Guest Post by Nic's Hubby

Dearest Loyal Readers (shout out to my cousin Jen - for coining that phrase in an email she sent me - her exact words were "I love all your comments back and forth. Your loyal readers are hilarious")--Anyway - I hijacked my DH's blog that he and his brothers maintain. So, DH posted a fab post about Jay's wild ride to get to the state finals--thought I'd share it with you.

Just thought I'd brag on my daughter a bit and let all the Wimps (it's Nic here - DH's brothers all call each other Wimps) know that Jay made it to the State Championships for her age group in the 50 Butterfly and will be swimming at BYU on Thursday and Saturday.

Her road to get there is what makes it all the more impressive. Her time starting the season (October) was 41.05 -- which could possibly win a WIMP swim meet, but was still a good 6 seconds off the time to qualify for state (35.29).

Her goal for the season was to make it to the state tournament but realistically she was so far off (6 seconds in a 50 meter race is huge) it was quite the stretch goal (kind of like 007 (DH's Idaho brother) or THC beating Wimp3 (DH's Utah brother) in the Tour De Pong :)

But she worked extremely hard - swimming a good 2 to 3 hours a day pretty much every day. She slowly improved over the season and had made it within a second with one meet left. They call it the "Last Chance Meet" and she had a great swim....only to come up 100th of a second short. Her time was 35.30 -- and she needed 35.29. Unbelievable.

Because it was the last meet they allow the swimmers to stay after the meet and time-trial the event to try and make it. She swam it that evening and gained a couple tenths of second. We went home pretty bummed that night but returned for one last time trial the following day. Despite being EXTREMELY nervous (kind of like 007 before he arm wrestles THC) she dug deep and pulled off an unbelievable time of 34.60. That time ranks her #16 out of only 23 that even qualified state wide in her age group.

So Thursday morning she swims in the Prelims, and if she can secure a top 16 finish, would swim in the Finals later that night. She is also swimming the 400 Freestyle Relay on Saturday night.

To really cap off her season, last weekend she pretty much dominated the B/C finale (basically the equivalent of the State NIT tournament), taking 1st, 2nd or 3rd in every event, posting a state Q time on the 100 Free (one meet too late unfortunately) and winning 1st place in her group.

Hopefully she can make it Top 16 and swim in the finals but regardless it has been an awesome experience to watch her work so hard and achieve her goal! (Update: Jay dropped 0.5 seconds from her time, finished 16th and was able to swim in the Finals that evening! Way to go Jay!).