Track

The City track championship qualifying races were held Saturday.

L ran the 50, 100, and 200. C ran the 100 and 200.

L was a little annoyed with her assignments. Each athlete has a three event limit, and she was hoping to run a relay. Her coaches are smart, though. They know we will win the medley relay as long as we don’t drop the baton thanks to our 400 runner. So they are chasing the team points by having L run three individual sprints. When she complained I told her she had a shot to win three City championships plus the team title, so stop whining.

The Saturday heats were not organized at all. You just lined up wherever. A lot of the faster girls lined up in the first heat. But L kept hanging back. I don’t know if she wanted to see the fast girls run or if she was interested in keeping her heat winning streak alive. It worked out ok whatever her motivation was.

She won her heats in all three races. In the 50, she qualified second, 0.10 behind the top girl. In the 100 she did race a fast girl. They were neck-and-neck for the first 75 meters but L pulled away late. She was again second overall, this time 0.02 behind the fastest girl, the same girl who was first in the 50. She ran slower in the 200, but still qualified fifth, about 0.5 behind the fastest girl. In an upset the girl who is first in the 50 and 100 was only third in the 200. Apparently this girl, E, won all three sprints two years ago.

I think it was good L didn’t run against E Saturday. She knows how fast E is, but E has no idea how fast L is. From C’s experience two years ago, we know everyone runs faster in the finals. Hopefully L has enough speed Wednesday night to catch E in at least one race.

C ran poorly – for her – in the 200, and was fourth in her heat. The top eight go through to the finals and she was 20th.

She rocked her 100, though. She won her heat by two seconds and qualified sixth for the finals. She beat both a girl who had edged her in her 200 heat and one of her teammates who had beaten her three times this year. It was a great run and we were thrilled for her, although she seemed a little embarrassed by our enthusiasm.

That sets up a fun night of finals Wednesday. L has a legit shot at winning all three races. She thinks the 200 is her best chance, which made me laugh since she qualified worst for it. We had a talk Saturday night about race strategy. I told her how in the 50 and 100 she and E will have the two middle lanes, so she will always know exactly where she stands. She is excited and confident to go head-to-head with her.

C ran soooo much faster in her two City finals in sixth grade than she did in qualifying. She chopped over a second off her 200 time when she finished third. It’s unlikely she can win the 100, but I’d love to see her blow it out and improve on her qualifying place in her last individual race of middle school.

C will also run in at least one relay.

L and her classmates are set up great to win the girls 5th–6th team title. In Friday’s field events they nabbed two second and one third place finish. The mile final was run on Saturday and our distance girl won by 16 seconds. That was after throwing up three times at the start because she was so nervous. Those points put them in first by 7.5 points going into Wednesday.

Our distance girl should win the 800 and bring the medley relay team home. L’s buddy will run with her in both the 50 and 100, giving us five chances to grab points in the sprints. And we have enough sprinters left to likely place in the 4×100.


Tennis

M played across the street Wednesday for the second time in a five days. We’re not sure how that worked out, exactly, but did not complain about the easy commute. This time she and her partner got moved up to JV #1 singles, and had to play girls who normally play varsity #2 doubles. They got smoked 6–0, 6–0. But M actually played pretty well. Her serve looked decent, her opponents just returned it way faster than she sent it to them. It was a good learning experience.

She was set to play Thursday but it started pouring 20 minutes into the varsity matches and everything got cancelled.


Kickball

C played her final CYO kickball game Monday. It was on that stupid field L’s team had played on a week ago. This time they made the ground rule that kicking onto the sidewalk in left was a double instead of a triple. Which is just stupid for an 8th grade team. Our girls had their best kicking game of the year and sent ball after ball over the sidewalk. One girl hit the church on the fly. We were way ahead and when the umpire called the game after four innings instead of five, no one really cared.

We were supposed to play the first place team on Tuesday, but it rained all afternoon and we cancelled. Because of the softball tournament, track practice, and 8th grade Mother’s Day mass events, we chose not to reschedule the game and call it a season. That was our best coaching decision of the year. It meant we ended the season on a two-game winning streak and with a winning record at 3–2. First winning streak and first winning record since fifth grade, so it was a great way to wrap up this class’ kickball careers.

L’s team plays in the City semifinal tomorrow. We still don’t know who they play, as the division playoff game made it to the fifth inning Thursday and then it started raining. They are completing that game this afternoon.

L’s coaches are bringing boys in to practice against them to get ready for the the playoffs. We can kick with anybody. I worry our defense is a little too loose to keep us in a game against the beasts from the Southside, though.