On January 23rd, bouquets of flowers and teary eyes celebrated eleven seniors on their senior night at the YMCA “RockPleck’. With a record-breaking amount of seniors doing swim and dive this year, the pool was packed full of family and friends.
“I was shocked on the amount of people there,” Senior Sarah Lillis said. “I got super emotional when I saw a lot of my friends who went out of their way to get me flowers and show up for me.
Lillis just decided to spontaneously join the dance team after her Kairos retreat with fellow classmates.
“It shocked a ton of people when I showed up the first day of swim team,” Lillis said. “I wanted to try something new and be able to experience a different group of people before I graduated, thats why I decided to join.”
Senior Ava Townsend has been on the swim team all four years of high school, following in the footsteps of her sister Grace.
“Being able to swim with my older sister Grace before she graduated was a opportunity I will never forget,” Townsend said. “Looking back on all my favorite swim memories that is definitely one of the highlights.”
Townsend has been a captain for the past two years, and takes her leadership role to heart as she leads her team with charisma and energy.
“Thinking about leaving this team makes me so sad,” Townsend said. “I will miss the bus rides to Springfield, and the late nights before meets. But I will always be appreciative of the opportunity to get everyone hype before races and morning practices.”
Junior Mary Schumm has also been on the swim team all 3 years of her high school experience. Also following in her sisters footsteps, Schumm is heartbroken seeing some of her best friends leave the team this year.
“We had such a good group of Seniors this year,” Schumm said. “I would say some of my closest friends and bonds with the upperclassman have been made through this sport.”
Even though the early morning practices and cold plunges into the pool admist the dark sky were miserable to get through at the time, Schumm explains its all part of the bonding.
“I would say we bond through the suffering,” Schumm said. “Its one of the reasons why seeing all my seniors walk down that pool deck with their flowers made me so emotional, its truly a senior class I will never forget.
