunately, the other team managed to squeeze by them and win, 3-2.  Kind of weird about the scores, isn't it?  J caught in the second game and again did very well.  He made some beautiful throws to second base, and got two base hits.  All in all, the day was a success, both for TP and for J personally.  

J is taking the winter off from swimming and concentrating solely on baseball and his training.  Per Coach C's instructions, he'll be going a bit harder on his workouts and increasing the amount of weight he's using.  He'll also be adding in running on Saturdays now that he isn't swimming. Week eleven begins tomorrow and so far he's doing great!  The results are becoming obvious, as his performance in today's games shows.   Try outs for the school team are in mid January.  If J keeps up at the rate he's going, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.