Swim Meet - Go Bears!
Swim Meet - Go Bears!
Today was the swim team's senior night. When we walked in, we almost went to the high school track meet happening on the track but thankfully we realized before we bought tickets. That was where the fun of the day started, because I ran into my high school cross country coach! I didn't realize that my high school's team was competing today. It was such a good coincidence because I hadn't seen him since graduation, and it was nice to catch up.
We sat on the bleachers on the viewing deck for the pool where we could see the entire pool and scoreboard easily. The pool was decorated in true polar bear fashion with orange and black streamers and posters featuring the seniors. It was incredibly warm and humid in the pool area, which was a nice break from how cold it has been on campus.
The swim meet started with announcing the seniors and recognizing them for their commitment to the team and ONU. Then the races began! The first race was the girls medley relay where I got to watch one of my high school friends swim! For those who are unfamiliar with competitive swimming, there are four different strokes you can do in swimming: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke. My friend swam backstroke in the relay even though it was her least favorite stroke in high school and she almost never swam it. I was so surprised that I had to ask her about it later and she said it was certainly not on purpose. Her team wanted to make a relay for one of the seniors and she volunteered unknowingly that she would be signed up for the backstroke portion of the race.
The meet continued with the 1000-yard freestyle, which once down the length of the pool is 25 yards, so the 1000-yard swim is incredibly long. The swimmers that compete in it are very impressive, because I could not imagine swimming for that long. During the meet, we also watched diving. When I was in high school, we rarely watched the diving portion of the meet because it typically happened on a different day than the swimming events. I had fun watching the swimmers do different kinds of dives and flips. They must be brave to jump backwards off the diving board!
I am glad I was able to watch my friend swim again and support my fellow bears. Sadly, that was the last home meet of the season, but I can't wait to attend more meets in the future!
Aubrey! This sounds so fun! I haven't been to a a swim meet yet because of the busiest of the semester, but I should try to! I'm glad you were able to catch up with your old coach! How fun for ONU to do a senior night, I love that idea! When I was in high school I did dive one year and usually my teammates couldn't watch because of what you explained.
ReplyDeleteHey Aubrey! The softball team tried to go and watch the swim meet but it was too packed!! I am glad you were able to go watch and it seems like you had a great time! I hope you are able to go to more swim meets in the future. Have a great rest of your week!!
ReplyDeleteHi Aubrey! That sounds like such a fun time and experience. Plus, that is so awesome you got to catch up with your former coach. Reading your blog has made me interested and I will definitely be going to watch sometime!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about your first swim meet experience and how senior night made it even more special. As someone on the swim team who swims the 1,000 free, it was cool to see you highlight that event and recognize how challenging it is. Your post really captured the energy of the pool and the sense of community at ONU meets.
ReplyDeleteAubrey, I am so glad you had a great experience watching the swim meet with me! They are very fun, and interesting. I think that it is so cool that you recognize the difficulty of swim, and that you had a friend swimming events! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete