Gallery • 15 Photos

Elle Chen

Seniors Divya Bhargava, Eleanor Smith and Marie Schumacher "purple out" during the school day for their meet.

At 6:30 p.m., the SPARKS swim team competed in their last conference meet of the season. Located at St. Catherine’s University, the pool was extra hot and humid with large crowds of swimmers and supporters. The periodic breeze of refreshing cold air that entered into the pool every time the glass doors opened to let in more spectators was the only calmness in the scene. Over time, the nose-prickling smell of chlorine slowly faded away into the background.

To start off the night, the SPARKS swam the 200 yard medley relay with cheering from the fans on both the deck and in the stands. Although the relay did not go as smoothly as anticipated- the third swimmer’s goggles flipped off (like Lydia Jacoby at the Olympics) and the team was disqualified- the SPARKS were not disheartened and continued to swim strong races throughout the night.

Sophomore Clara Bagnoli said, “This is my fourth year on the team. I’m really excited to race and swim with my best friends. [This season] has been good. It’s a little separate from the JV so it’s been a little hard to form bonds with them but we’ve still had a lot of fun which is good.”

This time around, especially for the senior swimmers, the last conference meet night had an extra special place in their hearts. Captain Divya Bhargava said, “It’s our last conference which is sad but we [the seniors] also got the flowers and goodie bags from our coach. It’s a fun meet.”

Senior Eleanor Smith said, “This is my last regular season meet. I’m excited so it should be good.”

In total there were fifteen events at the meet. From the shortest 50 yard dashes to the dreadfully long 500 yard endurance races, the SPARKS competed in all but two events- JV 1 meter diving and JV 100 yard butterfly.