SWIMMING

I can't believe it but only nineteen more school days. This year and the swimming season went by so fast. This past Saturday was the last day of the swimming season and we had our ACCAL league championships at Contra Costa College. We all met at eight-thirty in the morning at the AHS parking lot. Then rides were assigned and we were on our way. I rode with Jenny, Amanda, Siu Quan, and Julia. When we arrived there, we set up tents and ate breakfast. There were strawberries, tangerines, bagels, bagel thins, and wheat thins. We had to eat healthy because of tapering and we couldn't be bloated when we raced. It was a perfect day for a meet because the weather was nice and warm.

After breakfast, Coach C. told us the events that we were swimming in, along with the lanes, heats, and relay groups that we were in. We wrote all the events on our hands with sharpies. Warm-ups started at eleven-fifteen and the meet finally started at around twelve-thirty. It was suppose to start at twelve sharp, but not enough parents volunteered to be timers. It was exciting and fun when it started. It was also intense when someone from our school and a person from a rival school were near being tied for first place. It was really funny during the five hundred yard for Junior Varsity girls because Coach C. was so intense that she was actually standing up and leaning over the table to look.

I was so thankful that I only had to swim three events; the events that I swam were the fifty free, hundred free, and two hundred free relay. Right after swimming my last event and taking a picture with Jenny to capture what she called "our happiest moment in swimming", I raced into the shower room. I was looking forward to the shower all day; Unlike the ugly showers that we have, Contra Costa College's showers were really nice. After showers, there were snacks. We were finally able to eat junk food. There were chips, rice krispies, cookies, cake, fruit roll ups, granola bars, and animal crackers. Some of the girls even caked Coach C.

The results were just as we hoped for. Alameda High won all of the divisions; we won for JV and Varsity boys and girls. I was really happy because last year the JV girls lost to Berkeley and this year we finally won the championship title back. In the beginning, I wasn't sure if we were going to win because we started out some point behind of Berkeley from the diving team. When the announcements were over, Coach C. and Marshall were pushed into the swimming pool. This was a tradition that happened for the past twelve years. I had a really good year with swimming; I made a lot of happy memories. I feel kind of sad to say that next year I won't be joining the swim team again after having been part of it for the past two years.