Swimming

       This year, our swim team's goal is be the Division 3 State Champions.  Last year, Episcopal got the Runner-Up title, finishing only 50 points behind Vandebilt Catholic.  Throughout the sesason last year, we weren't really thinking about state, much less being runner-ups.  We were mainly focussed on improving our times and just doing our best.  But one practice, the girls had a meeting with our coach and he basically told us we had a shot at winning state or being runner-ups.  We were all shocked.  He told us that we probably wouldn't win, but if everything ended up right, we could maybe get runner up.  With a few weeks left in the season, we all worked hard in practice.  We had a good city meet and got runer-up to St. Joseph's Academy.  But then the biggest meet of the season came- State.  We all swam well in prelims, and that night, our coaches called the girls into their hotel room to talk.  Coach Alex said that he was looking at the results of how we did in prelims and how the other teams did, and told us we had a legitemate chance at getting runner-up.  All of us were really excited because at the meeting during the season, we were kind of doubting him, not really sure if we could bring home a title.  That night, he showed us the times and places on paper and we realized we could really do it.  We swam our hearts out at finals the next morning, and after the last event, we waited for them to announce the team scores.  The announcers went backwards, but eventually they said, "Episcopal- Runner-Ups".  Our whole team was freaking out- even the guys who had placed lower, but were still excited for us.  I still can see and remember the feeling of excitement we all had.  I think that we may have been more excited then Vandebilt, just becasue going into it, we weren't really expecting to win a title since we were such a small team.  It was a great feeling, but hopefully this year, it will be even better.
       Since about February, our entire team's minds have been on doing even better this year- Winning State.  We realized that to do that, we would have to train harder and make every single practice count.  Over the summer, we had practice 3 times a week, which we had never done before.  It was really fun to get a head-start on the season, but the training was really hard.  We had our first real practice on Orientation day, and I was so excited for the season to finally be here.  This year, we are trying to become closer as a team, so we had a sleepover at someone's house, and we decorated our locker rooms.  We have name tags on our lockers that say our name and Episcopal Swimming, we have a sign that says, "Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering."  We also have a bulliten board with each one of our goal's on it.  It is really good to see our goals everyday before practice, and always have our team goal of winning state in our minds.  Practice is tough, but I know that every second of it will be worth it when state comes and we swim our hardest, proving all of our hard work we've been doing since the beginning of summer.  Hopefully we will come out victorious, with the Division 3 State Championship title.  And may I add, the girls at Episcopal have never done that before.  Ever.  But this year, we will.