The first swim meet is in the books!!!!!

It was hotter than the surface of the sun out there today, but Jason's first swim meet is in the books.  I am very proud of my son today, he did an awesome job!  For starters, the swimmers were in a different area than the families all day, which he was not expecting.  He took the change in stride and stayed in the swimmers' area by himself, without giving anyone any trouble. 

His first event was the 50 meter freestyle.  When he tried to get on the starting block, it apparently wasn't set properly and sunk into place when he put his weight on it.  At that point, he wanted no part of it, and decided he wanted to start in the water.  The unofficial results of that race was a third place finish, less than one second behind second place!!  It was all the more impressive considering that second place had dove off of the starting blocks, giving him an advantage on Jason.  The fact that Jason had made up the advantage and made the race so close was unreal.  Once they went to the official times, however, they found that Jason had touched the time pads on the wall before the other guy.  So Jason was awarded the second place ribbon for that race!!!

His second event was the 50 meter breaststroke.  He gave it his all and ended with an unofficial finish of third place.  However, one of the other boys was disqualified, causing Jason to be awarded a second place finish in that race as well. 

His final event was a 4x50 meter freestyle relay.  That means you have a team of four guys swimming 50 meters freestyle each.  The first guy will jump in and swim to one end, where the second will jump in and swim back the other way to where the third is waiting.  He then jumps in and swims down to the fourth, who swims back the other way to finish the race.  Jason was the third man up on his team.  The first two guys gave Jason a lead, and he didn't give it up.  He passed along that same lead to the anchor leg (#4) who blew away everyone with his speed to easily win the event, giving Jason a first place finish in the relay!!!

All in all, everything went very well, outside of the unbearable heat with no shade anywhere.  My parents came to cheer him on, as did his behavior therapist, a few friends of ours and some of Jason's teammates from Sunrise Swimming (his regular swim team).  His other team had a meet today as well, but the ones who weren't competing in that meet were kind enough to come and lend their support to Jason today.  He was thrilled when he saw his teammates had come.  We can't thank everyone enough for having come out to cheer him on.  It meant a lot to him and to us.  Below are some of the pics we got, more to follow as I get them from other cameras.  Before anyone asks, yes, that is Aquaman on my shirt.  What other super hero am I supposed to wear to my son's swim meet?