The next meet at Miami University he got another JO in the 100 back! He began to question if he were actually going to be a backstroker (everyone always tells him his is a butterflier). Don't worry though, after a week long break at Christmas he was back at it with meets nearly every weekend in January. He got his JO cut in the 50 butterfly next and inched closer to the cut in a few other events…
At the Cincinnati Marlins meet he earned the JO cut for the 200 IM and just barely (.3 seconds!!) missed the cut for the 200 freestyle.
All of this for a kid who just aged up; we were thinking it really couldn't get any better!
I mean all these JO successes are just the icing on the cake for all his hard work, dedication, wonderful friendships, discipline, exercise and happiness! We love that he loves to swim.
So all the while we are gearing up for the JO Meet at Ohio State in March we had to make a "non formal" end to the short course meet season with a full three days at the State Regional Meet. And I do mean three. full. days. Like 11 hours a day at the pool. For real.
Max had fun. He played with friends. He danced. He made videos on his iPod. He ate crappy food. He swam. He succeeded! He earned a medal in every single event he swam; that's 7 in total. This includes TWO first place medals in the 200 free and the 100 butterfly. It was a great three days. But the greatest moment of all came during the very last event of the very last day… the 100 fly.
Max had already swam the 100 IM twice that day as well as the 100 free and one 100 fly. It was the last ditch effort for him, the 100 fly. We weren't even sure his legs would hold. We were about to fall asleep in the stands! He headed into finals seeded first from prelims earlier that day.
He seemed nervous, and I've never seen that in him before. He stood up on the blocks as they announced his name and shook out his arms. I saw him take two huge breaths before "taking his mark". Really, he is usually so relaxed. The horn blew and the boys raced…
At the 50 yard mark Max was in second place behind his competitor, Jack Agnew. (they have become friends since they compete so well in many area meets) At the 75 yard mark Max all of the sudden took off! We weren't sure if he was really going THAT fast or if the other kids had just slowed so much! It's an exhausting race, I'm told. Four laps of straight butterfly!? After that though, it was over… Max absolutely flew. It was an awesome race. He touched the wall and the timer stopped. 1:20.90 was his time. A 5 second drop from prelims and a 7 second drop from last time he swam! I cheered! The whole crowd cheered. In fact they seemed to be cheering "too much"! I turned to my friends and little confused and they said "HE DID IT!" and I said "YES! First place!!!!" They all yelled "NO! He got the JO!" I was baffled! That wasn't even on our radar since going into the day he would have needed to cut 7 seconds. I checked the time again and referenced the JO cut sheet. In fact he beat that cut time by 3 whole seconds!!!!! I turned and looked at him still in the water catching his breath and screamed "YOU DID IT!!!!" and he gave a thumbs up and a huge smile!!!! It was literally amazing.
He walked over to his coach who got down on a knee and gave him a big high five. Max said he told him "Big Max showed up!" :)
Then I cried. Chris cried. Friends and teammates congratulated him. It was quite a moment. We are so proud. He is truly the hardest worker and loves everything about the sport. What a moment for him! If only we had it on video. Thankfully I did have my camera and took many pics of the race. Here are just a few…
Tied for second during the first 50 yards.
Pulling ahead during the 75.
Last lap of the 100 yards and making a big move.
Way ahead now near the end.
Checking his time with a surprised look on his face. He won by 3 seconds!
Encouragement and kudos from Coach John.
Look out, Ryan Lochte! ;) Max Christensen is on your tail...
No comments:
Post a Comment