The air was warm and the water was cold at the West Bloomfield High School swim meet on Thursday, September 26, 2013. Upon my arrival, flowers were being passed out to the mothers and fathers of the swimmers. Next up, the Pledge Of Allegiance, and the coach gets the swimmers fired up. The swimmers hit the water, with West Bloomfield taking the lead with Aliza Durack in lane 3, with the quickest lap of 2:01.22. West Bloomfield then takes the second win, quickest lap of 1:58.14. West Bloomfield takes the win, again, with 2:25.74. And those were great, but our winning streak came to a close, when Oxford took their first win of the game. But alas! Lakers take the lead once again as Jessie Bowser finishes with a time of 31.66 seconds.

My first interview was with Lady Laker Hannah Sandel. “I’m very happy to compete,” she said during the interview. “The water is very cold! West Bloomfield will take the win.” Courtney McGinnis told me a lot about the sport, and the team:”Swim is demanding, time consuming, but the most rewarding. Our team is like a family. We swim together, laugh together, compete together.” She added,”I love competing, although it’s very stressful. During a meet, there is a lot of pressure.” Shortly after my interview with Courtney, the entire team arrived and answered as a team. When I questioned the swimmers, they said, “The water is cold. It’s actually so cold, it’s almost like ice. Sometimes, we can’t even breathe.”  They added, “We’re winning today. We’re already up by 50 points.”  After the interviews, the diving rounds commence.  When all of the dust cleared, the girls were right: the Lakers won by a landslide with a final score of 117 to 69.