The swim season is coming to an end, and league prelims and finals competition just ended. I had the best high school swim experience as a freshman on the varsity team at Tesoro High School. Not only was it enjoyable, but I also gained new friends with whom I can now talk with at school!
There were five schools competing at leagues: San Juan HS, Capo Valley HS, San Clemente HS, Aliso Viejo HS, and Tesoro HS.
I saw some of my club friends from Aliso and Capo as well. After I moved club teams I was not able to see my closest friends, but with HS swim, I was able to reunite with one of my best friends from Aliso.
Unfortunately, our coach made us wear tech suits for prelims (which for those of you who don’t know, they are tight full body swimsuits that take around 30 minutes to put on). None of the other schools required their swimmers to wear tech suits, just ours. It was really stressful too because we were the second warm up session and I thought I had enough time to put on a tech suit (p.s I didn’t).
Anyway, the goal was to swim fast enough to get into the top eight for finals. I swam the one breast and two hundred freestyle. For the hundred breaststroke I placed top eight and my 200 fr I placed ninth in the top 16.
On Friday, we swam League Finals. My first relay was the 200 IM relay and I went personal best in the 50 breastroke.
However, I did not estimate my timing well and didn’t realize that my 200 fr final was only three minutes after the relay. After I went to grab a quick sip of water and cooled down, they called my name on the blocks. I immediately ran over, however, I was too late, they already called alternates.
I had a good cry over it, but I focused on my last relay and my 100 br. I ended up going a personal best for the 100 br and went in the fastest leg in the 200 fr relay.
After they announced the points, we realized we won, and everyone jumped into the pool (along with our two coaches)! Our coaches were pushing us into the water while we were trying to the same like sumo wrestlers. It was a really fun experience! I can’t wait for next year!
Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice 