I left for MAC's with my team on a Tuesday, two days before the meet started. The morning of our 10 am departure, we were required to go to the pool anytime before we left and do a loosen up swim, consisting of a 500. The rest of that day was dedicated to travel. Once we arrived in Geneva, Ohio, we went straight to the SPIRE Institute for our first warm-up swim in the competition pool. After another quick loosen up, we headed to the hotel for dinner and bed. The next day was uneventful, including mostly relaxing, more loosen up swims, meals, and sleep.
Competition began on Thursday with prelims for the 50 free, 500 free, and 200 IM. I swam the 50 freestyle and was .09 slower than my personal record. We had three girls make it to finals that night: Laurin Williams (500 freestyle), Rachel Stearns (200 IM) and Myriah Ariza-Balter (200 IM). Williams was in the A final heat of the 200, while both of our swimmers in the 200 IM were in the B final. The 500 was an incredible race, and while Williams was the defending champion in the event, she got 4th. Even though she didn't go a best time, I think she was just happy that she tried her best and that she was done with that event forever, as she was a senior. Stearns and Ariza-Balter did well, both going best times. I swam on the 200 free relay in finals, which was extremely fun. Relays are always the best part of championship meets because you are swimming as a team and for your team, so there is even more energy and enthusiasm from the teams and audience. It gets crazy!!
The next day was extremely fun to watch. We had several swims during finals, and sophomore Addy Ferguson won both the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. She also qualified for NCAA's in both events, broke her own 100 backstroke MAC and school record, and broke the 100 fly MAC record!
Saturday I swam the 100 freestyle and the 100 freestyle on the 400 free relay. The relay, again, was insane! When you swim in finals, you get to "walk-out" from a ready room and past all the teams up to the blocks to music. It gets you super pumped up and ready to go, but there were technical difficulties after our 400 free relay's walk-out, so we ended up having to wait behind the blocks for about five minutes before we could begin the race. It was a little difficult to stay focused, but we kept each pumped up while we waited. That night, we had a second place finish in the mile by Laurin Williams, which was really exciting!
We ended up getting 6th at the meet, which is the lowest we had gotten in 30 years. Not everyone did as well as we would have liked, but we did the best we could given our situation. Our coach was fired at the beginning of the season, so that made things difficult from the beginning. We were definitely the team that had the most fun at the meet! We will be getting a new coach for the spring season and moving forward, and I think everyone is really excited! Her name is Rachel Komisarz and she was the assistant coach for Louisville; she's also a former Olympic gold and silver medalist. She played a huge part in building the No. 13 program at Louisville, so she will definitely be good for this program, which has a rich history and tradition of excellence.
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