Going to Nationals

Today was Kyle's first meet to dive Junior Olympic in 3 meter. He's won his last two meets in 3 meter, but he was still in the novice division.

I was very worried how the day was going to go as he looked like he was about to cry when he was warming up.  His warm up wasn't going great, and he just looked more and more defeated.  Finally he nailed one of his dives and he started warming up great and looking happy.

Come to find out, he was about to cry not because he was nervous, but because he had hurt his leg entering the water wrong and hard.  This was his bruise after he finished competing. 

I didn't care at all how Kyle placed today, I just wanted him to qualify for Nationals.  I knew it was important to him, and I also knew it was a legit possibility that he could do it if he had a good day. 

You have to score 125 points in 5 dives to qualify on 3 meter.  

Thankfully Reed, Jason, and Sherry were adding up the scores for me. 

 (I had out my calculator and still couldn't keep up with it.)

Kyle scored 143.95 and won 1st place, he beat his teammate Georgii by less than a point, so he qualified for Nationals too!

Celebrating that we now have a new trip planned for July!

This was his 3rd meet to dive Junior Olympic in 1 meter.  Kyle missed qualifying for Nationals at the last meet by 2.65 points.  I was happy that he had already qualified in 3 meter earlier so the pressure was off.  

Kyle was dancing and giggling during warm ups and I was happy to see him having fun and relaxed.  Not only did he qualify, he came in 3rd. (Georgii was 2nd.)

Kyle and Georgii then came running up to us saying that they wanted to dive synchro (synchronized diving). 

I thought they meant they wanted to start training together to do that in the future since neither of them has ever done any synchronized diving in their lives.

Oh no, they meant right then.  The meet was doing a little fundraiser with a no splash contest and a synchro contest.  So they entered.  I was laughing that not only had they never done this before, but they had Georgii, who just learned to speak English about 6 months ago, counting them down!

They practiced a couple of times, and here are their dives. 

(I was calm enough to video since it was just for fun.)

Really unbelievable considering they've never practiced!  

(If you listen closely you can hear Georgii's Russian accent.  On the same hand, you don't need to listen closely to hear me screaming like a maniac).

They won because they were the only ones that entered.  But they scored between 6-7 1/2's on everything, so I think they could have placed even if they'd had a little competition! 

Kyle had a big fan club cheering him on today.  And I'm glad they all got to see him do so well.

I didn't get a picture with Paw-Paw, but he was there too.