Chlorine, our PERMANENT perfume!!

Everyone has those times where just one certain event stands out in their mind. My time would have to be the swim meet that I, as well as my team, went to when our High School Swim Team qualified for state. The Hanna Swim Team Girls A Team for the 200 Individual Medley Relay and the 400 Free relay qualified to go to the state meet in Rock Hill, SC. I know I don’t remember everything that went on at the meet but times were definitely crazy and unforgettable.

Our adventure started off as we left on a Saturday morning at 5:30 am. With my mom driving and there were five teenagers girls cramped into a Yukon. The plaid club pulled out of the parking lot of the Shell gas station and that is when the times began. We call ourselves the “PC4L” (Plaid Club 4 Life) because we all wear our plaid PJ pants for good luck. The total car ride was two hours long. The ride was miraculous! I was in a car with my four best friends, what else could be better? We took so many crazy photos and we ate an entire box of Cookie Crisp Cereal. Meredith Hermeston was the leader of all of us just because she was a junior and we were freshmen. We had tons of sing-a-longs everything from Rap to Kid’s Bop. I think my favorite would have to be Sexyback by Justin Timberlake; CLASSIC. I think the most fun though was when we got lost. We had to be in Rock Hill, dressed and ready to swim in 30 minutes, and the pool was no where close. We ended up being in some little random town that wasn’t even on the map! We did make it to the meet on time, just barley getting in the warm up pool before it closed.

The 400 free relay was the last event of the day, so I had a total of about four hours until I got a chance to swim. So, I took more pictures. Elizabeth Emanuel, Meredith, Brooke Oxendine, and Kelly Mullane were my main focus for these pictures. I had to change my camera battery twice because I took so many photos. Sam Parkinson and Maly Taylor are my teammates on Anderson Swim Club, but they swim for Westside so they are the enemy! They are still my friends though but our schools are rivals. When it finally came time for me to swim, I was a nervous wreck. I did my usual 300m warm up and then I got behind my lane. My hands started shaking and I got a major case of the butterflies. The odd thing was that usually when I swim I never get nervous, why should this time be any different? I was the third leg of my relay, and on a 400 free relay each person swims 100m which is a total of four lengths. Meredith Hermeston swam the leg before me, she made the turn going into her second 50 and my stomach dropped. It was my turn next. I put my goggles on, made sure they were tight on my face, stepped on the block, and took my starting position. 20 yards left, 10 yards, 5, and she touches the wall, I’m off! I swing my arms back and jump as far as I can, making a faultless entrance into the water. I move my arms faster and faster making sure not to go too fast so I can turn it up on the second 50m. My feet actually started kicking. Usually when I’m swimming my feet never move and my arms have to do all the work, but the first time in, well EVER, my feet were kicking. I breathe and prepare to go into the first turn. The walls are different then what I’m used to practicing to so I miss the wall on my flip turn. I manage to barley graze the wall with my toes and try to push off. At this point I can see the girl beside me pass me. That does not work with me. I regain my self-assurance and catch up with her. Here came the second and I nailed it perfectly! The third wall and my turn was once again good! The last leg, I couldn’t let my team down! I gave it all I got, I kicked with all my might, I got to the wall and Anna Sams dove over me. She was the last leg in our relay. I couldn’t even get myself out of the pool when I finished. I gave that relay everything I got to the wall and Elizabeth had to pull me out. Our relay ended up coming in twenty-ninth out of thirtieth. We didn’t care we dropped time and every one gave it all they had. That is all that mattered!

The ride back was just as much fun as on the way there! We were all so hyper because we were trying not to fall asleep. We stopped at an Applebee’s where times are always crazy when we are together, and the most fun of all being the Cha Cha Slide at a rest stop. This is where Brooke fell off a curb and almost broke her leg! I took a video of the whole thing, and to this day it is still hilarious! My swim team is my family, they mean the world to me, without them, I would not be who I am today. Whether we are swimming in a meet, or at Hudgens, or at practice, or even in the State Finale, my team will always be there and we will have memories that will last a LIFETIME!