Quite a lot precipitated on the Sunday March 31st. The morning began exactly like the day before. 50 back kicked off the last day of the meet. 7 of 13 of us were seeded to swim this event; Maria, CJ, Alex, Emily, Jon, Ryan, and myself. I was the only one to make it out of prelims, a tenth shy of A final. Following my placement, Nolan snagged the top seed for 100 butterfly finals. After that 50 breast. Jon, Jepp, and Keegan swam for the men and Jarrah managed to A final for the women. Rachel and I attempted 100 free but neither of us placed. Next up 100 IM. Again, Jarrah A finaled while Mason and Ryan placed just outside the top 20. The final event of the meet was 200 free relay. Unfortunately the girls DQ’d, but the guys for the 2nd time snuck into the last lane of A final. With that, the prelims concluded at around 2pm. Finals were planned to finish at 7pm however we had a problem, our flight to College Station departed around 8:30. We decided to risk it and show up to finals anyway. Since we had already checked out of the hotel, we spent the intermission sleeping on pool tables in a student lounge. By 4:30, I was in the water for the 50 back. I finished 15th and my individuals were over. I remember climbing out of the water and immediately telling Nolan “I did what I could with what I had left” I executed the race to the best of my ability but fatigue from all the events and relays before held me back from a best time. This however, didn’t hold back Nolan. After a quick whiff of smelling salts in front of the camera, Nolan dropped a 48.10 100 fly. His third gold. Jarrah then swam her 50 breast and 100 IM placing 8th and 6th respectively. We were cutting it close at this point. It was nearing 7:00 pm but again we decided to stay at the pool. Mason, Ryan, Nolan and I finished our 200 free relay as quickly as possible and ran into the locker room before our competition had even climbed out of the water (Not an exaggeration). We got to the airport with time to spare. While in line for security check, as a team we finished a full jar of peanut butter before arriving at the front of the line. On the plane, Nolan and I watched The Big Lebowski (great movie). The film concluded concurrent with the flight. We were back in Dallas but the journey wasn’t over. We stopped at Ryan’s house for another scrumptious dinner and departed for College Station around 11pm. I drove a car of sleeping teammates 4 hours back to town and hit what I believe was a skunk along the way. By the time I got to bed it was past 3am. A healthy 5 hours of sleep was perfectly for absorbing information in my 9am Data Structures And Algorithms class. Soon after the results were posted. The men managed 9th place and our combined team score garnered 13th place overall.
- Nick Tann