The Storm swim team traveled to Springfield Jan. 29 and returned successfully in their hopes of qualifying for State. This is the second year in a row that the 200 meter medley relay has gone on to State, with sophomore Meredith Oswald stepping up to replace alumna Meghan Kearney’s spot in the event.

“Meredith had some pretty big shoes to fill since Meghan helped us get to State last year,” senior captain Katarina Qamar said. “Our season was almost over, so we knew we had to get the time. It was definitely a now or never situation.”

The storm started off strong with Qamar swimming backstroke followed by sophomore Ellie Magsamen in breaststroke and Oswald in butterfly. The team needed a time of 158.99 seconds to qualify for State and senior Nathalie Barbeau finished off the race in freestyle, landing the team a time of 158.84 seconds, just barely making the cut.

“Nathalie jammed two of her fingers because she finished into the wall so hard,” Oswald said. “We were already hugging before she was even out of the water.”

According to Barbeau, the team fittingly played “High School Musical 3: Senior Year’s” song “Now or Never” to prepare for the meet and, specifically, this event. She believes the swim team is a very close-knit group of girls and hopes they are able to bring everyone along to state for support.

“This team is truly like a family so it’s going to be really hard to leave them when the season ends,” Barbeau said.

The team is optimistic that Magsamen will also continue on to state for the 100 meter breaststroke. As this high school swim season is drawing to a close, Magsamen has a couple more opportunities to shave off only half a second from her time in order to qualify for the State competition.

“I think it’s a realistic goal for Ellie to qualify,” coach Kelly Timson said. “The ILC, Independent League Championship, next week is her last chance to get it.”