Marissa closed out her high school athletic career at the IHSAA state swimming prelims on Friday night. (Is this a good time to mention that Marissa has competed in 8 high school sport seasons between cross country and swimming and she has gone to the state meet in all 8 of those seasons?! Now that's quite the accomplishment!!)
It's hard to believe that after all these years and all of those long and hard practices, it's finally all over. Definitely bittersweet for sure! I think she will definitely enjoy this next week -- the first time she's gotten to come straight home after school since the year started -- but I'm also pretty sure that she will miss the competition and will look forward to her next big adventure.
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On Friday morning, Melayna drove herself to school and then Marissa slept in a little longer and rode into the high school with Morgan, Nolan and I. The state team would meet up at the pool for a couple of pictures and to pick up their snack bags and then the bus would be escorted out of town at 8:30 a.m.
After they left town, Marissa's club team posted this to their social media post. (More on the magazine article later when it actually comes out) Thank you Coach Chris and the Warsaw Aquatic Club for all of your support over the past couple of years.
A couple of hours later, we would receive pictures from their brunch at the Cracker Barrel. Now that's a lot of food!! 'Funny thing is that Marissa said that most of the girls couldn't finish all of their plates so she ate her meal and then finished off a couple of others. 'Can't let good food go to waste - not when every calorie counts.
And it's good to know that the spending money that I sent with her went to a good cause. One of these little plushies now belongs to Marissa, courtesy of the Cracker Barrel gift store. LOL
The natatorium wasn't open yet when they arrived in Indianapolis so they went to the hotel so they could check in to their rooms and rest for a couple of hours before they walked together over to the natatorium where they would dress and get ready to warm-up.
Marissa said that it was a new Hilton Hotel and the beds were SO comfortable!
Meanwhile, we had picked Melayna up early from school and made the drive down to the natatorium arriving just around 3:45. We would stand in line waiting to get in until after 4:30 when the main gates opened up. Then we could just take pictures or sit and watch warm-ups until the first event started right at 6:00 p.m.
I know that I say this every time I am in this place, but it's just an amazing facility.
One quick picture of them all together and then we left them alone so that they could get ready to warm-up and get into the right frame of mind to compete. I know that the younger girls were pretty overwhelmed and really nervous so Marissa wanted to have time to help them all get acclimated to the big facility and to calm down a little before it was time to swim.
I wanted to just sit and take in Marissa's final high school meet so I didn't bring my "big girl camera" this year. Once we got up to the nose-bleed section where our seats were, my phone pictures were all too blurry and far away to recognize anyone really so I don't have pictures of Marissa as they warmed up or as she competed. But that's okay. As I said, I wanted to just watch it and take it all in.
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50 Yard Prelims 29th Place 25.03 (she added .39 from her entry time but still swam a great time)
100 Yard Prelims 29th Place 55.01 (she added .66 from her entry time but again, swam a really good time)
200 Freestyle Relay 31st Place Marissa swam a great 25.13 split
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Apparently, in addition to her normal warm-up strokes, someone on the team caught her swimming the "doggy paddle" and they posted it to the Instagram page for laughs. LOL
Here are a few other pictures that were also shared on Instagram:
I'd love to say that Marissa was completely satisfied with her times when the night was over, but you could see the disappointment on her face as she finished each race. Despite swimming well, she wanted to come down and cut more time and try to make it back on Saturday. That's just the competitor in her. But she still left the natatorium knowing that she did a great job, left it all in the pool, and it was a great way to finish off her high school swimming career.
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And then these pictures came in as the girls had to walk back to their hotel. But first they tried to find a Blaze Pizza that was suppose to be on the way back. Somehow their coach got confused by his Android maps and it took them a really long time to walk a mile or so to the pizza place. Thankfully the weather was really mild on Friday night and they had a lot of fun (at the coach's expense) walking together. They would enjoy dinner together and then after the coach went to his hotel room, all six girls hung out for a while in another room just talking and enjoying the experience.
A LOT of memories were made these last four years and we will be forever grateful!
Sectional championships were to begin at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
I had gone in early for the diving prelims on Saturday morning so Marissa wasn't up yet when I left the house. I was just really hoping and praying that she felt good and was able to sleep well the night before. The team was just arriving by the time that the diving prelims were finishing up, so I wasn't able to talk to her a lot but she said that except for feeling sick to her stomach because of nerves, she would be okay. She had some food to eat and something to drink. There was loud music playing in the background to hype everyone up and then her teammates all came out of the locker room and the mood seemed to pick up and the excitement began to build. As far as us fans... I'm not sure that the meet could start soon enough. We were all so nervous wondering what was about to happen. 'Just get it started already, right?
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After warming up for a short while, they all went back into the locker room to get suited up into their tech suits. Since this was the finals and Marissa was so close to the top seed, she also suited up for the first time this year. And then they all came back out to warm up more and practice some starts. Marissa knew that her 50 freestyle would most likely come down to a great start, so even after the rest of her team went back to sit down, she kept working with Coach D on more starts until the pool closed and the meet was ready to start.
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Once the meet started, our girls would be swimming in the championship heat of the Medley relay. The consolation swims went first and then the championship teams were paraded out and around the pool. Our girls would be seeded 6th place and Marissa would anchor the team with a 50 freestyle.
Marissa had a really good split, swimming a 24.80 and made up some ground on the leading swimmers. Her team would improve on their seed time by two spots and finish with a 4th place finish.
I didn't record the entire video - just as she dove in - but Marissa is over in the lane farthest away with the silver swim cap.
With her first event completed, Marissa would jump back into the diving well and continue swimming laps to stay warm and loose for her upcoming 50. The fans in the stands would stay extremely nervous as we waited to see how this would all play out in her individual events. Obviously, Marissa hoped that she would be able to come from behind and win her events, but she was competing against some really good swimmers and you can't downplay their abilities. It really was anyone's race. (A little side note however -- Marissa competed against the same three top girls last year and won last year so she definitely had a target on her back. Earlier this season, Marissa competed in a meet against one of the swimmers (who was now the fastest seed in these sectionals) and the other girl won that race, which seemed to give the other swimmer a lot of confidence. She showed up Thursday night full of that confidence and did a little "trash talking about how she was unbeatable" which Marissa overheard and didn't appreciate. She said she would just use it as "fuel" to race harder during the finals. We certainly hoped that it would work.
A few minutes later, it was time for the 50 freestyle race. The consolation race went first and then the championship swimmers did their parade in front of the stands. Marissa wouldn't even make eye contact with us as she came out and I'll be honest with you... she looked like she was going to throw up. Her two toughest (fastest) competitors were the two girls walking in right in front of her.
She went right to lane #3 to take off her jacket and to adjust her blocks
I didn't take any pictures after she got up on the starting blocks because I knew that I was shaking so much that they would all be blurry anyway. Thankfully Noel was taking a video so I knew that I could just screenshot from that later. Just watch this video for yourself but beware, the screaming gets a little loud. It was a close race and the entire Warsaw section was going slightly nuts!
Marissa is in lane #3 and she has the most amazing start!!
And then Marissa's reaction when she got to the wall and looked up to see her place / time.
She would now be a two-time sectional champion in the 50 freestyle with a brand new PR!
50 Freestyle 1st Place 24.64
Despite the dirty looks given to her all meet and the rude comments she was subjected to, I was so excited to look down and see Marissa initiating contact with her competitors. She could have ignored her or snubbed her, but she didn't. She was very gracious and congratulated her on her new PR as well.
Later in the weekend, I did take screenshots of the race from the video that Noel took. It looked a lot closer as it was happening then on the video, but the screenshots break it down a bit more and show that she pulled away more at the end than we realized. And I absolutely LOVE the Coach's excitement on the back half as he's cheering her on and suddenly realizes that she is going to win.
Here are a couple of screenshots showing how the race progressed. Again, she's in lane #3 from the bottom of the picture
Finally... a sigh of relief as she's on top of the podium and all the pressure is now off. She was feeling more confidant about the 100 coming later in the day, but it's like it didn't even matter anymore as she achieved the goal that she had been working for all year. Another sectional championship!!
Congratulations Marissa. Back to Back 50 champ!
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After the 50, there is a break to finish up diving so all of the swimmers went back to their chairs to eat and rest and we finished out the last three rounds of diving. I was suppose to keep diving scores once again, but my hand was shaking so bad as the adrenaline started to wear off. I don't know how anyone could read my chicken scratches!! LOL
And then before we knew it, it was time to get back up to the stands and the second half of the meet was going to start. We'd sit through the 100 butterfly and then Marissa would be announced again for the 100 freestyle championship race. Once again they would parade out and walk in front of the spectators.
Here they come.
This time the #1 seed was right behind her and had to watch her the entire way to the starting blocks.
(A little back story.... as they were getting lined up over by the diving well before parading out, a couple of girls from another school said to the #1 seed that they were cheering for her to win because "it's time for someone new" and then they all huddled in a circle and talked about Marissa as she was standing right there. I don't know if they thought they were going to psych her out or something, but once again, it just gave her motivation to go out strong and swim for the win).
We didn't know it at the time, but I bet that she was thinking about that all the way around to the starting blocks.
This time she would be in lane #5. She would have the fastest girls on each side of her so she knew where they were the entire race.
Once again I put my camera down once she got up on the starting blocks and just let Noel take a video. And then once again, I went back later in the weekend and took screenshots from the video to break it down a little more and show Marissa how she looked.
It was another great start for Marissa and thankfully, this race wasn't as close so we didn't have to scream the entire time. LOL
Less than a minute later, Marissa would touch the wall first and become a three time Sectional Champion in the 100 freestyle with a new PRtime of 54.35.
Here are a couple of screenshots of that race:
Marissa is swimming in lane 5 in the silver cap.
She was already leading at the end of the first 50...
...and then leading as they come down the final stretch.
And she just kept opening up the gap. At this point, we were confident that she was going to win her second individual event on the day
And Marissa is the 100 freestyle champion by over a full second on the second place swimmer.
On the podium for the 100 freestyle awards
With her win this year, she become a three time champion in this event.
Always the coach... he had a few words to say after that race. But I think he was mostly congratulating her and encouraging her for her final swim in the relay which would be coming up soon.
Marissa's last event for the day would be swimming anchor in the 200 freestyle relay. All four swimmers would swim a 50 and although they were seeded first coming into the day, they all needed to cut a second from their times to have a chance to win because the two favored teams hadn't used their fastest girls on Thursday night when they raced. It would be a tough but exciting race.
Here come the girls for yet another parade. For Marissa, she was especially proud of this group because her best friend and senior classmate would be swimming right in front of her and they got to walk out side by side, which really meant a lot to Marissa.
It's hard to believe, but no matter what, this will be Marissa's last time behind the blocks competing at her high school. What a bittersweet moment!!
The team would be in lane #3 with the team in lane #4 as their toughest competition.
When it was Marissa's turn, we were behind slightly but still a lot closer than anyone expected as the first three girls swam lifetime best swims and took off the second that they needed to take off. Could Marissa do the same? She loves to chase people down and we have seen her come back for the win many, many times, but we didn't know if she could do it this time as she jumped in almost a full body length behind.
(I was probably really cheering at this point so the pictures are blurry once again. My apologies)
Do you want to know what happened? Here, watch for yourself.
Disclaimer: By this point in the meet, everyone has lost their stinkin' mind and we are just yelling and screaming because the race was so close. And Noel might have forgotten that the video was still running at the end. I could edit it to leave that part off, but it's more fun to keep it real and authentic. And in case you were wondering... although the coach stayed relatively calm through most of the race, he jumped up in the air and then threw his clip board down to the deck when the race ended.
Wow! What a race! No one was expecting that but those girls swam amazing and Marissa capped off her sectional swim with another championship race and a new PR split of 24.27!!
We had prayed that God would give Marissa the strength to compete well. Obviously we wanted her to win, but if she didn't, we prayed that she could walk away knowing that she swam to the best of her ability for the glory of God, but I'm not even sure that we could have ever hoped for a better way for the sectional championships to play out for Marissa. It truly was an unbelievable day. She has had a of struggles this year, especially with her health, and to see it end like this was more than we could have asked for. We are thankful of God's overwhelming goodness!
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After the meet was over and the pool area was cleaned up, Marissa asked if we would get pictures taken with her. We definitely agreed. This is the fun part - what she has worked so hard towards for so many years! Enjoy it and soak it all in!!
Morgan took this picture of Marissa in the car when they got home.
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And then for future reference, here is the email that the coach sent to the swimmers...
...and then the write-up that the coach turned in for the Tigers athletic website.
And then a couple screenshots from Instagram posts that were posted that day from Morgan and Tyler.
And finally.... for our records, so we can remember how close these races were.
