- By Dan Veaner
- Sports
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The "A" Team (left to right) Caitlyn Wright, Claire Eckstrom, Nikki Dean and Kali Dean
(Picture courtesy of Caitlyn Wright)
Some of the rest of the team went to Buffalo to cheer on their team mates. "Two of the girls came up, Kendal and Lee," says Nikki. "They taped our events and it was really cool."
(Picture courtesy of Caitlyn Wright)
The girls worked hard to get to State. Caitlyn explained, "The week prior to the State meet we do what we call a 'taper practice.' You practice really easily and you decrease what you do each day. So you're feeling really good for your race. You work on technical stuff like turns and starts." Nikki added, ""I also went for the 200. We all trained for our events and worked on things we had to work on. So Caitlyn and Kali worked on their turns for the 50 until they were really good, and then starts. We worked on relay starts to get them down and fast and it ended up working."
There were fun preparations as well. "We made T-shirts," said Kali. "That was really fun, kind of getting everyone together." Clair confided, "We have this tradition where we shave our arms and put fake nails on, because we think it makes us faster." It clearly worked for the team, who got the highest score of all the Class C teams.
The girls said they had a lot of respect for their coaches. "TJ (Nancie Tenge) was the one who hung out with us," said Nikki. "She's really cool. She's almost like a kid, but a grownup, too. During the season if we had problems on the team she helped us to fix them and make sure everything was running the smooth path." Claire added, "They're a good balance."
Nancie (TJ) Tengie, Assistant Swimming Coach and Diving Coach
(Picture courtesy of Caitlyn Wright)
Kali thought the coaches worked well together. "I think both the coaches really have an impact on how well we do, she said. Caitlyn agreed, saying, "Ms. Hicks-Hughes is the serious hard working side, and TJ can be very serious at times, but she brings the giggly laughter side to practice. Ms. Hicks-Hughs has been coaching forever, so she really knows what she's doing. She knows the things that will help each of us. We all have different areas where we need to improve and she knows what to do to help all of us individually."
It wasn't all work and no play. The swimmers took some time for shopping, and they all said they ate a lot. Kali enjoyed the team and spirit building activities. "I really liked painting on the shirts, because it really got me psyched up," she said. "I thought it was really fun to hang out with everybody before we went to Buffalo." All four enjoyed visiting with girls from other schools they have competed against. They have become friends with some of them and enjoyed seeing them again. Kali swims on the Ithaca club team, so she knows the Ithaca swimmers as well.
But they spent most of their time at the pool. "I guess my favorite part was going for the first time and being able to make it. It's really cool to see all of the fast people swim," Nikki told us. " Julia Smit going 1:58 in the 200 Yard IM and Erin McGraw going 1:51 in the 200 Free. It's just amazing to watch them swim. It's like watching Olympics swimmers. I talked to Erin. She seemed really cool. They all have really high averages even though they swim ten hours a day."
Caitlyn added, "They're not only incredible swimmers, but they're ridiculously smart girls."
"My favorite part was when we made it back to Consolation," Clair said. "Our time ended up beating someone from the Finals heat, even though we can't move up to the Finals spot. It was really gratifying to beat someone who made the Finals."
Swimming Coach Diane Hicks-Hughes
Coach Hicks-Hughes enjoyed working with the team this year. "It is a very active, energetic group of young ladies and they did very well as a team," she said. "They're good kids. They did very well. I mean, tenth place in the State and first place in Class C -- that's awesome." This was her 25th year of coaching the Varsity Girls Swimming team at Lansing.
The team attended a victory party at Caitlyn's house Tuesday night. They presented their coach with a thank you gift, ate lasagne and other treats, and celebrated their success as a team.
(left to right) Nikki Dean, Claire Eckstrom, Caitlyn Wright and Kali Dean
This was Caitlyn's last competitive swim meet. Her passion is track, and after High School she hopes to pursue that. "My favorite part was getting the record, because we've been looking forward to it all season," she said. "Early in the season Kali broke her collar bone. We were really upset about that all season, because we knew it would be us four. But she got back into it very quickly and we were able to (get to State) and I think it was a good way to end my competitive swimming, because that was the last meet I will swim in competitively."
All four "A" team swimmers shared her enthusiasm and pride in a job well done.
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