by Ava Franks
The weekend of the New York State championship for girls High School swimming was filled with fast times and memorable moments. I spent a four-hour bus ride to Ithaca college with my Section 1 state team, watching Aqua Marine and taking in the mountainous scenery of upstate New York.
We warmed up Thursday afternoon at the Ithaca pool, practicing our relay starts and getting some yardage in before the next day’s preliminary competition. After warming up we went to the hotel Section 1 had booked, the all-famous Quality Inn. Every year during the NYSPHSAA championship, Section 1 claims the entire second floor of this hotel and walking down the hall I could hear music and laughter in every single room.
Another famous tradition was dinner at Wegmans, which is an extremely large grocery store coupled with a hot bar. Both nights of the competition Section 1 made a 100 people reservation at Wegmans. One hundred hungry girls in matching pom-pom hats stormed the local supermarket at six o’clock at night on the search for snacks and dinner. We were around every corner and had overtaken every isle. Strangely, Wegmans was a place that housed some of my best memories.
The next day at the preliminary meet, I watched the seniors from all sections of New York parade around the pool deck, some of them my best friends. It’s a yearly tradition and I couldn’t imagine that next year I’d be a part of it and they’d be gone.
In the preliminary meet I swam the 200 IM, the 100 breaststroke, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay. Every event was fun to race and individually I did well. The SHEDI relays also did a great job and my coaches and teammates were very excited for results at finals the next day. Prior to states my SHEDI coaches and teammates had spent a lot of practices working on our relay starts and finishes, so we hoped the hard work we put in would pay off.
The last day of the meet, my roommates and I lugged our suitcases onto the bus at the front of the hotel and waited for the rest of our Section 1 team to arrive from their rooms. I was a little nervous leading up to the finals day because I wanted to do well for my section and my high school team, but hanging out with my friends and having fun kept my mind off things and helped me stay excited for racing.
I was happy with my individual swims that day, but the real highlight was winning the 200 freestyle relay. My team and I knew we had a good chance of placing high before finals, but actually winning the event was a crazy feeling. There was so much excitement and anticipation before the race, every team ready to walk out to the blocks.
I had so much fun with my girls leading up to the race, joking around and eager to swim. Every person on the relay was my close friend and the experience of being able to swim a race together is something I’ll never forget. I led off the relay, then Kate Hoesterey swam, then Mikayla Klein. The race was going well for us but we held our breath. When Theresa Milio, the anchor, touched the wall with a first place finish my team and my coaches and I were crazily happy. It felt so good to know that all our hard work had paid off.
