Creek’s girls’ swim and dive team has won yet another state title, bringing the team to a five-peat, and 31 titles across their history. And as if the excitement wasn’t enough, in the last race of the meet, Creek also broke the 400-yard freestyle relay state record by exactly 0.9 seconds.
As students celebrated the win, many realized that the record was set by Missy Franklin, a five-time Olympic medalist, and her Regis Jesuit relay team 14 years ago.
Freshman Kate McKinnon was a part of the record-breaking relay team. Her main goal for the first state appearance was to help Creek win a five-peat. To do this, she focused on her mental dedication to the sport.
“Everybody swam so well and was so happy when we found out we broke the record,” McKinnon said.
McKinnon believes that the mental side of any sport can be effective in how you play, even just as a freshman. The work put into the mental aspect led her to win two solo events, a 200-medley relay event and the new state record 400-yard freestyle relay.
Relays aren’t just solo races; all the swimmers have to be on the same page. With McKinnon being new to high school swimming, competing at the state level, and taking down the record was a one-in-a-kind experience.
“I mainly worked toward my mental aspect for my swimming,” McKinnon said. “I had to convince myself to always work.”
Before the relay had even happened, Creek had made their lead very clear; beating Regis by a 144-point margin. And after the race, the new record was just a cherry on top. The swimmers were already hoping to win the event, but their eyes were always looking towards the record, and they put their trust in each other to compete at the highest level.
“The credit really goes to the girls and the trust we had to put in ourselves and each other to break the record,” senior Ana Loveridge, who was part of the relay team, said.
Loveridge believes that the way the team trusted each other and believed that they could get the record helped them achieve their five-peat goal the relay team, and the team itself, built trust in each other’s skills and dedication, and it helped them push towards getting the win on the title and the record.
The pressure was on for Creek to take its fifth trophy in a row, especially competing against historical rivals Regis Jesuit to take the title. For many freshmen on the team, like McKinnon and Clara Paterson, the fact that Creek has been able to build up to a five-peat was daunting.
“I didn’t want to be the one who lost that streak in my first year,” Paterson said. “But the pressure overall helped me go faster, and helped me help my team.”
Paterson felt pressure from the five-peat, even though she qualified for state in her first meet of the season. Despite the pressure, she placed in the top 10 in both of her solo events.
Always being motivated to dedicate yourself to your sport is hard, and many different athletes struggle with it, but early mornings and late nights in swimming maintain athletes’ dedication. When they’re able to keep that level of work and motivation, most swimmers find that they’re able to give themselves the chance to break records and win state titles.
“I think the hardest thing I had to do to swim at state all four years was being dedicated and motivated,” Loveridge said. “I definitely didn’t and don’t want to wake up for five a.m. practice, but I just had to keep in mind the big picture and keep working even when it was hard to.”
